A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF 2020
“I loved this book. It gave me the same waves of happiness I get from curling up with a classic Christie…The alternating points of view keep you guessing, and guessing wrong.” — Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient
“Evok[es] the great Agatha … wrong.” — Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient
“Evok[es] the great Agatha Christie classics…Pay close attention to seemingly throwaway details about the characters’ pasts. They are all clues.” — New York Times Book Review
A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
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As soon as I started hearing about this book, I put it on hold at my library. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one eager to get my hands on it snd I ended up being waitlisted for 12 weeks! So, imagine my happiness not just when I opened the app and saw it waiting for me but my absolute delight as I started reading and realized all those rave reviews were totally right.
This book lives up to the hype. Once I started reading I couldn’t put it down, staying up well past midnight to finish it in one go. I couldn’t sleep without finding out who the killer was and who had been killed. Every character on the little Irish island for the over the top wedding has a reason they could be either. They’re all hiding secrets and telling lies that would make them the plausible killer, or victim. This is a delightfully twisted suspense/thriller with a classic whodunnit and though it was my first read by this author I’m off to add her other book to my hold queue immediately. You should too.
A destination wedding at a remote island off Ireland’s West Coast, with a wedding party and guest list full of privileged, entitled people, many of them with secrets they’d rather stayed hidden. What could possibly go wrong? A thriller that pulls you in, much like the island’s peat bogs.
I listened to this on audible. It kept me entertained and the voices were good. There was a voice for each character’s chapters… so probably 6 different narrators. The story was interesting, but I think I would have preferred to have the story told by fewer characters so I could have attached myself to them better. I really liked Hannah – the Plus One, and Olivia – the Bridesmaid, but didn’t really like anyone else.
Absolutely un-putdownable!
The setting of this books sets the scene for this haunting thriller! Jules Keegan has chosen a remote island off the Irish coast for her wedding to tv star, Will Slater. In alternating chapters we hear from the bride, the wedding planner, the bridesmaid, the best man, and the plus-one. All have secrets and all have something to hide. All the guests have arrived and the wedding is happening and nothing can spoil Jules’ perfect evening except a murder! A must read thriller!
As the wedding season heats up, this is must read fiction of what could go wrong at a destination wedding. Without giving anything away, I love the obvious homage to the British mystery genre that we’ve all loved from Agatha Christie to Ruth Ware. Let’s just say that “happily ever after” may have met its match. As Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cautions: “It’s every man’s business to see justice done.” You will not be disappointed in the story or its “inevitable” end.
Good mystery.
Best thriller I’ve read in a while! Brilliant treatment of Agatha Christie’s classic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this–totally hit the spot for my suspense craving.
One of the best books I have read lately!
A good ending makes a good book! Having said that, I (a guy) found the dialogue lengthy with little happening in the first half of the book. But the characters were interesting and overall I did enjoy it. But nor my fav. However, I like the author so will continue on with her next one. And she’s pretty.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley is an atmospheric mystery set on an island off the coast of Ireland. Guests start arriving for the wedding of Julia (Jules) Keegan, a magazine publisher, and Will Slater, a reality television star.
The book is told from multiple points of view and changes rapidly. It also goes back and forth in time from the wedding night to the previous day and then earlier on the wedding day. There’s the wedding planner and the chef who are hosting the wedding, the plus one, the best man, the bride, the groom, the bridesmaid, the boarding school friends, the university friends, family members, lots of alcohol, spotty cell phone service, a storm, and more. What could possibly go wrong?
I am in the minority on this rating. There are many readers who loved this novel, including readers whose opinion I respect. However, the book didn’t work for me. While the multiple viewpoints gives readers insight into more than one character, it broke up the flow for me. Each subchapter was too short for my tastes.
Overall, this book did not get me engaged and had too many predictable characters. While I understood their motivations, I couldn’t get too excited about them. The one thing that stood out for me was the remote island including peat bogs, a wave-lashed beach, a graveyard, and a mysterious history. If you like locked room mysteries, this may be the book for you. Sadly, it did not live up to my expectations.
I received a digital copy of this book in a Goodreads Discussion Group Giveaway. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
From the outset there’s an air of menace around this wedding party. There’s a great cast of characters, all damaged in their own way, and a neatly woven plot that keeps you turning those pages. I’m looking forward to discussing it with my book club!
A gripping mystery filled with thoroughly unlikeable characters.
Believe the hype. This is a book you will not be able to put down. I read it in two sittings. Foley does a wonderful job creating a variety of characters and is able to differentiate their tones despite writing them in first person. I also appreciate how she has a thoroughly likable character, often that is not the case. I was surprised by the twists and turns this book takes and did not predict the ending. I really recommend this book.
** spoiler alert ** 3.8
The audiobook was SO fun. Love that she has a different narrator for each character and that they all have accents I usually listen to the audiobooks while I’m driving but with this one I listened with every opportunity just so I could find out more. It was an entertaining book for sure.
I appreciate that the author included quite a few twists and I really love when authors sprinkle events throughout a book that end up being connected. I do wish we were given a little more in the epilogue though, with the pace of the entire book the end just felt rushed.
This is off to a very intriguing start, but once the prologue ends, it turns sort of dull. I expect it gets exciting again at some point but … 4 hours into a 10-hour listen, it still had not. Life’s too short so, I’ve gotta move onto something that won’t bore me. Perhaps I’ll revisit some day, or maybe it’ll make a more entertaining movie.
2 stars.
Note:
I listened to the audiobook; this was a dual narration, which I love. The female narrator was fine; smooth voice, mostly appropriate tones, but bland at times as well. The male was awful. Every time it was his turn I almost DNF’d it. 3-star performance overall.
I don’t usually read cliff-hangers but this one sure did keep my attention!
This is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.
I was hooked from the very beginning! I couldn’t put down this book!
(For my clean and/or Christian fiction readers, be aware of sexual elements and language.)
The premise of the book was good. It just took way too long to get to the point.