Originally published: 20 February 2020

Author: Lucy Foley

Published by: HarperCollins

Genre: Thriller

Length: 320 pages

Reading dates: 29 February – 2 March 2020

Guests are called to a remote island off the Irish coast to celebrate the wedding of the year  – the marriage of Jules and Will. Everything has been meticulously planned, the scene is set, old friends are back  together.
It should be the perfect day.
Until the discovery of a body signals the perfect murder.
A groom with a secret.
A bridesmaid with a grudge.
A plus one with motive.
A best man with a past.
It could be any, it could be all . . . But one guest won’t make it out alive.

I was thrilled to receive a proof of The Guest List. The Hunting Party was very popular last year (I’m embarrassed to say it is still on my TBR).  The Guest List is set on a remote Irish island as wedding planner Aoife and her husband Freddie prepare for the society wedding of the year.  TV Personality Will and magazine editor Jules are the perfect couple – both good looking and ambitious.  The guests at the wedding include Jules’ half sister Olivia, Jules’ best friend Charlie and his wife Hannah and Will’s best man Johnno and his other school friends from their private school.

The book starts as a waitress stumbles across a dead body and then goes back in time to the hours before the wedding where we hear from each guest in turn.  Every guest has secrets and the story is cleverly interwoven to gradually reveal them, all with the reader knowing the story will end with murder!

The characters are all pretty horrible, especially the men who all went to boarding school together – they are privileged and are bullies.  Poor Olivia is suffering after a traumatic event, but Jules just wants her to pull herself together and not ruin the wedding day.  The only character I really liked was Hannah – she feels out of place with the wedding party.  Her husband Charlie becomes a different man when he is around the other guests and Hannah isn’t too keen on the friendship Charlie and Jules have.

A quick and snappy read, this was one of those books that is quick to whiz through. The chapters were short and really drew me into the story – this was one of those books I would pick up even if I only had a 5 minutes to read. The stormy isolated island led to a very atmospheric read. It kept me guessing right to the end – I was gripped!

After reading The Guest List, I am even more keen to pick up the Hunting Party and read it very soon!

Thank you to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to HarperCollins for sending me a proof! Today is the last day, but if you want to read more, take a look at the other great bloggers below.

About the author:

Lucy  Foley studied  English  Literature at Durham and UCL universities and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing  industry,  before leaving to write full-time.  The Hunting Party, an instant Sunday Times and Irish Times no.1 bestseller, was Lucy’s debut crime novel, inspired by a particularly remote spot in Scotland that fired her imagination.
Lucy is also the author of three historical novels, which have been translated into sixteen languages. Her journalism has appeared in ES Magazine, Sunday Times Style, Grazia  and more.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/lucyfoleytweets