Review 2437: The Guest Room

Tess’s grief over her sister Rosie’s murder four months ago is taking obsessive forms. First, she wanders all over London late at night hoping someone will try to attack her, as Rosie was found beaten to death on Hampstead Heath. She has moved into Rosie’s flat and is harassing Rosie’s ex-boyfriend. In addition, she constantly calls the police detective on the case offering obscure clues.

Unable to face Rosie’s bedroom, Tess offers it as a B&B, letting it out short-term to help make the mortgage. She has also taken a job at the Barbican, where Rosie used to work.

Tess leases the bedroom for a longer term than usual to a potter named Arran. As she does with all her tenants, when they are away, she looks through their stuff. In Arran’s things, she finds a diary about his infatuation with a woman. At times, it sounds like he is stalking her.

Tess doesn’t know it, but someone is stalking her. Is it her annoying downstairs neighbor, Luke? Her geeky across-street neighbor, Elliott? Or someone else?

This novel moved along pretty well and kept me interested, but Tess isn’t exactly a likable heroine. I was less bothered by that than my feeling that it was fairly easy to guess who Arran is writing about and although I wasn’t absolutely sure, the possibility of one character being the murderer occurred to me, and I was right.

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