Mahi Cheshire’s The Lying Guest is a captivating psychological thriller that weaves together themes of guilt, memory, and the weight of the past. Anika, a talented but overworked surgeon in London, is struggling to keep her life together after a patient dies on her operating table. As the media and her colleagues turn on her, she is thrust into a whirlwind of accusations, leaving her professional reputation and future in jeopardy. The pressure of it all is exacerbated by her rare condition, parasomnia, which causes sleepwalking and is worsened by stress.

To escape the chaos and protect her career, Anika takes up a housesitting gig in Sri Lanka, hoping for a peaceful break in a place that holds fond childhood memories. What should have been a restorative beach holiday, however, quickly turns into a descent into a haunted past she thought she had left behind. The tranquil surroundings of Sri Lanka mask a deeper darkness, and Anika finds herself caught in a web of unsettling events that force her to confront long-buried secrets.

Cheshire’s writing is gripping, pulling readers into Anika’s world of tension and turmoil. The layers of mystery build slowly as Anika unravels the truth behind the eerie happenings during her stay. This is a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing, with well-crafted twists and an atmosphere that blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. As Anika faces the shadows of her past, The Lying Guest examines the complexities of memory, guilt, and the personal demons we often try to outrun.

With its rich setting and intriguing plot that keeps the suspense high, The Lying Guest is a compelling read for fans of psychological thrillers and atmospheric mysteries. Anika’s journey from a troubled doctor to someone forced to reckon with her history is both harrowing and engrossing. If you enjoy books that slowly unravel dark secrets, this one is sure to keep you hooked until the very last page.

3.5/5.

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The Lying Guest follows Anika, a talented surgeon working at a hospital in London. She suffers a rare sleeping disorder, which she has kept hidden from her employer. After finishing a long tiring night shift, Anika is asked to help out and stay on to do an operation. Unfortunately, the patient dies on the table, and she now faces the back lash and is blamed for his death.
Unable to cope with being accused of negligence, Anika accepts a job of housesitting a place in her home country of Sri Lanka. Whilst there a murder occurs and old demons start to resurface. Anika starts to question everything and doubts her own mind.

I enjoyed reading this thriller. It was full of mystery and suspense. Split into parts it held my attention, though I did prefer some more than others. I loved the Sri Lanka setting, and it was described beautifully. I also loved how the author wrote parts in the local language and wrote about the culture. I like to learn something about other cultures and found this fascinating insight.

I liked Anika's character. She was very complex. As the story progressed, it showed her in a different light. She became more unhinged and unreliable. I didn't know what was going on. I did work out a few twists, but a couple of big ones towards the end were a shocker. Especially the last one. I did not see that coming..

Overall, I enjoyed this one. Full of lies, family drama, secrets, and it was suspenseful and atmospheric in places with a slight supernatural element in there too.

Thank you, Vintage, for my advanced copy.

The setting of Sri Lanka instantly drew me in as I have never read a book in that country and I felt intrigued. The atmosphere is electrifying and it was intense watching the mystery unravel. The character is troubled and has a deep edge style which made the story feel real. The plot is alive with twists the end one being the best as it wasn't a easy one to predict.

This gripping novel of self-discovery was such an easy read. It moves so quickly, continually making pace to reveal the secrets plaguing the main character’s life. I read an eARC of this book on Net Galley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

We follow a surgeon going through a horrific moment in her career, who decides to escape to Sri Lanka for a few weeks and revisit her past. Our main character has been treated horribly at main points in her life as we learn throughout the book. The trauma of her current issues at work, resurfacing memories and feelings from her past.

This isn’t the first book I’ve read set in Sri Lanka, but it is the one I’ve enjoyed the most. There was something about the small town, the beach, the house that felt so evocative. We explore the main character’s experience of returning to Sri Lanka after living in London for many years and her observations of the local culture. This was a fascinating lens.

We have a compelling mystery, a house that oozes trauma and our main character must try to unravel the past events that have occurred there to keep her own sanity. Alongside we see the character’s history with parasomnia and the anxiety things brings, along with her not being able to trust her own interpretation of events.

I found this such an easy read, fast, compelling, mysterious with a rich setting.

Fast paced and kept me guessing all the way through. I read it in one sitting I couldn't put it down

I enjoyed this book - great setting which isn't seen in typical thrillers and a character that was driven to find out the truth in the end - thought the book was fast paced and had the drive necessary to keep reading. Will read more from this author!

Great book. Was up all night reading it. I loved the characters & the storyline. I totally recommend reading this book straight away, the twists and turns are fab. Definitely 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unmissable this certainly is! From the outset it draws you in and the story is multi layered, facinating and immersive. I loved everything about this from start to finish. Excellent

I did enjoy this story. I thought it was different, original and had a great twist at the end. Additionally I loved the setting of Sri Lanka, and Sri Lankan lead characters,this really made it feel different to other thrillers. The description of the house where Anika was staying personally made me very uneasy. So congrats to the author for invoking that feeling.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and the publish Random House for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for this honest review.

I really wanted to like Mahi Cheshire's The Lying Guest. I loved the Sri Lankan setting, the protagonist's struggle with returning to her family's country, and, having enjoyed Cheshire's debut Deadly Cure, I know she can write a good thriller. Unfortunately, for me this felt like about three books mashed into one. We start with surgeon Anika, who is suspended from practice in London after a routine operation goes wrong. However, this medical/legal thriller set-up is soon exchanged for a hint of the supernatural when Anika, desperate to escape, ends up house-sitting in a town in Tangalle, on the Sri Lankan coast. Weird things are happening in the house, but Anika is again distracted by negotiations with her identity, and how she should behave as somebody ethnically Sri Lankan who has been brought up British and now barely speaks Sinhala - as well as a hint at a dark family history that led her parents to stop summering in the country. We also move between three different timelines and types of narration. While Cheshire does some interesting, nuanced character work with Anika, the thriller ending brings this to a screeching halt, and doesn't fit with what came before. I would have loved this to have been either another full-blown medical thriller like Deadly Cure, or what it seems is the book that Cheshire actually wanted to write - a more slow-burn novel exploring Anika's reckoning with her Sri Lankan past. She's a good writer, and so I hope her next book falls on one side or the other.

From the premise, I was really looking forward to reading this novel. However it wasn’t for me. Yes there’s a good twist at the end, but the whole novel just seems far too slow placed and drawn out. I’m sure others will love it but I would rate it 2.5 stars rounded up to 3. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK and the author for the chance to review.

Anika is a surgeon with some difficulties. A patient died on her, Issac is still bitter and out to get her after she was hired over him, and people are talking about her because of the patient dying. Anika decides she is going to take a cleaning job in Sri Lanka. The house is not exactly what she expected; nor is the neighborhood in which she used to live. She starts to hear rumblings about the house, and thinks she sees ghosts. Just what is going on? Meanwhile her parasomnia flares back up, and she finds herself in some dangerous situation. Good suspense! Great twists! This book kept me interested and guessing all the way through.

This book transports you to beautiful Sri lanka and tells of Annika, a surgeon who is taking a break after an operation went wrong.

Now housesitting in a gorgeous house, she is unnerved by what is going on with people around her.

This is a twisty read and I really felt Anniaka unravelling. There are secrets, lots of drama and a brilliantly written plot.

Save this for your holiday read. It's a beauty

Anika is an overtired surgeon who loses a patient after working overnight and starting the day shift. When she is put on leave, she takes a job cleaning a house in Sri Lanka. Anika is from Sri Lanka and is returning for the first time in years to face her past. Weird things start happening at the house. Anika feels all the rumors told to her by townspeople are coming true. She gets a shock when people from her past show up. Will she survive?