Old classmates, lovers and frenemies gather on a remote island for the wedding of Will and Jules, pseudo celebs whose swift romance has raised eyebrows. It’s the perfect Hitchcockian setup for this thriller by Lucy Foley.
Snappy pacing rules here, as Foley hops between the various first-person perspectives of the bride, the best man, the maid of honor, the plus-one and the wedding planner. Foley well-knows her characters and the universality of their sometimes not-so-attractive drives and instincts.
And, her descriptions of the Irish island were all-encompassing, the setting becoming a tricky and futile character of its own.
Save for pepperings of too-obvious exposition and predictability, “The Guest List” wonderfully stays steady with the surprises — Foley wringing every last drop of a twist out of this thriller.
This escapist novel was right up my alley. I gobbled it up in one weekend and will gladly check out anything else from the author.
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Title: “The Guest List”
Author: Lucy Foley
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 319
