The Guest List by Lucy Foley

 

I read The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley earlier this year and was sort of meh about it, but a lot of people have suggested that The Guest List is a better book from Foley, so I put it on my hold list at the library and waited for months for it to come in.  Months, I say! Well, do you think the wait was worth it?

The Good: Foley can make a creepy setting. It felt claustrophobic, that cold Irish island, far away from "real" society. I felt the dampness in my bones. I also could visualize the rustic beauty of the landscape and the ruins.  Foley's descriptions lend so much to the whole spooky vibe of the thing.

She also did a great job of slowly building suspense. Much like in The Guest List, you don't actually know who the victim is until late in the book.  If you're a fan of a gradual buildup, you'll really like this. If you want more of a procedural whodunit, this won't be for you. It's much more of a psychological whodunit. 

The Bad: There are a couple of big plot holes.  One involves people who should have been at the same place and, based on that, known their relationship to another person. Instead, Foley just ignores that these characters were at the same place. There's also another plot hole about a surprise invitation that drove me crazy. Anyway, if you can ignore that the plot in a very plot-driven novel is not well executed, you're a better person than I am.

Overall take: I think Lucy Foley is not the writer for me. I like a mystery novel as much as the next girl, but there's something about her writing that feels a bit cold and distanced from the reader. I know this book was popular and I can see why because things got insane in the last chapters of the book, but I don't think I'll be reading any more from this author.