Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley (2020)

Two minor celebrities are getting married on a solitary island off the coast of Ireland in the social event of the year. The groom is a handsome, charming, Henry Cavill/Bear Grylls/hypermasculine-type with a fawning posse of friends. The bride is a self-made entrepreneur who always needs to be the center of attention and has everything to prove. They are the perfect couple, and it is the perfect wedding. Then the body drops.

I found this to be a different type of mystery. It starts off the moment the body is discovered, then flashes back to the day before. We are introduced to five main characters through whom we watch the story play out. Each chapter switches between them to show their points of view. After a while, the story comes back to the present and continues where it left off. The book then switches between past and present for the rest of the story.

As the timelines get closer and closer, the chapters get shorter and shorter. The drama becomes more intense. Each of the main characters plays an important part in the wedding party, so they are all interconnected one way or another. As it goes on, secrets are revealed and motives are discovered.

Usually, I’m not a huge fan of the flashback/flashforward narrative style. I think it’s overused and boring. Here, Foley has taken a tired device and uses it effectively. The narrative is well-edited. The time jumps are well-placed to keep the reader interested and connected to the plot. Her skilled use of the time jumps makes this story work. In the end, I think this back-and-forth structure distracted me from the mystery.

After the Big Reveal, I was surprised I didn’t see it sooner. It’s actually obvious who it is if you really think about it — and is a neat reference to an old murder mystery trope. I can’t explain any further without spoiling the story, however. I will say that this book’s structure creates a nice rope-a-dope. The tension created by the converging timelines and revealed secrets diverted my attention. I found myself concentrating on the timelines and events that I didn’t see it coming. Nice.

I really liked this book. It’s a neat mystery. I will be reading more from Lucy Foley in the future.