Review of THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley

 3 Stars

This is an over-hyped locked-room mystery which will bring to mind Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. 

Guests gather on a remote Irish island to celebrate the marriage of Will Slater, a television star, and Julia Keegan, an ezine publisher.  The narrative alternates between now (the wedding night) and the previous day.  The reader knows that there will be a murder victim but his/her identity is not revealed until the end of the wedding night.  One of the people present is a killer, but it turns out that several people have motives. 

The book is narrated from five points of view, with one more addition towards the end.  We hear from Jules, the bride; Olivia, Julia’s half-sister and maid of honour; Johnno, Will’s best man; Hannah, the wife of Julia’s best friend Charlie; and Aoife, the wedding planner and owner of the venue.  Each of these gradually reveals his/her personality and secrets.  Most have also suffered a major loss in their pasts from which they have never fully recovered.  It also becomes obvious that appearances are deceiving because there are tensions among these people.

The setting is very gothic.  The island is isolated and spoken of as “the dead place, the haunted isle.”  There are ruins that have “dark, gaping windows . . . like empty eye sockets.”  There’s an ancient graveyard and a dangerous bog.  More than one character senses ghosts.  And of course there’s a dark and stormy night.  It’s as if the author wanted to check off every gothic element.  Even the wedding cake has a “ceremonial disemboweling” after which “deep red sponge gapes from within.” 

The reader must be willing to suspend disbelief.  The many connections among the characters, especially with the victim, require the reader to accept coincidences.  The book is often described as a thriller, but I didn’t find it particularly suspenseful.  I guessed the victim early on and the killer is always the one who reveals the least.  Despite the author’s many red herrings, I found the book fairly predictable. 

The ending is not totally satisfying.  There’s such a slow buildup and then the murder takes place and the book ends quickly thereafter.  The fates of some of the characters are not what I would have preferred. 

This novel was the 2020 Goodreads winner for best mystery/thriller and a Reese’s book club pick so that should have warned me.  It’s no more than mediocre fluff best chosen for a vacation read.