The Last Guests by J. P. Pomare

Funds have been tight for Lina and Cain for some time. Cain, a former SAS soldier, has been trying to get a personal training business off the ground but it's Lina's job as a paramedic that keeps them afloat. 

And then their friends turn them onto WeStay, a site that would let Lina and Cain list Lina's grandparents' house for rent to guests. 

It's a nice house, just needs some sprucing up. And it's ideally situated on a lake. But Lina has reservations about opening it up to strangers. It's the house she grew up in. The one she wants to raise her own family in. 

But she goes along with it anyway. Until it turns into a nightmare that threatens to reveal her darkest secrets. 

Let's just call this book what it is, the one that make never want to stay in an AirBnB ever again!

Lina and Cain both have secrets. Cain had a bit of an issue with gambling, but it seems to have ended by the time the book begins. And yet, they still have money problems Lina can't quite figure out. 

The bigger problem is the fact that they've been told it will take a virtual miracle for them to conceive a child. Which is where Lina's big secret comes in. And both issues are what make her agree to list her grandparents' home on WeStay. 

And at first things are fine. The reservations start rolling in and they're getting good reviews. Easy money. 

Except anything that seems to good to be true...

The prologue for the book really does set the tone. An anonymous man is placing cameras in a rental home. And that definitely tells you where some of the plot is heading. But there's way more to the plot that just a twisted voyeur. 

This is a super creepy premise—maybe more for people like me who are already inclined to be uncomfortable with vacation rentals :)

I should note that I both read the physical book and listened to the audio over the weekend. Sarah Mollo-Christensen is the narrator on that edition and she does a fabulous job!

Pomare is a a new-to-me author I've been aware of but hadn't read yet. He's an award-winning author from New Zealand (where this title is set), currently living in Australia. 

I really enjoy both New Zealand and Australian crime fiction and I've been trying to read more of it of late. If it's a genre that interests you, I've been getting recs from Craig Sisterson's Southern Cross Crime. 

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!