MYSTERY

The Guest List

Morrow. May 2020. 320p. ISBN 9780062868930. $27.99. SUSPENSE
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Foley (The Hunting Party) outdoes herself again with this page-turning thriller; it’s like experiencing Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None rolled into one. A wedding taking place between an ambitious magazine publisher and a reality television star on an isolated island off the coast of Ireland, with friends and family in attendance. They all have secrets, and it only takes a few days of drinking games, isolation, and resentments to bring every murky feeling to the surface. The island and the ancient folly where the wedding party stays are themselves characters, adding to the feeling of almost supernatural mystery and the unease that something is lurking in the shadows and getting ready to strike.
VERDICT Only a handful of thriller writers can accomplish what Foley does here: weave a complex plot from the perspectives of eight characters plus an omniscient narrator without causing confusion or reader exhaustion when the plot bounces from one person to the next. Fans of Christie, Louise Penny, and Ruth Rendell will absolutely love this book, which doesn’t reveal its secrets until the very last page. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/19.]
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