THE GUEST LIST shares a lot with Lucy Foley's last novel THE HUNTING PARTY. As in the previous novel we have an event in a remote location attended by a frankly, fairly unlikeable bunch of characters and presumed crime, the details of which are revealed slowly through judicious use of timelines. The wedding of a successful web-magazine editor and a handsome Bear Grylls-type adventure TV personality is held on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. The story is told in the first person by several viewpoint characters - the bride, the best man, the bridesmaid, the wife of the bride's best friend 'the plus one' and the wedding planner - most of them flawed and damaged; and a third person narrative set after some calamitous event, the nature of which is not immediately revealed.

It is all very Agatha Christie and the plot occasionally relies a little too much on coincidence, but it is incredibly well done. Foley has a real talent for making the reader care what happens to people with few redeeming qualities. With a few exceptions, the characters are a nasty bunch with murky backstories - deliciously so. For me the conclusion, although satisfying, was a little too neat but getting there was great fun.

On a tiny island off the coast or Ireland, the wedding of the year is about to begin. But as the guests arrive, a terrible storm begins to build in the distance... As the night draws in, dark secrets are revealed, old grudges are remembered, and soon enough, a body will be found. Who won’t be leaving the island alive?

For me, this was a perfect example of the most rare of bookish beasts - a thriller worthy of 5 stars. I have to admit to being very picky when it comes to thrillers of any kind - there’s just so many on the market these days, and as an avid reader of the genre it’s easy for things to become a little predictable. This was anything but - a first class thriller that truly stuns.

I won’t discuss the plot beyond the initial summary above, as I’m a bit scared of spoilers - it’s definitely one of those where there are a lot of little hints that you almost miss but become incredibly important later on, so I’d hate to ruin it. All I will say is that the culmination of this plot was absolutely amazing - I’ve never seen so many plot threads being so well weaved together! You see the puzzle pieces all throughout the book, and then suddenly there’s a true OMG moment when they all suddenly fit together - it’s masterful writing, and is such a great and satisfying moment to have it all suddenly fit!

All in all, I loved it. The writing style was brilliant, and I thought it was great how each character had their own distinct voice. As I said above, the twists and turns are numerous but never feel trite or overdone. As soon as I reached the end I immediately ordered her previous book - what more can I say than that? I would honestly recommend this to any and everyone; it’s a truly wonderful example of how to write a thriller!

A murder on a wedding night, on an island with only the guests to be responsible. This tag line drew me in. The story is a jumper of time which can put a few people off but as it's just a few characters it's still very easy to follow. We met Jules the bride and her husband to be Will as well as the groomsmen, the maid of honour and the wedding planner. Their background stories slowly starting to develop in the book. The old boys club does show itself in the book and for someone who went to a private school I never understand the pack mentality that's always shown when linked to private schools. Maybe girls schools are different who knows?
This book was slowly paced to give the build up but the ending for me felt somewhat rushed and flat. The unexpected twist at the end was brilliant but the aftermath fell flat.
Overall I enjoyed the book but felt a little cheated at the ending. I think I'd like to read another of the authors work in the future to get more of a feel to the authors writing style.

A remote island off the coast of Ireland. A wedding venue hosting an array of friends and family. Many secrets from the past left unspoken over the years. A dead body.

I really liked The Hunting Party, but I just couldn't warm to this book. The characters were totally unlikable, which can often be a good technique, but I just didn't feel like the story surrounding it was particularly strong enough to carry my dislike of the characters and I found by the end I didn't care about any of them.

A couples wedding and their guests. This tells secrets of everyone, warts and all. I loved the book and was engrossed from the first chapter. Highly recommended

A beautiful bride, a celebrity groom, a romantic setting for their wedding on a remote island. What's not to like! Until the secrets begin to be exposed about the main players, bit by bit, showing us that all is not what it seems and bitterness hides behind some of the smiles. There are a lot of characters and their stories are told in the then and now which can be a bit head spinning to absorb at times but it all gradually weaves together into an intriguing mystery.. And then the lights went out - chilling!

Wow what a read I really enjoyed this book. I really liked that each character had their own chapter, and we were reminded who they were "Will The Groom", "Hannah The Plus One" etc., and were telling what was happening from their own viewpoint.

I loved that each of the guests had their own back stories which culminated in the murder, which I did not see coming

I did not particularly like any of the characters but then I don't think we were meant to.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley.for my ARC for which I have given my voluntary and unbiased review

This is my first novel by Lucy Foley and after reading this I’ve added her first novel The Hunting Party to my bookish wishlist!

The Guest List is a fabulous piece of psychological suspense!

It’s told from several viewpoints, each one adding their own unique perspective to the story. The characters are flawed, realistic, damaged in their own different ways. They’re not all that likeable but I had a particular soft spot for the plus one Hannah.

I absolutely love a book with atmosphere and the guest list has it in bucketfuls. The creepiness just oozes from the pages. I loved the almost deserted island setting with all the folklore and superstitions surrounding it, it was almost like a character in itself.

Truthfully I guessed the victim by about half way but there were plenty of twists and turns that kept me on my toes throughout.

The Guest List is a skilfully written, immersive and utterly fascinating thriller.

If you enjoyed The Hunting Party then you are going to absolutely love The Guest List as it has a very similar “Agatha Christie” style to the narrative that works really well. A secluded setting, cut off from the outside world, with characters who all seem to have some sort of connection and motive, all add up to a brilliantly twisty murder mystery. Which works perfectly even though we don’t actually find out who has been murdered until the very end even though we do have a pretty good idea. But there are so many red herrings swimming throughout the plot that it could physically have been anyone!

Jules and Will are getting married on an island off the coast of Ireland and the tensions are running high as they do before any wedding! We are introduced to the happy couple themselves and then members of the bridal party-all of whom seem to have secrets they would rather not share. But when old wounds are picked at, someone is bound to get hurt. I especially liked Hannah. I loved her down to earth Northern character and wanted her to have a good weekend away from the everyday stresses of family life. There were a few rather unlikeable characters but it was hard picking out those with a grudge to hold as everyone seemed to have a secret that wanted to hold onto.

The Guest List is an addictive read that will have you desperate to work out who has been murdered and why. The late, great, Agatha Christie herself would have loved to read this book I’m sure and I think the red herrings would have delighted her as much as they did me! Darkly compelling, with a setting to die for, this is one wedding that you won’t want to miss.

Highly recommended!

4.5 stars
This was an engrossing read with a variety of interesting characters. The story fluctuates between the day before the wedding and the wedding day itself. The story is told from the viewpoint of several different people. There are a mix of people from the ushers, who behave as though they are still in their public school days, to the bride, Julia, who is very driven and wants everything to be perfect. Julia had a very unsettled childhood and she fells resentful. Her sister, Olivia has some very definite problems that she needs help with coming to terms with her past. The back stories are given and these build up into possible perpetrators of the murder. I didn’t work out who this would be but it made for a fascinating read. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you loved The Hunting Party you will love this book too! They are in a way quite similar as in that they are both set in a remote location and the victim’s identity is concealed at first. However the characters themselves make this story stand out. Let’s just say that nearly all of them had flaws to a certain degree although some much worse than others. In this story you hear from a few different perspectives which really helps to give a more rounded feel while at the same time increasing the tension as secrets and lies are slowly but surely revealed.

There are quite a few threads within The Guest List and these weave quite a twisty story alternating between the past and present. I have to say that I did enjoy being kept in the dark about the victim as it helped to make me dig deeper into the story to try and piece it all together. The suspect list just seemed to get bigger and even though I had an inkling of how it would all turn out there were still a few surprises waiting to catch me out. The characters back stories teased me all the way through and I loved the way Lucy Foley deepened the mystery with every revelation.

Setting a book in a remote location is always going to be a hit with me! I love how it instantly adds a darker atmosphere as the characters are in close confines with no immediate escape. Then add in some destructive personalities and the tension is easily increased. I do have to mention the ending as I think it was perfectly voiced by one of the characters and I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I turned the final page!

Another cracker from Lucy Foley. I loved The Hunting Party and this second novel was just as brilliant.
The Guest List is another nod to the Agatha Christie style whodunnit. An atmospheric island, guests who could all be a suspect or victim, and page turning writing. My idea of a perfect read.
I did guess the twists in this one quicker than in The Hunting Party, but that in no way diluted the suspense.
Thanks Lucy Foley, HarperCollins, and Netgalley for this ARC.

If you like a murder mystery, this one's absolutely for you!

This novel was published yesterday, and I had high hopes, because I had loved Lucy Foley's first book, The Hunting Party. If anything, The Guest List is even better. Set on a remote island over the course of a rather upmarket wedding party, The Guest List is a Poirot-like country house mystery where everyone's a suspect and the real culprit is unexpectedly unmasked right at the very end.

What's so clever about this is the way the author unravels the backstory for each of the main players so gently throughout the course of the book. You're kept guessing with every turn of the page, anticipating some twists but definitely not others. I was absolutely riveted the whole way through, and - like The Hunting Party - the setting itself, the wild weather and astonishing scenery, becomes another of the characters alongside the different protagonists.

I could hardly believe it when I reached the end of the book, I wanted to go on reading it and follow the characters on beyond what happened on the Island.It's dark, twisty, hugely suspenseful and the very definition of a modern murder mystery. Totally loved it and don't want to say more about the plot because I don't want to spoil it! Enjoy...

Can't wait to see what she writes next.

And then the lights go out!

Six intense words that will plunge the reader into darkness and lead you to a climax that fits perfectly with the crashing waves and raging storm.

This is my first Lucy Foley novel (although The Hunting Party has just moved right up my TBR pile) and it certainly will not be my last.

It's Jules and Will's wedding day and their beautiful venue on a remote Irish island is all set for the big day.  But past secrets are about to resurface and haunt some guests and will change their lives forever.  The novel begins with the revelation that there is a dead body - rewind to the previous days and the introduction of the wedding party and guests arriving for the 'wedding of the year'.  Who has been murdered?  Who was the murderer?  What was their motive?  All will be revealed.        

The Guest List is a cross between a psychological thriller and a locked room mystery.  You spend the whole novel knowing something big is coming but being unsure of what it is.  Using short chapters and a variety of view points to tell the days leading up to the wedding, and some flashbacks is a genius device to keep the plot moving at an intense and compelling pace.  It's a fairly quick read and I devoured it from the first pages until the very end. 

The characters themselves are all varied and intriguing but not always likable. Written with real flaws, feelings and vulnerabilities some take more effort to like than others, and some I didn't like at all.  This made guessing along and predicting much harder than usual.  What I found really clever was how despite disliking a character, most managed to raise a huge amount of empathy from me as I was reading.

The setting was perfection - remote, full of mystery and local legends all just added to the intensity of the story telling.

A fantastic and compulsive thriller with an air of a locked room mystery.

I was really excited to be able to get the ARC for The Guest List after hearing all of the hype for Lucy Foley’s previous book ‘The Hunting Party’. The Guest List certainly did not disappoint – on a small, private island in the middle of a storm the stage is set for an elaborate and expensive wedding. The guests have arrived, the marquee is decorated and the mad partying has begun – but what secrets are being hidden?

I found The Guest List to be a really engaging and easy read (I finished it in a day!). I really enjoyed the changes in perspective per chapter of each guest which slowly revealed more about their backstories and pasts. There is a great mix of detailed characters and every chapter kept me hooked – there wasn’t a single person’s perspective I was less engaged with than the others which can sometimes happen in books like this. There were also chapters that jumped ahead in the timeline written from a standard perspective which kept the sense of foreboding high. Some of the ways the chapters tied together, particularly towards the end with the ‘then the lights went out’ theme was also really clever and a great use of the writing mechanic.

I was explaining the plot to my partner who has read The Hunting Party and he did remark how similar it sounded with a small cast of characters in a remote location with only a small pool of suspects or outcomes available. I think withholding the victim until the very end did help to alleviate the predictability of the plot but perhaps if you’ve read The Hunting Party then this one will have less of an impact for you.

Overall The Guest List is a well-constructed and fast paced thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins UK – HarperFiction for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that is hard to put down! Its a mystery, thriller who dunnit!
It is set on a remote island for the wedding of Jules and Will - stories and secrets of the guests and the happy couple are told flipping between the wedding night and before - each chapter leaves you wanting to read more. I was totally engrossed and stayed up to the early hours wanting to know who had died and who did it! I kept thinking I knew and then something changed and I was thrown ! Perfect holiday read.

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?

This is the second book I've read by this author and, as before, it's a slow burner to begin with, but it soon builds momentum and I actually read the last 81% of it in one day, I just didn't want to put it down. The story is told by each of the characters, chapter by chapter, alternating between two timelines, the lead up to the wedding day and on the wedding day. It's an exciting whodunnit in a beautiful setting, with the victim only being revealed right at the end and the build up to that point reveals why any one of the guests could be the murderer. This book is full of mystery, intrigue and secrets and just goes to show that you should keep your enemies close and your friends closer still, because you just never know who's really got your back! A great read that I would definitely recommend and I'm looking forward to reading more of Lucy's books.

I'd like to thank HarperCollins and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Guest List’ by Lucy Foley in exchange for an honest review

“All have a secret. All have a motive.
One guest won’t leave this wedding alive . . .”

On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather for the celebrity ‘wedding of the year’ between Jules Keegan, who runs a lifestyle magazine, and Will Slater, the star of a survival tv show.

As the above tag line indicates there are plenty of secrets and motives within the wedding party. As she did in ‘The Hunting Party’ Foley withholds the identity of the victim until quite late in the story.

The format moves between various characters’ perspectives in the run up to the wedding, including the Bride and Groom, Bridesmaid, Best Man, Wedding Planner and a Plus One, and the ‘Now’ when the wedding breakfast is interrupted by the news of a body, triggering a search party.

Lucy Foley knows this area of Ireland well and described it vividly.

This proved a satisfying whodunnit (and whogotdun) very much in the tradition of Agatha Christie with plenty of twists and red herrings and a claustrophobic setting. While incorporating aspects of classic Golden Age Murder mysteries, ‘The Guest List’ still has a very modern feel.

I expect that this will prove as popular or even more so than ‘The Hunting Party’.

Lucy Foley is one talented writer! From the beginning of The Guest List I was absolutely captivated. The little hints that Foley drop as the novel continues gave me so much intrigue that I was on tenterhooks the whole time I was reading and I had to know what was going on!

The Guest List is set on a remote island and Foley sets the scene perfectly. With Storm Dennis currently causing chaos in the UK, it added to the atmosphere and it was really easy to imagine the conditions in which the wedding takes place. I was transported to the island and I felt really involved in the plot as it unfolded.

Like The Hunting Party, The Guest List centres around a group of characters, most of whom are incredibly unlikeable. I really enjoyed delving into their pasts and getting to know their secrets. There are plenty of characters with motive for murder and I loved trying to put the pieces together in this fabulous book!

Huge thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things and publishers Harper Collins for the blogtour invite and my gifted copy of the superb thriller, 'The Guest List' by Lucy Foley. It is out wherever good books are sold, from the 20th February so what are you waiting for?!

The abandoned island of Inis an Amplora is the setting for Jules and Will's wedding-an exclusive guest list is narrowed down even further, to a very select few who will extend their stay in the refurbished folly. Told from multiple viewpoints in the now and just before the wedding of tv personality Will and journalist Jules, this promises to be an exclusive and intimate affair-just how intimate it will be is quickly revealed as tiny, teaser-y clues are dropped about things which are better not vocalised.

The isolated setting constrasts tonally with the incoming emotional and literal storm-the peat bog, abondoned island and superstitious mainlanders opinions follow the path of those who step foot off the boat. As the history of the island is revealed, the physical descriptions of the land paradoxically intensifies the whirling, freefalling emotions and reader theories about who ends up dead, and, of course, who done it. These theories whoop and soar like the comorants which foreshadow a tragedy as they have done throughout ancient history.

A wedding is one of the most stressful occasions that a couple can go through-under the microscope of public and private opinion, this is exactly the time when grievances are aired, secrets are dredged up (rather like the dismembered bodies, forever presrved in peat that the island holds close to its heart)and violence errupts.

A masterful tale of suspense, and timing, this novel has it all. An engaging mystery, a character study of a cast of individuals who are as memorable as in 'The Hunting Party',interweave with the now of the storm and the murer. Just as you are becoming engrossed in the story and getting to know the characters, a quick interlude to the now, yanks you out and reminds you that someone on the island is a killer.

And there is no immediate way of being rescued...

Secrets and lies spill forth as the ever desperate guests fling them out in protest at being trapped, the suspense builds to a crescendo, and a jaw dropping conculsion. A worthy and able successor to Agatha Christie, Lucy Foley has managed to construct a wonderfully contemporary thriller with all the ingredients of a Golden Age Of Detective Fiction classic!

I genuinely hope there will be more mysteries from Lucy, from the blogtour reviews and raves on social media, she will have a huge and engaged audience who will happily empty the shelves of their nearest bookshop in search of their next thrilling read!