Book Review - The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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Title: The Guest List

Author: Lucy Foley

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: 20th February 2020

Rating: 5 Stars

On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater.

 

Old friends.

Past grudges.

 

Happy families.

Hidden jealousies.

 

Thirteen guests.

One body.

 

The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.

All have a secret. All have a motive.

One guest won’t leave this wedding alive . . .

From what I thought was a rather steady start, this has built and built into a completely gripping story. 

There are so many things I didn't see coming, many reveals that surprised me, and I do love it when a story surprises me. 

We have many view points which just takes a bit of getting used to, as you get to know each voice and how they fit into this wedding party.  But I never felt lost with it for each chapter stays as one person and the name of the character is at the start of the chapter, so from that point of view its easy to follow. 

There is some truly shocking behaviour over a 48 hour period on a remote atmospheric island in Ireland. The island that is hosting the wedding, was a rather sinister feel to it, a murky past and full of bogs, a graveyard, and a sort of grimness to its beauty. 

The perfect sort of a location on a stormy night for a dead body to be found! We know someone dies right from the start of the book, but who it is, is cleverly concealed for the vast majority of the story, keeping you reading. 

Even when you find out the victim, by that stage you are fairly convinced death is actually too good for the lowlife of a character, but by the same token still have no idea who actually killed them, thus keeping you reading! 

And as we learn about the pasts of various members of the party, everything does start to make a lot of sense and it certainly kept me reading. 

Definitely a bit of a slow burner this one, but the payoff is well worth it, and it wasn't that slow, it just wasn't action packed initially.  

All I know is this is one wedding that I am very happy that I wasn't a guest at, and having heard good things about Lucy Foley for a while, I can now see tell what a fabulous writer she is for myself.  What a great book. 

Thank you to Harper and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.