The Guest List - Lucy Foley

The Guest List

By Lucy Foley

  • Release Date: 2020-06-02
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4
4
From 8,742 Ratings

Description

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF THE YEAR

“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 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?

Reviews

  • It dragged on

    2
    By lovehappyendings
    It just dragged on and on….
  • Thrilling page turner

    5
    By MattN0622
    This is a real page-turner which gets better every chapter you read it. I highly recommend it if you like a mystery and a lot of intrigue! My wife and I read it at the same time and compared thoughts in the evenings—very fun, like our own book club. Two thumbs up!
  • Great read…

    4
    By Matina R
    Great read, lots of twists and runs. I couldn’t put it down. I loved it but wish there was more of a resolution at the end. I prefer not making my own ending.
  • Slow but worth it in the end

    4
    By Jewel....
    Took me awhile to get to the point where I couldn’t put it down, but I finally got there. Everything begins to come together and then it goes full speed ahead.
  • Loss of interest.

    2
    By Gretchen, CEO
    Too many characters, sometimes I would lose focus, because of the lack of interest after a while. I had trouble focusing on who was talking pertaining to which character. Suspenseful near towards the end, but I had to keep charging through to finally get there…..
  • Not fun or very interesting

    2
    By oechsle1
    Not a very good story. Not many enjoyable characters. Suspenseful at times.
  • My favorite book this year

    5
    By Clogue33
    Even though LF wrote this years ago, I just found it. Tension on each and every page. I race-read this to find out the identity of the victim (I was wrong) and then the killer(s)? Wrong, on that too. I can’t recommend a book more highly.
  • Enjoyable

    4
    By Sarah Steels
    It does start off a bit slow and doesn’t pick up till around the last 1/4 of the book. It is very well written and I think Lucy does a phenomenal job with character descriptions and scenery. The ending was a bit too far fetched for me. That said, I did enjoy it and will definitely be reading more of Lucy’s books.
  • Good

    3
    By MVTHK
    Easy to read Characters interesting Slow start ……eventually I didn’t want to put it down and wanted more.
  • Secrets, Lies, and Guilt

    4
    By Richard Bakare
    My first foray into Lucy Foley’s novels was a winner. “The Guest List” is a fresh and hard to put down murder mystery meets ghost story. It reminds me a lot of Rian Johnson’s style in “Knives Out.” There is a compelling case to be made for a collaboration between Johnson and Foley. What drives the story forward is the unbearably messy drama of the cast of characters. That basic plot would not be enough to keep me on its own. It’s how Foley has layered on a complex web of secrets and lies that are carefully metered out over the pages. I love surprises and this book is packed with them at every turn. For all that there is real meaning and a message here. It’s as if Foley is arguing that the real ghosts in this story are the secrets buried in the past that come back to eat at your soul. Whether the victim or the villain, the burying of the truth has violent consequences for the self and others.