The book gets darker and more shocking as it goes along….The twist will make you rethink everything you’ve read before.” — New York Times Book Review
"A brief but potent book with the weight and wallop of a much longer one. It still affords Mr. Swanson enough space in which to work his characteristic trick of pulling the rug out from under a hapless audience. Here’s a hint for those who take up this book: Never mind unreliable narrators; beware the unreliable reader." — Wall Street Journal
“Swanson does more with less in this punchy thriller that packs all the potency of his longer works….[He] has plenty of knockout twists up his sleeve, but they never feel cheap, and he manages to build three-dimensional characters despite the brief page count. This is a perfect introduction to one of the cleverest talents in contemporary genre fiction.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Christmas Guest never ceases to amaze, and the huge time and plot jumps from one section of the novella to the other is handled brilliantly by Swanson. It will puzzle readers in the best of ways and will make them want to go back to the beginning and read this short, fascinating story all over again."
— Book Reporter
“Carefully crafted and featuring an eloquent blending of psychological and suspense in a Christmas backgrounded crime thriller of a read from start to finish.”
— Midwest Book Review
“Smart, surprising, cool and fun, with a deeply satisfying ending. I loved it!” — Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author, on The Kind Worth Saving
"An expertly wielded icicle to the heart that packs a lot of menace into its 93 pages....The Christmas Guest isn’t just good for a novella; it might become a dark little yuletide classic." — AirMail
