#BlogTour ‘The Guest List’ by Lucy Foley

About the book…

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the author of The Hunting Party.

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?

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!

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 is her 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 @lucyfoleytweets @annecater @HarperCollinsUK