My rundown of The Guest List by Lucy Foley: a wedding mystery trendsetter and a 2020 Reese’s Book Club pick. This suspense novel about murder and mayhem at a wedding on a spooky Irish island set off a trend of Wedding Mysteries and also Vacation Thrillers. Should The Guest List be on YOUR list? Check out my review of the Guest List by Lucy Foley!
The Guest List by Lucy Foley: Overview
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
- Published on June 2, 2020 by William Morrow
- 319 pages
- Won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for best Mystery/Thriller
- Also by Lucy Foley, The Hunting Party (2018), The Paris Apartment (2022) and The Midnight Feast (2024)
The Guest List by Lucy Foley: Jen’s Quick Take
- This falls into the suspense lane for me
- As a bestselling book, it set off a bunch of trends:
- Yes, it’s a Wedding Mystery
- Also a Vacation Thriller
- And a book set on a remote island
Review of the Guest List by Lucy Foley: a Wedding mystery trendsetter
The Guest List was a fun, atmospheric story about a murder at a wedding.
On secluded Cormorant Island, off the coast of Ireland, a group of guests gathers for the wedding of Julia, the head of a design empire, and Will, the star of a hot reality show. The island is spooky place and the locals whisper about its dark past. But the guests have dark pasts as well!
The narrative structure of The Guest List reminded me of that of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.
At the very beginning of both books, you know someone was killed, but you don’t know who killed them –or why. Then you learn the connections between the characters, their backstories, and the secrets they are keeping from each other.
But while Big Little Lies showed the characters interacting for months in the present, the timeline of The Guest List was very compressed, necessitating a lot of flashbacks or guests thinking about past events, which I think worked less well.
That said, the revelations in The Guest List were interesting and came fast and furiously.
There was a creepy game that Will, the groom, and his groomsmen used to play at boarding school, which was the inspiration for Will’s reality show. And nearly every character is keeping some kind of secret or has some kind of tragic past.
Trying to guess who the killer was and why they committed the crime was all the fun. I did guess one of the reveals, and I did correctly guess the murder victim, but I didn’t guess who the killer was.
I do recommend The Guest List if you like books with a lot of spooky atmosphere and an old-school locked room murder mystery vibe!
Have you read this? Talk to me in comments? Looking for spoilers and spoiler discussion?
Come over to my spoiler page for The Guest List! This post and the comments answer a LOT of your questions, including a character who seems to vanish into thin air!
I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my TBR. Glad you liked it!
Well this is convenient as I just bought this book after a couple of other bloggers I follow read and enjoyed it. Glad to see it’s good and I do love when you don’t guess who the killer is before the end. So happy I bought it now.
Ooh, come talk spoilers when you are done!!
Ooh this sounds so spooky and mysterious!
It really was. Great atmosphere!
I really loved this book, The Hunting Party was excellent too. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
I love how atmospheric this looks. And ooh that bit about the structure being like Big Little Lies makes me even more excited for this. I want to read this so bad. 🙂
I really hope you try it!