The Guest List

I literally could not put this book down!

Not to brag, but I can usually spot whodunit early on in most murder mysteries. This novel, however, kept me in the dark as, one by one, each of the characters fell off Foley’s guest list and onto my suspect list.

The writing is suspenseful, the plot is fast-paced, and the story is cleverly told from numerous characters’ points of view. I truly did not see this ending coming! As a diehard murder mystery fan, Lucy Foley is my new Agatha Christie. I highly recommend this novel.

The Guest List was a spine-tingling delight. The wedding of a beautiful social media influencer and a handsome actor on a remote Irish island castle is accessible only by boat and only when the weather cooperates. What could go wrong? Plenty. 

Author Lucy Foley weaves a complex web of characters with complicated pasts and conflicting interests, ratcheting up the tension in a classic haunted house setting of people trapped in an inaccessible location with a murderer on the loose.

Foley taps into the unsavory layer of secrets and lies simmering below the surface of polite society's respectability while constructing an… show more.

Agatha Christie may have laid the groundwork for the ‘strangers stuck together’ premise, but in The Guest List, Lucey Foley absolutely runs with it.

Picture a remote island off the coast of Ireland and a wedding full of guests with grudges and secrets and plenty of bones to pick. Then, a dead body shows up. Lucy Foley has established herself as a true master of the fun, modern whodunit, and this is my favourite of hers. I couldn’t put it book down!

It’s a terrifying concept – a wedding on a remote island off the Irish coast where the electricity goes out.

A spine-tingling scream kicks the book of this propulsive thriller off like a starter gun and the pace continues throughout.

As the lights come back on, a body turns up.  But could this be murder? In The Guest List, Foley weaves some classic Agatha Christie magic, but with a refreshing twist. I loved that the book is set in the wilds of the west coast of Ireland where the sea and landscape adds to the sense of foreboding.

The locked… show more.

The first and last lines of chapter one, “the lights go out” and “it is a scream of terror” instantly had me hooked and hungry to find out more. 

I love how this novel focussed on guests gathering for a high-profile wedding on a remote island off the windswept Irish coast, has the feel of a classic Christie-style whodunnit but with a modern twist. It’s also a perfect example of how setting can enhance the sense of foreboding we crave from thrillers.

With the guests cut off from the mainland, and multiple grudges, secrets, and jealousies weighing heavy… show more.

What I love about this book is every character is morally gray.

Some are much worse than others as the reader will see at the end of the novel but no one is a perfect saint either. The three main female characters are Julia, the bride having a lavish wedding on a remote island, her sister Olivia, a mentally fragile teen girl, and the hard-working wedding planner, Aoife.

As the story unfolds, you see how these women have been hurt by the men in their lives and their reactions to it.

Some violence occurs but you’re left to question whether… show more.

I was lucky enough to win a copy of The Guest List when I attended a book club where Lucy Foley was speaking about her earlier novel, The Hunting Party.

I asked a question which was judged to be the most interesting (I’ve forgotten what it was!) and the prize was an advance copy of Lucy’s next book.

In The Guest List an island off the coast of Ireland is the setting for a celebrity wedding and we learn early in the book that someone has died.

The trick Lucy Foley pulls off is to conceal the identity of the… show more.

Lucy Foley excels at the “closed door”/ Agatha Christie-type mystery. She takes classic tropes and spins them for a new audience. As someone who loves to travel in books, the setting of this one on a remote island off the coast of Ireland pulled me in from the first page. (Who doesn’t want to run away to a manor home in Ireland? Well, except for the murder part.) 

The story is told in rotating points of view so you’re never sure who to trust. Each character attending this wedding has a secret and a reason to be behind the crime.… show more.

This brilliantly-crafted novel revolves around a wedding that takes place on an island. The characters are well-defined and not especially likable. In fact, everyone involved in the wedding party brings along enough emotional baggage to sink the island. One guest is shocked to discover her lover is present and not who she thought he was. And then someone is murdered, heightening the tension! A wonderful psychological thriller!

This is one of my favourite book recommendations because I really enjoy the terrifying element of characters being trapped somewhere, unable to escape. This novel takes place on an island off the coast of Ireland, which is the chosen locale for a grand, celebrity wedding. The weather is stormy, the waters are choppy, and there is limited cell reception, which greatly ups the creep factor of this novel because no one can get off the island safely or call for help. Everyone arrives with secrets, some more sinister than others, and when tensions start to rise and then someone ends… show more.