Title: The Guest List

Author: Lucy Foley

Publisher: William Morrow 2020

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 320

Rating: /5 stars

Reading Challenges: Monthly Theme

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?

I borrowed this one from a friend in a BOTM exchange. I sped through this one in only two days, flipping the pages to see who was killed and who was the killer. This is a standard thriller where a murder happens but there are multiple suspects with various motives. I liked the shifting points of view to get the stories of the various guests. Foley slowly unravels motives for at least half of the characters in the story. We learn past mistakes and current secrets. By the second half of the book, I was speculating on the whos. I called who was murdered, but did not quite grasp the murderer until the reveal. And it’s a good one! Definitely an enjoyable murder mystery.

Next up on the TBR pile: