Every once in a great while you encounter a book that has all the right ingredients to appeal to your taste, but that nevertheless leaves you somewhat unsatisfied. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones was like that for me. It has so many things I like: An English manor house, a disastrous dinner, early 20th century English vernacular, an eccentric child, unresolved sexual tension, and a mystery.
And yet I did not love it. It’s an easy book that most readers will probably breeze trough and forget about the day after they finish the last page. It’s not memorable, even though by rights it really should be. The setting is Sterne, or rather grand house where the Torringtons live. The family is getting ready to celebrate the birthday of Emerald Torrington, their eldest daughter, when things start going wrong.
For some reason, the novel never quite takes off. It keeps trying to begin, but before that happens, it’s already in the midst of one of its several endings. However, it’s not a bad book. It has a certain charm, and I’m not sorry to have read it.
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