The Guest List by Lucy Foley

27/4/2020

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

An ancient and atmospheric island is the setting for this potentially perfect wedding. The ceremony takes place in a folly and, although the first couple of chapters are introducing the characters and wedding frivolity, there is the promise of secrets, past misdemeanors and impending doom.

There is a dual timeline - the wedding day as it happens and a couple of days before leading up to the main event. Each chapter is told in the first person from different points of view. Informal and readable, as first person narratives are, complete with thoughts and feelings and a confusion over when to use 'me' and 'I'. And bizarrely, each character 'hisses' when they are angry.

There is a tension as the story builds after the first couple of chapters and the expectation that there will be a murder or something serious about to happen. Reminiscent of Agatha Christie, the reader simply knows there will be something and the search is on to work out whodunnit even before the crime has happened. The short choppy chapters work really well.

A great, fast-paced thriller. Recommended.

Published by HarperCollins UK on 20 February 2020. Advanced review copy supplied by the publisher.

Lucy Foley studied English Literature at Durham and UCL universities and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry, before leaving to write full-time. The Hunting Party is her debut crime novel, inspired by a particularly remote spot in Scotland that fired her imagination.

Lucy is also the author of three historical novels, which have been translated into sixteen languages. Her journalism has appeared in ES Magazine, Sunday Times Style, Grazia and more.