The Guest: A Novel

The multimillion-copy and New York Times bestseller B. A. Paris returns with a stunning new domestic suspense novel.

Iris and Gabriel seem to have it all: a beautiful country home, a daughter taking a gap year in Greece, and their good friends from Paris, Laure and Pierre, always up for a holiday weekend away. But when a young man on his bicycle careens off the path of a nearby quarry to his death, Gabriel is the one to find him and hear his final words. When the boy dies, Gabriel is left behind with a guilty burden.

As Iris tries to help ease her husband’s trauma, they acquire an unexpected house guest. Their friend Laure has seemingly moved in, her marriage in crisis after her husband’s reveal that he has had a child with another woman. Happy to help their friend, Iris and Gabriel insist Laure stay as long as she needs. But Laure keeps wearing Iris's clothes. Following everywhere she goes. Asking her all about the now-closed quarry and the recent tragedy. And Pierre is refusing to answer Gabriel's calls.

Their only respite from the increasingly tense atmosphere in their own home comes in the form of new neighbors—a couple new to town and expecting their first child. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past.

With broken relationships and hidden motives piling up around them, Gabriel and Iris are forced to reckon with whether their life has in fact been a happy one—or if it has all been an illusion.