Book Review | The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Title: The Guest List

Author: Lucy Foley

Pages: 336

Dates: 03/02/2023 - 11/02/2023

Genre: mystery, thriller

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Synopsis

Lucy Foley’s The Guest List is a whodunit thriller set on a remote island on the coast of Ireland. The story centres around the wedding of a celebrity power-couple and shows different point of views from the main characters in the story. At this wedding, there is a murder and throughout the story secrets are uncovered for clues on who had been murdered and who the murderer is.

Review

I chose to take this book with me on my trip to Fiji as a whodunnit thriller sounded like the perfect read whilst sipping cocktails and swimming at the resort pool.

If you’ve seen my previous posts and reviews on Agatha Christie and other mystery novels that I have read, you would know that I have a pretty high standard for whodunit thrillers. I like to be on the edge of my seat the entire time and to constantly be second-guessing my suspect list. The Guest List is an easy murder mystery to follow and will have you guessing throughout. I think my suspect list changed a few times throughout the story and the plot twist definitely caught me by surprise. Although I was quite intrigued from the beginning of the story, there were times where I felt it dragged and felt a little bored. I can’t exactly pinpoint the reason for this though. I think it may be the characters that made me lose a little interest- particularly Olivia the brides MOH and sister. In this story we see different POVs from the characters and learn a lot about their pasts and how they’re all connected. I think I grew to just really dislike Olivia because of this? Im not sure but found her chapters and Johnno’s extremely dragging and a little irritating. Not sure if this was done intentionally by the author or not, but either way I felt like I did a little eye-roll whenever these characters chapters popped up LOL.

In a murder mystery, especially a whodunit, I think the setting is extremely pivotal. I have to take my hat off to Lucy Foley for selecting a remote island in Ireland for the setting of this crime. I enjoyed the eeriness of the island and thought Foley had given a thorough description of it to really create a strong image in my mind when I was reading. I think the selection of the setting really complemented the storyline and made me, as a reader, feel the fear the characters were feeling throughout. Although these all ticked the correct boxes for a great whodunit, this book also had its flaws. The biggest letdown for me with this book would definitely be the ending. There was such a build up throughout the story of the murder mystery and trying to figure out who the murderer was and who was murdered that I felt the ending didn’t give that satisfying finish that you would get from a whodunit. I felt like there was something missing from the way the story ended and that it just ended so abruptly. The ending definitely didn’t reach the hype that was built throughout the story. I found this a little frustrating but is something I can kind of look past when rating this book as a whole. Overall, I still did enjoy this read and would still recommend it to a friend who wanted a contemporary whodunit thriller. Will I pick up another Lucy Foley book to read in the future? Yes, I think I will.

Hope you enjoyed my review!

Until next time,

Andrea.