The Winter Guest cover art

The Winter Guest

The perfect chilling, gripping mystery as the nights draw in

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The Winter Guest

By: W. C. Ryan
Narrated by: Liam Hourican
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The drive leads past the gate house and through the trees towards the big house, visible through the winter-bared branches. Its windows stare down at Harkin and the sea beyond . . .

January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept.

Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud's former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household.

Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house's secrets - and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, each family member's allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find out the truth about Maud's death before the past - and his strange, unnerving surroundings - overwhelm him?

A haunting, atmospheric mystery set against the raw Irish landscape in a country divided, The Winter Guest is the perfect chilling read.

Cover illustration based on an image of Lissadell House by kind permission of the owners Ghosts Historical Horror Mystery Supernatural Thriller & Suspense Haunted Scary Paranormal Fiction War Winter
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Critic reviews

Ryan evokes this moody, gothic atmosphere with convincing skill. Harkin is a sensitive, complex character and his quest to solve the mystery is deftly plotted. A treat.
A haunting, gripping novel . . . hugely evocative, with some absolutely beautiful writing which captures the profound unease of the times and the bleak nature of the landscape. I really loved this book.
A terrifically atmospheric, gripping novel.
Ryan writes with precision and elegance... This is the best historical crime novel set in Ireland I have read.
In 2018, WC Ryan published A House Of Ghosts, a superb period mystery with spooky overtones, and now he returns with an equally engrossing read. A clever whodunnit with a bracing whiff of the supernatural.
A snowflake of a novel: intricate, exquisite, and unlike any other. Here, as in his every book, Ryan once again recalls Graham Greene - the command of plot, the precision of language - but The Winter Guest also finds him summoning the dark-rose spectres of haunted-house classics like The Woman in Black. If Sebastian Faulks and Laura Purcell were to join forces, they might produce a novel like this... yet I can't imagine anyone but WC Ryan shaping it with such imagination, or charging it with such intelligence, or gracing it with such heart.
The Winter Guest works superbly on several levels. As a mystery it unfolds in well-constructed, satisfyingly dramatised scenes, with sharp dialogue and an especially nice line in flirtatious banter. Ryan deftly sketches the contours of a society where friends and mortal enemies live at close quarters, and explores those shifting, volatile allegiances with subtlety and nuance. This is a most welcome winter guest indeed, to be greeted by the fire with drink in hand.
A serendipitously timed, impeccably researched and utterly intriguing historical mystery that lays bare the societal fractures caused in Ireland's fight for freedom.
Excellent murder mystery/ghost story set during the Irish war of independence and as usual with W.C. Ryan, beautifully written.
A beautifully taut and evocative thriller.
All stars
Most relevant
Author builds a dark and foreboding atmosphere. There is a strong sense of time and place. (Ireland, Winter, post WW1) There are dark passages where the main character has flashbacks to fighting in World War One, which adds to the depressive atmosphere. The story is good, but I found the pace rather slow at times for a thriller.

Dark atmospheric thriller

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Thrilling story brilliantly read by Liam Hourican. completely believable characters. The cruelty and suffering of the troubles Ireland and the first world war. create a dramatic backdrop for a tale of human frailty, pathos and love entirely without sentimentality.

Excellent story

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Loved it. A gripping and a thrilling read. Couldn't put it down. Definitely worth it.

Gripping, thrilling couldn't put it down

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I enjoyed this very much. The author is excellent at conjuring up spooky scenes. I liked The Ghost House which is also by this author and has a similar feel to it but this edges it for me. The narrator was very good.

Atmospheric

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Narration improves through the reading after a shaky start. Nice characterisation too. I won’t spoil the ending, but brace yourself for a cliché.

Captivating story which sheds light on the brutality of British attempts to resist Irish independence.

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