by Lucy Foley
Julia Keegan, creator of the trendy lifestyle online magazine The Download, wants her wedding to rising reality TV star Will Slater to be perfect and unforgettable.
Staged on a remote Irish island overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the ceremony itself will take place in the ruins of a chapel as the sun sets. Afterward, guests will be led to tents for a gourmet dinner, drinks and dancing.
The event is being orchestrated by the capable wedding planner, Aoife, who owns the island with her chef husband Freddy.
What could possibly be go wrong?
Well, the guests for starters.
Julia’s half-sister and only bride’s maid, Olivia, is on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Will’s best man, Johnno, and the ushers — Femi, Angus, Duncan and Peter — are all weed-smoking, drug-snorting, alcohol-guzzling school chums. The handsome, charismatic Will Slater has more than a few ugly patches in his background — unknown to his bride, of course.
As soon as the alcohol starts flowing at the rehearsal dinner, Will’s friends revert to adolescent pokes and pranks. Julia’s mother, Araminta Jones, tells anyone who will listen that Julia’s birth ruined her life. Her father, who abandoned wife and daughter early, has brought his fifth wife and can hardly spare a moment to meet his daughter’s groom.
As the hours count down to the big event, author Lucy Foley unveils one secret after another about the guests and their relationships to each other.
From the first page, when the lights go out in the midst of a storm and the shrieks begin, it’s clear that perfection is ephemeral.
This is a rollicking good read in the tradition of Agatha Christie and Ruth Ware. The isolated island with its ruins, graveyard, ravenous bog and no escape is the equal to any of Agatha’s locked rooms or country weekends gone awry. Foley has left plenty of clues if you have the eyes to spot them.
THE GUEST LIST has atmosphere and suspense. It offers great escapist reading. This is “don’t-want-to-put-it-down” reading with a satisfying ending where karma catches up with all the right people.
Like Ruth Ware’s IN A DARK, DARK WOOD, this book will make you think twice about accepting that next wedding invitation. If you’ve enjoyed this book, you might also enjoy Lucy Foley’s THE HUNTING PARTY (2019).
About the Author: Lucy Foley
Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London. She worked as a fiction editor in the publishing industry for several years.
Her first book was THE BOOK OF LOST AND FOUND (2015), followed by THE HUNTING PARTY (2019), inspired by a remote spot in Scotland; and LAST LETTER FROM ISTANBUL (2018), set in Constantinople in 1921. Her novel, THE INVITATION (2016), is set in the film world of the 1950s on the Italian Riviera.
