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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This book could have been a lot shorter and lost nothing. It was an ok read but wouldn’t rush out to buy it
Too scattered! Every 3-4 pages it changes perspectives between about 5 or 6 characters. I’ve read books that change perspectives before but this one each entry is so short that I just barely start to get interested in them and their motivations when it changes to someone else! By the time I was halfway through I still didn’t know who gets killed and I no longer cared! Because of the staccato story telling, I couldn’t care less about any of the characters and didn’t care to find out who got killed let alone why! Read a bit more but ultimately it was too annoying to finish. Not interesting at all. No idea why so many liked it.
A quick, atmospheric thriller that feels like a mix of Agatha Christie and Lord of the Flies. I was hoping this book would be a bit more frothy – I was expecting some posh wedding ~drama~ more in line with the Bachelorette to live alongside the mystery, and this book was actually quite dark and rather depressing. Still, I enjoyed the creepy island vibes and the cast of possible murderers, even if everything felt a bit convenient at times.
This was a great mystery read! I kept wanting to get back to it to see what would happen next. The author did a great job of setting the mood in this book. I felt the sense of unease and foreboding that the characters felt. I definitely recommend this book.
Whoa, what a ride! I really enjoyed this story.
I don’t read a lot of mysteries/thrillers but I think the author did an amazing job with this one. She definitely kept me guessing who was the killer, at one point I was sure it was one character and then two pages later I was sure it was another. It came to a point that anyone could have been the killer.
I have to say that I did guess who was the victim before the end, but I wasn’t completely sure until the very end.
I enjoyed the slow burn story telling, loved the haunted/remote Irish island atmosphere and the multiple POVs, in my opinion, really helped to build up the tension. There was so much history between the characters and there a lot of clues along the way. I couldn’t stop reading!
Overall, a very entertaining book, with twists and turns, twisted characters and a strong Clue game vibe.
This book is written in 2 parts. Now – The Night of the Wedding and The Day Before. This is also written from different POVs. The Bride, The Bridesmaid, The Best Man, The Plus One and the Wedding Planner.
Jules and Will are to be married on an island on the western coast of Ireland. It is isolated and the only inhabitants are the Wedding Planner, Aoife and her husband, Freddy. All the guests must take a boat to get to the venue. The wedding party and close family arrive the night before.
The book starts with the lights in the tent going out and as soon as power is restored, one of the waitresses returns with fear and shock as she has discovered a body.
It seems that the groom has secrets. The bridesmaid has secrets. the best man has secrets. And the best friend of the bride has secrets. The secrets one by one start to be revealed.
I figured out who was going to get killed once the secrets started to come to light. I did not know who the killer was or why.
Wow! perfect book in which to lose yourself, even for a brief time. Marvelous mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie. A wedding, an isolated island, a few dark dark secrets, and there you have it: an afternoon well spent.
I absolutely loved this book. I loved the way the story was told from different characters perspectives. I didn’t see the ending coming.
If you’re looking for a thriller that you won’t be able to put down, look no further – “The Guest List” by Lucy Foley grabs you from page one and keeps you guessing until the very end.
Set at a lavish wedding on a remote and potentially haunted island in Ireland, this whodunit is a slow-burn where every character has a secret. Told over the course of 48 hours from five alternating POVS – that of the bride, the groom, the wedding planner, the maid-of-honor/sister of the bride, the best man/childhood friend of the groom and the “plus one”/wife of the bride’s best friend – tension builds from the moment the guests start arriving on the island. Add in some creepy folklore, a bunch of drunken idiot groomsmen and a terrible storm and it’s a recipe for disaster. As jealousies flare, grudges get revealed, and surprising relationships come to light during the wedding, a body is discovered, leaving the reader not only trying to figure out who on the guest list is the killer, but also which one of them was killed.
I loved the book’s twists and turns and each character was realistically written with a reason they could be the victim as well as a motive to murder. There were a few things that felt too convenient for me and a couple of story points I wish had more of a resolution at the end but those are small quibbles because I was completely surprised by the final reveal – bravo to the author for wrapping up this mystery in a truly satisfying way.
Thank you to NetGalley Harper Collins and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review.
Rocket-paced and character driven, full of expertly timed reveals. You have to love that haunted island setting, and when those closest to you are bent on revenge.
The Guest List is a page-turner with a modern Agatha Christie feel. The rich setting and forced proximity ratchet up the danger and claustrophobic atmosphere of the book. Then you have a group of wedding guests who drag their sordid histories and bad deeds into the middle of what should be the couple’s big day. It’s the wedding day you don’t want, but a great read.
This is a good read when you want an easy read that is entertaining and engrossing while not involving a lot of thought. Great for coronavirus stress relief
Bit disappointed by this one to be honest, which is a shame because it seems the rest of the world loves it! The Guest List centres around the wedding of Will and Jules, a seemingly perfect couple who are getting married on a remote island off the coast of Connemara. However, the illusion of their perfect day is shattered when a member of the wedding party is murdered during a power outage. The advice often given to writers is ‘show, don’t tell’ and I just felt like so much of this book was focused on the ‘tell’ that it was a bit patronising. I think this was a result of there being so many characters and so many of the key events of the novel having taken place prior to it starting, the exposition just felt a bit endless. It also made it a bit difficult to reasonably crack who the killer was, given that the victim was only revealed in the latter fifth of the novel. Trying to crack the case ahead of time is one of the great pleasures of a mystery novel, but in The Guest List the focus seemed to be in cramming in as many ‘shocking twists’ (that were actually fairly predictable) as possible at the expense of the actual mystery plot.
Book Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley (2020) (Mystery) 5 Stars *****
I really enjoyed this book! Some of it was predictable, yes, but still … Magazine owner/editor of the trendy The Download magazine Julia Keegan is marrying handsome, charming TV reality star Will at The Folly on a remote island Inis an Amplora off the coast of Ireland. The guest list is carefully selected to insure the paparazzi don’t gain access to this exceedingly posh and private overnight event. A tragedy occurs but the reader most likely will not mourn the victim. You see, this victim is actually a predator. Told in alternating points of view from various characters, the author threads a needle through the story as lttle pieces of the puzzle slowly reveal the big picture.
Besides the parents and minor friends, the major characters include: Julia’s half-sister maid of honor Olivia, her best friend Charlie and his wife Hannah, Will’s four boisterous school mates, Johnno the best man, and Aoife (Ee-fah) and her husband Freddy owners and caterers of the beautifully restored fifteenth-century castle-like building ominously located near the edge of a cliff. Some are guilty of terrible deeds, but everyone is guilty of something. Who dunnit? Hint: Look for the threads. Expect Divine justice.
A charming book about real characters with human foibles—no cardboard players here. Real problems. Real concerns. Real feelings. Many Irish words and expressions lend a touch of whimsy to this Irish tale of possible ghosts and bodies lost in the bog amid the howling wind with the cries of the cormorant, the devil’s bird, warning of danger.
Good, easy read with a nice little twist at the end.
Too much jumping back and forth in time by too many characters. Hard to like any of them or care who does what.
Each character had a well rounded story line that came together seamlessly at the end. As you flip through, you’re questioning what happens on the wedding night. It’s definitely not magical bliss. You will get no sleep finishing.
Fantastic read with plot twists I never saw coming. Rich characterization and stay up all night plot. Terrific story.
It promised to be the poshest wedding of the season. The bride, Jules Keegan, is the founder of “The Download,” one of the hottest online magazines of the day. The groom, Will Slater, is the handsome and charismatic star of the successful television show, “Survive the Night.” On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, the nuptials are to be exchanged in front of 200 of their closest and dearest friends…or are they? Someone thinks the bride is making a terrible mistake.
What an enjoyable suspenseful story! Told in short chapters from the alternating viewpoints of different members of the wedding party or those closest to them, the story of the bride and groom and their families and friends is revealed much like a slow-burning fuse. It is an incredibly atmospheric telling with its setting on an abandoned island with a dire history, its luxuriously appointed ‘Folly,’ the crumbling ruins of the old church, treacherous bogs, and a black storm brewing in the near distance.
As each character takes a turn at narrating, the author gives and leaves out just enough information to keep the reader in the dark or guessing but not connecting the dots too soon. I know I missed some clues along the way to the big reveal later on. One thing I experienced is some characters I didn’t care for at the start of the story, and ones I did, flip places in my emotions by the end. That change in attitude was entertaining in itself. But the end does come, and it is a doozy!
I recommend “The Guest List” for mystery and thriller readers that don’t mind that slow, inexorable burn to the exciting denouement.
It’s just impossible to put this book down. Atmospheric and absorbing all the way through to the final twist, which is both a shock and fitting all at once.