This is the newest release from Lucy Foley. Of the books I have read previously, I disliked The Hunting Party, liked The Guest List and loved The Paris Apartment. The premise of this one sounded intriguing and I was excited to get stuck in.

Francesca has developed the site of The Manor into an exclusive, luxury countryside retreat. A Midnight Feast event is taking place for the opening weekend which is happening over the summer solstice.

The book opens with a body being found at the bottom of the nearby cliffs and Lucy Foley weaves the story of who has ended up there and reasons why. The book is told following a number of different perspectives of people connected to The Manor. It follows a present day timeline and one set 15 years earlier in 2010.

I loved the experience of reading this book. The setting on the Dorset coast was great and I loved the atmosphere. I thought the use of local folklore worked really well too. I particularly enjoyed the short chapters, which despite the initial slow build of the mystery, made it fly by. I did not see all of the twists coming, although clues were there and I thought the twists were really good.

I think this one of my favourite mysteries I have read this year and probably my favourite of the Lucy Foley books I’ve read to date. A great page-turner for the summer!

I am rating this book 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5 stars).

Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins UK, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

If you’re looking for a gripping page-turner for the summer holidays then look no further!! I was absolutely hooked and loved all the twists and turns to this new thriller from Lucy Foley.

Francesca Meadows has inherited her family’s vast property on the coast and turned it into the most luxurious and expensive holiday retreat with only the finest organic ingredients, exclusive treatments and signature scents! She is zen personified! On the outside at least…

When the mysterious Bella checks in for the opening weekend, and the undesirable locals start causing mayhem for being shut out of their own beach and woods, things begin to unravel for Francesca. And the truth behind what happened at The Manor 15 years ago is about due to be exposed…

I loved the fast pace of this excellent thriller - the viewpoints of multiple characters who were all not quite what they seemed. Francesca was great to read - from a hilarious caricature to a woman driven mad from anger and the need to survive and triumph over everyone. And the diary entries from that summer 15 years ago worked really well to slowly build up the picture of who Francesca really is and what has brought all these people from the past back together.

Some of the scenes with The Birds were totally terrifying and I never guessed what was going on. There were so many surprised and I loved how everything came together and was explained by the end. A really clever and entertaining read!

Another tremendous thriller from the excellent Lucy Foley. The idea of past events coming back to haunt people in the present is a common enough trope in crime fiction but it is handled here in a refreshing and enthralling way. The array of characters is fascinating, the secrets are revealed bit by bit and the final outcome is shocking! Great stuff.

This was an average thriller. I expect so much more from a Lucy Foley. Everything just felt a bit half arsed and not very fleshed out.

I have loved many a Lucy Foley but this one just missed the mark for me slightly. As always I loved the different character viewpoints and the changes in time and place but the referral to “the birds” just felt almost forced into the storyline.
The ending felt like it wrapped up a little quickly.
Not a bad one but not my fave of Lucy’s!
Thank you for the ARC copy.

Overall an enjoyable read with an interesting setting and cast of characters. There were moments that felt a little disjointed but it came together in the end

Lucy Foley’s best book since The Hunting Party. The atmosphere is off the charts! Loved the brilliant character of Francesca, and the setting is TOP. Reaffirming Lucy Foley as one of my favourite authors.

he Midnight Feast

I have loved Lucy Foley's previous thrillers so I had high hopes for her latest novel, The Midnight Feast, and I was not disappointed. Addictive, and sinister, you're in for a wild ride!

Set in midsummer, on the Dorset coast, with echoes of Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier, a luxury, exclusive hotel has its opening weekend. The perfect glamorous serene atmosphere is about to unravel.

Flitting between the past and the present, the characters who gather for the grand opening are not here for a relaxing time. Something sinister has happened in the creepy woods which surround the hotel, and memories, broken friendships, and bitter rivalry are waiting to be unearthed.

Twisty, gripping and eerie. I was unable to put this book down as I wanted to know where the story was going to head.

Lucy Foley explores local folklore, the power between classes, the push and pull between tradition and progress. Fans of The White Lotus, Murder at the End of the World will love this book, and the way rich people and their problems face their comeuppance.

This is a great summer read, and will keep you on your toes.

Thank you netgalley for the ebook copy of this book!

𝟓 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 *ੈ✩‧₊˚
This book was so well written! It was so hard to put down, between the mystery of the birds and the body at the bottom of the cliff I was dying to know how this all played out. I love the way Lucy Foley is able to create stories and characters with so much interwoven backstories and history and she’s still able to tie everything back so perfectly. I couldn’t stop coming up with my own theories while reading and honestly was really impressed with the ending although a bit sad that it did end lol.

All the characters were distinctive from the next and honestly all really interesting if not strangely likeable. I’m a huge sucker for complex characters and character development and this book had both!

My new favourite Foley!

I really loved the premise of this one. A staple of Lucy Foley's writing is her dark, almost oppressive atmospheres, and The Midnight Feast certainly didn't disappoint in this aspect. The woods themselves felt like another character, forming an intrinsic part of the narrative, and I think this is a real strength of Foley's writing. The superstitions and small town aspect enhanced and elevated the setting, but it also gave the writing an almost supernatural element, which I found to be really gripping.

It's refreshing that Foley doesn't shy away from making her characters as dislikable as possible, especially ones that have zero redeeming features. The narrative voices of each character were all so distinct, which I think is a bonus when it comes to a thriller.

For me, the ending was perhaps a little too neat, but it also shows how clever her writing is because I did not see the final reveal coming AT ALL. I've always liked how Foley structures her books, but I feel that this was very well plotted and structured as the different timelines and perspectives came together seamlessly.

Gripping, thrilling, and a fantastic read!

Lucy is fast becoming one of my favourite thriller authors so I had to request this one.

Costal setting. A party. An unsolved crime. Lots of locals and a disturbing folklore. A recipe for a very complex and interesting story.

The hotel has just reopened. It’s very expensive and brings a lot of posh people down from London. The locals don’t like it. The locals have secrets that they want to keep. What did happen to the old man in the woods? None of your business.

The owner is peace and serenity. Her husband is quiet and happy to be there. Or so it seems.

There’s a lone guest who has arrived. She’s at a couples retreat on her own. Fair enough. But she has questions. Lots of questions.

Who really are these people? What really happened all those years ago?

Told from multiple points of view and from both the past and the present, this will keep you guessing until the end.

This psychological drama is set around a new luxury retreat hotel in Dorset. Told in many points of view and flipping between timeliness, the tale is told. As the chapters are short, you don't get confused with who is speaking and the use of a diary works well to reveal the back story.
Add in a local legend, and we begin to see how no=one is quite what they seemed.
A real plausible page turner, meticulously plotted to create atmosphere and tension with a satisfying twist at the end.

Having enjoyed Lucy Foleys previous books I think this is her best one yet! The story starts off slowly but soon draws you in with plenty of intrigue, lots of twists with some creepy folklore thrown into the mix for good measure. No-one is who they might at first seem and there’s plenty of tongue-in-cheek references to influencer “gurus” which made me chuckle.. The plot was incredibly well thought out and everything comes together in the end in a brilliant way. This is definitely a top-class page-turner and a perfect summer read. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST

Lucy Foley

"I refuse to be punished for something that happened so long ago."

-super short chapters and multiple POV made this one fast-paced and captivating
-it reminded me simultaneously of The Club (by Ellery Lloyd), Nine Perfect Strangers (by Liane Moriarty) and The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening (starring Moira Rose) ... 👀👀👀
-if you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise - I'll never think of Teddy Bears' Picnic the same way again!
-could have been more single-minded and definitely twistier, it got a little confusing and lost its punchiness by trying to do too much IMO
-regardless, Lucy Foley fans will adore this!

⭐⭐⭐

"I always did love sneaking out at midnight as a youth. There’s something so alive about this hour: magical and elemental. As though anything could happen."

"Because when you’ve behaved for this long, it feels so good to be a little bad."

Big thanks to Netgalley for an advanced digital copy

I enjoyed this book. I am a fan of Lucy Foley and this book did not disappoint. I enjoyed the different POVs and the connections between them. I liked the twists and turns of the well thought out plot and the ending was shocking but excellent!

The Midnight Feast is the third novel I’ve read by Lucy Foley and it was another enjoyable murder mystery thriller!

Set in a coastal countryside retreat named The Manor, the reader is introduced to a number of characters who are either guests or part of the running of the retreat. While the retreat feels luxurious, there is a darkness within the adjacent woods…

The multiple points of view narration works well to uncover each character’s personality and allows the reader to hear their thoughts and their motives. Foley uses the narrative to skilfully weave together the story and the group of characters by gradually revealing historic details and secrets. I felt the story had a slow start, but the suspense and eeriness maintained throughout the novel paired with the uniqueness of the story did grip my attention after the first quarter.

As the storyline approached its conclusion there were one too many coincidences for me when it came to the twists, but overall it’s a brilliant atmospheric mystery.

Many thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

The settings have played starring roles in this British thriller writer’s books – she’s taken us to Paris, the Scottish Highlands, an Irish island – and in her new book we are off to the cliffs on the Dorset coast for the opening weekend of a new country estate/wellness retreat called The Manor.
The owner is the mysterious and ethereal Francesca who gives off an air of Gwyneth Paltrow and her Goop wellness brand as she floats through The Manor checking in with staff (she’s made sure to memorise all their names), no expense has been spared and everything must be perfect.
But this is a thriller, and a good one, so it starts with the discovery of an unidentified body at the bottom of the cliff and The Manor is on fire.
The story moves through three timelines, 15 years ago when Francesca was a teen, the lead-up to the much-anticipated alfresco midnight feast to mark The Manor’s opening and celebrate the solstice and the present with the police investigation.
Francesca has angered the nearby rural community, refusing to hire locals who don’t fit in with her Instagram-perfect look for The Manor, cutting off their access to the centuries-old woods and co-opting some of their folklore for her “pagan chic” feast.
It’s all deliciously creepy and intriguing as we get to the bottom of the death and the fire.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley

This was incredible - I’ve been recommending it to everyone. A 5/5 read for sure!

Lucy Foley has created such a perfect atmospheric thriller, I loved the midsommer-esque setting, the characters were extremely well developed and there were twists after twists to keep me engaged.

I can definitely see this being in my top 5 books of 2024!

A new hotel/wellness retreat is being opened in what used to be the Manor. Francesca Meadows returns to her grandparents home as the owner and almost priestess like hostess for the opening at the Solstice weekend but other people from her past are returning as well. This was a really fun read, well constructed (multiple narrators, jumps in timeline, also teenage journal entries) to tell a complicated story but it worked for me. Francesca’s persona reminded me of Nicole Kidmans character in Nine Perfect Strangers, the same fakeness. The local legends of the Birds was a great inclusion, I particularly liked the final sentence!

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

I started this book in bed at night, which turned out to be a big mistake because I didn’t want to go to sleep once I’d started. We’re introduced to the village of Tome (pronounced ‘tomb’ by the locals just to add a sense of foreboding) and the new wellness retreat created there by Francesca Woodland who inherited The Manor and it’s land from her grandfather. Her husband Owen is the architect on the project and has created woodland ‘hutches’ for guests, featuring outdoor showers and luxurious linens. The Manor itself is the central hub where there are classes in meditation and yoga, with a spa that has reiki alongside all the usual treatments. The opening weekend looms and while there’s a hint of anxiety around the building of the tree houses, Fran is sure she has everything under control. On the final night of the stay she has planned a mini-festival with live music, a meal out in the woods and strange wooden sculptures. Every guest must wear a crown fashioned from twigs creating the look and feel of a pagan celebration. While the music is at it’s loudest she has given Owen the go ahead to start digging the foundations for the tree houses, in the hope the music drowns out the noise. However, that’s not the only problem on the horizon. In order to build the houses, they must take down some of the ancient trees and when Owen arrives the workmen are confused by the new symbols on the trees. They look like seagulls in flight. By the morning there’s a burned effigy and a body on the beach, a wrecked Aston Martin with blood inside and the manor hiss been rased to the ground by a ferocious fire. It looks like the midnight feast was a rather Bacchanalian event, with discarded drink bottles, feathers and clothes littering the ground, but something went badly awry. Everyone in Tome knows the local saying- ‘Don’t disturb the birds’. Could Francesca’s dream be over when it had only just begun?

The book starts with the aftermath, but there are two more timelines: twenty years ago when Francesca was a teenager living at the manor with her grandparents and twin brothers, then the beginning of the weekend leading up to the feast. This multi-layered effect is multiplied with several narrators - Bella who is befriended by a young Francesca and later is a mystery guest at The Manor’s opening weekend; Owen who is Francesca’s husband but also hides a secret past; a young man called Eddie who is the retreat’s kitchen help and Francesca, the founder. It seemed like a lot of perspectives and timelines at first but the author is very skilled at creating distinctive characters so I soon got to know them and I didn’t feel lost. Francesca radiates a sense of calm and purity. However, like many people who put up a facade like this, it’s only so long before they blow and I was waiting for that moment. Bella is very secretive, realising she isn’t The Manor’s target demographic she’s worried she might stand out. Owen is very successful architect, wealthy and absolutely in love with Francesca, but seems to know a lot about local folklore and knows his way to a secret beach. Eddie, who I was rather fond of, lives in the shadow of his older brother who went missing years ago after becoming an addict. He lives at home with his parents on the family farm and feels his father’s despair that the son who loved working the farm is gone. Eddie wants something different, but given his parent’s disapproval of the retreat, he hides his job there and is hoping to work up the organisation. Finally there’s the DI on the case, who is trying to piece together the night before and recovering a body from the beach, while the only witness to the death is an elderly man who keeps going on about giant birds, as big as a human.

There’s a sinister ‘them and us’ feel to this novel, a distinction that’s in one way about class and in another way about belonging. Locals are different from tourists, but even though Francesca is local she comes from the big house, and can’t be one of them. Bella’s mother scolds her for spending her summer up at the manor and wishes she would make more friends from the village. Those at the big house don’t understand the village ways. When Bella bumps into a good-looking surfer down on the secret beach there’s an instant attraction, but when she takes him to the manor Francesca and her brothers tease him as if he’s a yokel. Bella starts to wonder where she fits in at all. There are those who have transcended where they came from, but the transformation was painful and has left it’s scars. I could sense a lot of references, such as The Wicker Man and Midsommer where a seemingly pastoral and innocent celebration slowly builds towards violence. The note left for Francesca, the marked trees and the chicken nailed to her door could have been someone disgruntled with the retreat, but it felt more personal. Francesca struck me as a powder keg. When younger, she appears to have very little empathy, especially for those she views as beneath her. Her brothers have a similar outlook, convinced they can do whatever they like to the locals and it will be swept up by the family as if it never happened. Francesca was like a cat playing with a mouse and the pleasure she got from hurting others gave the impression of a psychopath in the making. Then at the opening weekend, the local kids make their protest felt by pelting the pool with stones and building fires on the section of the beach reserved for guests only. They have bigger plans too, but they’re saving them all for the night of the Midnight Feast.

Bella wants her revenge to be more permanent than a simple disturbance and she’s determined. With bleached, short hair she’s not easily recognisable as the girl she was and manages to be under the radar. When she first sees Eddie she’s taken aback, he looks so much like someone she used to know. Is she seeing ghosts everywhere? She is psychologically haunted by what happened all those years ago at another midnight feast and she’s appalled by Francesca’s decision to name the event after their final night as friends. Bella wants to make sure that the perfect, pious Sunday supplement Francesca is shown up for who she really is. By this time I was desperate for her to get her comeuppance to as we slowly see the consequences of that night long ago spreading into several local families. Each one has their own grudge: a father who’s been drinking ever since; a baby growing up without it’s mum; a young man with an addiction so strong he’s willing to lie and steal. Yet Francesca and her twin brothers are still rich, successful and as insufferable as ever. So it isn’t just our narrators who have reason to hate The Manor and some of them exact their revenge in amusing ways, while others want to end the retreat and Francesca for good. I loved the folk ritual element, reminiscent of Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home mixed with a dose of Hitchcock’s killer birds. They are the size of a human, covered in black feathers and under their cloak is the huge beak. The villagers take them seriously, even the contractors who turn up to remove the trees don’t want to mess with those marked by the birds, they’d rather give the money back. Are the birds a simple folk tale that keeps Tome safe or are they real? Tome’s forest and it’s beaches are for the villagers and not to be fenced off for the use of rich visitors. As we countdown to what happened on the big night, two parties twenty years apart reveal their secrets and the birds will have their final say. The ending is terrifyingly final for some, while others will wake up hungover and wondering what exactly they witnessed. As for me, the final page reveal really made me smile.