Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Five college friends.  A weekend at the cliffside vacation home belonging to one of them.  Spouses and significant others are invited.  A secret that has haunted some of them over the years.  What could go wrong?

The timeline of The Weekend Guests is from 2001 to 2019.  The story is told by various characters, most, but not all, of whom are present on this weekend.  The first voice is Brandon’s, the reluctant owner of the spectacular home that is the site of the reunion.  He and his wife, Aline, are the hosts, he unenthusiastically, she with unbridled delight.  Aline, with her extraordinary beauty, unlimited money, and compelling personality, has brought the group together for the first time in many years.  And she has a reason.

She, Rob, and Michael were students together in Edinburgh, and Sienna, a visiting American, was part of that group for several months.  Brandon, another American, came into the group a bit later.  And there are two other women–Nikki, Michael’s wife, and Cass, Rob’s latest and temporary significant other–who are there for the weekend.  Finally there’s Milly, a student at the London School of Economics and Aline’s temporary nanny; she will be taking care of Aline and Brandon’s two children and Sienna’s two girls.

We start learning about the initial group–Aline, Rob, and Michael–from the journals of Darryl, a graduate student at the university who is struggling both with his dissertation and his life.  Darryl is watching as the three undergrads move into the flat across the hall from him.  The statement he writes, “They will not change my life,” may be one of the most inaccurate statements in literature.

Desperately lonely, Darryl reconsiders his first thought and decides he wants nothing more than to be friends with these students.  He and Rob start a weekly chess game, but as Darryl becomes more erratic in his behavior, Rob pulls away until finally there are no more games or invitations to join any get-togethers.  That loss affects Darryl profoundly, eventually impacting on his unrequited fixation on his dissertation advisor.  He is a lonely, broken soul with a tragic backstory.

There are many strands tying the guests together, most of them twisted.  Aline and Brandon’s marriage is not the perfect one it seems on the surface.  Michael and Nikki are dealing with economic problems and a nursing baby who will not stop crying.  Rob’s latest girlfriend, Cass, is obviously ill-at-ease with his friends, and Sienna, his former lover, adds even more tension to the scene simply by being there.

In addition, the weather plays a major part in the novel, with Aline using all of her guile and powers of persuasion, urging the group to go on dangerous hikes regardless of the rain, thunder, and lightning that is present every day.

The trope of a small group of people together in a remote spot is a familiar one, but Liza North has made it her own with insightful writing, a brilliant plot, and an ending that took me totally by surprise.  This novel will make you think twice before accepting invitations from long-ago friends.

You can read more about the author at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.