The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf is a thriller novel set in rural Iowa, where true-crime writer Wylie Lark rents a farmhouse that hosted a heinous crime 20 years prior. During a winter storm, she finds an abandoned child outside the home. Trapped with a new mystery, she must finally face her own traumas as she tries to protect her young charge. Gudenkauf has spent most of her life in Iowa, using her knowledge of rural farm communities to bolster the setting of The Overnight Guest. The Overnight Guest is her ninth novel; her work has appeared on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, and she has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Another work by Gudenkauf is The Weight of Silence (2009).

This guide refers to the 2022 Park Raw Books paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This novel features depictions of sexual assault, domestic violence, murder, child endangerment, miscarriage, and gun use.

Plot Summary

The Overnight Guest spans three different timelines, each using close third-person point of view. In the present timeline, Wylie Lark prepares for an incoming winter storm in the town of Burden. She has rented a nearby farmhouse where, 20 years earlier, three people were murdered, and a teenage girl went missing. Wylie is writing a book about the crime. She tries to avoid the locals at the grocery store and returns to the house, where she finishes preparations and verifies that her handgun is secure. Wylie lets her rescue dog outside; when the dog does not return, she ventures into the storm and finds him standing over an injured child. She carries the boy back to her house, but her efforts to comfort him are ineffective. The child eventually hides behind the couch, where he sleeps as Wylie goes out into the storm once again to search for clues.

In August 2000, Josie Doyle welcomes her best friend, Becky Allen, to her family farm. The young girls overhear an argument between Josie’s brother, Ethan, and her father. Nonetheless, they accompany Ethan to drop a pie off at their grandparents’ house and then to shoot his shotgun with his friend, Brock Cutter. Brock gropes Becky, but Becky shows a clear preference for Ethan. When Josie’s father arrives, Brock flees. Enraged that Ethan let others shoot his gun, Josie’s father takes his car keys and forces the boy to walk home; Ethan fires a single shot into the air as they drive away. Once back at the house, Becky and Josie go searching for Josie’s missing dog, walking around local farms such as the Henley farm. On their way back, they spot a strange truck that drives at them, scaring the girls into running the rest of the way. That night, the girls overhear an argument between Ethan and the family’s parents that becomes physical.

In another timeline, this one beginning 10 months before Wylie’s narrative in the present day, a girl and her mother are locked in a basement. They make Easter decorations. The girl’s father arrives and gifts her a chocolate rabbit, which her mother coaxes her to enjoy. Later, the girl’s mother reveals that she is pregnant, then tells the little girl about her past miscarriages. The girl’s father brings shakes and ice cream to force-feed her mother, who suffers another miscarriage. The father disappears for several days, leaving the pair with no food. The girl’s mother picks the lock on the basement door, and they steal some food from upstairs before quickly returning and locking the door behind them; this brief excursion is the first time the girl has been out of the basement. As the father’s mood becomes more violent, the mother begins periodically breaking into the upstairs house, stealing objects like money and keys. On the day of a harsh winter storm, the mother shaves her daughter’s head, and the two break out of the basement through a small window, stealing a truck and driving away.

In the present, Wylie follows tire tracks in the snow to a truck accident. She finds a nearly unconscious woman tangled in a barbed wire fence. She gives the woman some clothes and rushes back to the farmhouse for tools to free her, but by the time she returns, the woman has vanished. Wylie goes back to the house. She struggles to connect with the boy, uncertain how to soothe him, especially as he refuses to speak. She enlists his help opening the door for her so she can bring wood inside, but while she is in the barn, she spots the woman from the wreck crossing the yard. Wylie chases the woman, who reaches the house before her. The woman locks the door and pulls the boy deeper into the house.

Back in 2000, Becky and Josie sneak out of the house at night to jump on Josie’s trampoline. They reflect on their blood pact to remain sisters forever before they hear gunfire. The girls try to flee as a dark figure with a gun exits the house, but Josie loses her hold on Becky as her friend stumbles. Josie, shot in the arm, flees into the cornfield to hide. When the morning comes, Josie stumbles back to her house, only to find the bodies of her parents. She cannot find Ethan or Becky. In shock, she walks down the road until she is discovered by her grandfather, who drives her back to the farm and calls the police. Police call reinforcements from Des Moines, and in town, Margo Allen hears news of police gathering near the Doyle farm. She drives to the farm and learns that her daughter is missing. Josie is taken to the hospital and confesses to her grandmother that she fears Ethan could be culpable, only to take the idea back immediately after voicing it.

The police investigation commences, initially targeting Ethan as the prime suspect due to his recent violent behavior and Becky’s crush on him. During the investigations, the police also find that the Cutters seem to hold a grudge against the Doyles over a land purchase, though Ethan and Brock are friends despite the hard feelings between their parents. Then, however, Josie finds Ethan’s body in a pile of hay, and a medical examination proves that he was also murdered. Police turn their attention to Jackson Henley, who has a long record of alcohol abuse and inappropriate behavior toward women. After a dog finds a rag soaked with Becky’s blood near the Henley farm, police get a warrant to search the property. They find Jackson burning guns and ammunition; he drunkenly insists that he knows nothing of Becky’s disappearance and kicks a gas can into the fire, causing an explosion that hurts him severely.

In the present, Wylie breaks a window and re-enters the house, where she fends off attacks by both the woman and child. Once both are subdued, Wylie learns they are fleeing an abusive man, and she promises to help them. As she tends to the woman, Wylie spots a scar on the woman’s palm that matches a scar that Wylie’s childhood best friend had on her hand. With that, Wylie identifies the woman as Becky, revealing that she, in turn, is Josie Doyle. In an effort to let go of her past, Wylie changed her name after her grandparents moved with her to a different town. The boy is Becky’s daughter, the little girl of the previous timeline.

Jackson Henley, who was never convicted of killing the rest of the Doyles, arrives at the house because he saw the truck wreck. Wylie tricks him into following her to an outbuilding and locks him inside. She returns to the house and reconciles with Becky until they hear the arrival of Randy Cutter, who Becky identifies as her captor. Randy breaks into the house, and the adults fight with guns and tools. Randy overpowers both Becky and Wylie as the girl hides in the barn. As Wylie regains consciousness, she plays dead, allowing Randy to drag her outside and walk off to pursue his daughter. As Randy searches, Wylie mounts a fresh attack, ultimately hitting Randy with her car, wounding his leg. Seeking closure for her family’s deaths, Wylie questions Randy; he overpowers her once again and almost strangles her until the little girl appears with the gun and shoots him point-blank. Wylie takes Becky and her daughter to the hospital, and the girl reveals that her name is also Josie. Fifteen months later, Wylie and Becky once again meet during Wylie’s book tour. Becky encourages Wylie to let go of the guilt she held from the night of her kidnapping, and the two resolve to be sisters forever.