Only Seven Guests Checked Out

Eight guests checked in. Seven checked out. But the guestbook says the eighth never existed.

Gretchen Quinn is a meticulous travel columnist who makes her living noticing what others miss. When she arrives at the remote Heron Lodge in the Vermont mountains for a winter retreat, she explicitly counts eight guests in attendance. But the next morning, amidst a massive snowstorm that cuts off all communication and blocks the roads, one guest has vanished without a trace. Even worse, the charming host, Margot Ellerby, insists he was never there, and his name has been scrubbed from the leather-bound register.

As the isolation sets in and the temperature drops, Gretchen discovers a terrifying connection: every single guest at the lodge, including herself, was present at the Winslow Grand Hotel five years ago when a man tragically fell to his death from a defective balcony. The missing eighth guest, Caleb Dahl, was the victims brother, who lured them all to the Heron Lodge to expose a deadly corporate cover-up.

Now, Gretchen is trapped in a locked-room nightmare with a host who will stop at nothing to keep her dark past buried. Margot has already sealed a man behind a cellar wall, cut the phone lines, and stolen Gretchens passport to steal her identity. With the roads closed and the clock ticking, Gretchen must unravel the lies of her fellow guests before the snowplows arrive—and before the host escapes wearing her face.