Lead Review (The Lying Guest)
- Book: THE LYING GUEST
- Location: Sri Lanka
- Author: Mahi Cheshire
3.5*
Twisty thriller set in SRI LANKA
Anika is a surgeon at a London Hospital, she is talented and competent but one patient who comes under her care dies unnecessarily, it would seem. A simple procedure has gone horribly wrong and because of the patient’s high-profile relatives, there will be no respite for Anika until the issues behind the death have been fully established. And someone punished. Anika’s name is being dragged through the mud, she is a ‘doctor under investigation’ and the hospital authorities are beginning to turn hostile. She randomly decides to take a short term job in Sri Lanka, where she will be in charge of a house, carrying out small renovations and generally giving the property some TLC. She is familiar with the island because she has family history there and visited in younger years.
When she arrives, of course, she is taken aback by the dismal condition of the property – straw mattresses, some clean bedding but overall the building it is in a much worse state than she anticipated.
Her first encounter upon arrival is with a local pickpocket, who relieves her of her bag but thankfully not her passport. As she goes out and about, she discovers a beautiful local bay, befriends boutique owner Kavya, and Dinesh catches her eye. By talking to the locals, she gleans details of the house’s history, but there is much talk of death and murder, which has kept the tourists at bay, and as she tries to settle into the house, she senses a kind of presence. Things go missing, including her passport and mud appears on a newly cleaned floor – her stay is beset by a gothic frisson – empty perfume bottles suddenly contain liquid, the word ‘remember‘ is scrawled into the dust on a mirror, the electricity flickers on and off, ancient photos appear and then are replaced. She is clear an intruder is at work. The author is very good at creating a haunted house and ramping up the tension of ‘the unexpected’.
It also transpires that Anika suffers from parasomnia and has a very scary episode in the house. This is a condition that has dogged her for years and in the past it has affected her life considerably.
Meanwhile another story is brewing which at times feels like a bit of an irrelevance and diverts from the main thrust of the story but all becomes clear soon enough.
Overall this is a decent read that bowls along with a good sense of pace. The initial build-up in London was polished, tightly crafted and gripping and the author clearly demonstrates her talent for writing and storytelling. The Sri Lanka set story is a little more meandering.
It is a regular bug bear of mine that authors choose to set their thrillers in interesting locations around the world (creating a “destination thriller”) and then oftentimes fall at the locational research level. Given that Sri Lanka is a closed currency (meaning money cannot be acquired prior to arriving in the country) the following detail in the story is annoying: as Anika is about to pay the taxi fare, she says “I count out the fare in rupee notes, fresh from the foreign exchange in London“. Not possible. Anyway, Sri Lanka comes through reasonably well and the author describes food and traffic, and includes short phrases in Sinhala to pep up the authenticity.
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