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The Perfect Guests
January 12, 2021
Emma Rous, the USA Today bestselling author of the delightfully scandalous and deliciously twisted novel The Au Pair (2019), returns with another captivating story set in a grandiose gothic estate. This January, prepare to be shocked by THE PERFECT GUESTS (Berkley Trade Paperback; January 12, 2021), which tells the story of Raven Hall, a rambling manor off the coast of England, and the two girls who find themselves trapped in its deadly web of secrets.
In 1988, Beth Soames arrives at Raven Hall for the first time. Fourteen, orphaned, and alone, Beth is eager to gain the acceptance of the Averell family who lives there. She finds them unexpectedly warm and friendly, and she soon becomes good friends with their daughter Nina. Before long, Beth starts to feel like she’s truly a part of their family… until they ask her to help them with a harmless game—and nothing is ever the same.
In 2019, Sadie Langton is an actress struggling to make ends meet. After yet another failed audition, her agent tells her about a gig with a new murder mystery company looking to host a trial run of their game. No audition, all expenses paid, and an excellent paycheck. All she has to do is pretend to be a guest at a weekend party. She is sent a suitcase of clothing, a dossier outlining the role she is to play, and instructions. Though the instructions are strange, she needs the money, and when she sees the stunning manor she’ll be staying at, she figures she’s got nothing to lose.
In person, Raven Hall is even grander than she’d imagined—even with damage from a fire decades before—but the walls seem to have eyes. As day turns to night, Sadie starts to feel that there’s something off about the glamorous guests who arrive, and as the “game” begins, it becomes chillingly apparent their unseen host is playing with the lives of everyone there…including hers.
About Emma Rous
Hi, I’m Emma Rous and I took a scenic route to becoming a writer.
I lived in several different countries as a child – England, Indonesia, Kuwait, Portugal and Fiji – and I grew up with a passion for stories and animals. I studied zoology and veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, and I worked as a veterinary surgeon for eighteen years, which I absolutely loved. But the older I got, the more I appreciated talking to my clients and listening to their life stories, and these fascinating conversations helped to fuel my long held ambition to write fiction. Eventually, in my early forties, I took a break from my vet job and wrote The Au Pair, which became a USA Today bestseller and was published in eleven countries in ten languages. My second novel, The Perfect Guests, is due out in January 2021.
I live near Cambridge in England with my husband, our three sons, and our rescue dog and cat. I try to write the sort of stories that I like to read, so I hope you enjoy them too.