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A review by jensreadinglife
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
4.0
I love any mystery that clearly gets it's inspiration from Agatha Christie. A wedding on a remote island in Ireland and a guest turns up dead. The question is not only why but who. Foley keeps readers guessing to the end as to who the victim could be. And this made for a great twist on what is basically a closed door mystery.
I read The Hunting Party last year and while I didn't love it, something about it made me feel like I wanted to read more by Foley. When I read the synopsis for The Guest List, I knew this was a book I wanted to read. And I wasn't wrong. While there were still more than a fair share of unlikable characters in this story, I found there were also flawed but likable characters unlike in The Hunting Party (where everyone was unlikable and it made perfect sense that someone would turn up dead). Foley seems to have matured in her use of characters, themes and settings and they worked in favor of both plot and character development rather than against it.
This isn't a perfect mystery but it did keep me guessing. Foley wove together the different voices of the characters in a way that both ratcheted up the tension and moved the plot along. I devoured this book in a little over a day and I'm very intrigued to see what she comes up with next.
I read The Hunting Party last year and while I didn't love it, something about it made me feel like I wanted to read more by Foley. When I read the synopsis for The Guest List, I knew this was a book I wanted to read. And I wasn't wrong. While there were still more than a fair share of unlikable characters in this story, I found there were also flawed but likable characters unlike in The Hunting Party (where everyone was unlikable and it made perfect sense that someone would turn up dead). Foley seems to have matured in her use of characters, themes and settings and they worked in favor of both plot and character development rather than against it.
This isn't a perfect mystery but it did keep me guessing. Foley wove together the different voices of the characters in a way that both ratcheted up the tension and moved the plot along. I devoured this book in a little over a day and I'm very intrigued to see what she comes up with next.