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An Unfamiliar Guest, by E.C. Murray
The stranger at your door is often the person you thought you knew best. You’ll want to welcome in An Unfamiliar Guest by E.C. Murray, an emotionally layered mystery novel. Open the cover and be greeted by a story where the intimacy of friendship drives an intriguing plot filled with secrets, shifting loyalties and simmering suspense.
Two estranged college roommates reunite on a lush island in Washington state. The great beauty of this setting deeply contrasts with the tension that develops between them. Meaghan Farrow is now widowed and seeks forgiveness from her former friend Lorissa Orondo, a mother of teenagers who feels frustrated by her faltering career and family life.
Attempted reconciliation comes at a price for both women. The reader hears from Meaghan how they try to recover from long‑buried truths, but then a man is shot and so a web of insidious lies spins, stretching across decades and continents, from New England to Washington state to La Serena, Chile. The women’s shared past becomes a weapon yet seems at times a lifeline to cling to, creating a tense psychological back and forth that deepens the stakes. Every twist keeps characters and readers off balance.
More than a mystery, this novel explores friendship, reconciliation and the fragility of trust. The author invites you to explore what it means to truly know another person — and whether forgiveness is possible when the inconvenient past refuses to stay buried. The lush, isolated island setting amplifies the intimacy, and the danger. As secrets unravel and motives sharpen, the story becomes not just a mystery but a study of resilience, renewal and the complicated ways these women navigate loyalty and betrayal.
Ultimately, An Unfamiliar Guest unites the pleasures of a multiple twist mystery with the emotional resonance of two women confronting truths they’ve avoided for years. The author excels at blending intrigue, psychological nuance, riveting characters and vivid settings to make the novel both gripping and emotionally moving. Readers will examine characters’ motives, and the nature of friendship itself when it can easily be fractured, repaired, or reinvented. People we welcome back into our lives may have become strangers shaped by secrets we never saw. The past, when it knocks, often arrives as An Unfamiliar Guest.
Wendy Kendall is an author with The Wild Rose Press and with Harlequin. Her In Purse-Suit Mystery Series includes Kat Out of the Bag, plus two more books, and growing. Her romance books include Cherry Shakes in the Park, and one other themed for the holidays.
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