An island several miles off the mainland. A group of people who are invited there for an event. The weather gets worse. A body (or more?) is found, and several people have a long history (and therefore a strong motive) with the murdered person.
Every mystery lover who comes across Lucy Foley’s The Guest List is bound to think of Agatha Christie, the doyenne of trapped-in-a-snowstorm/train/island mysteries. Foley’s is an updated, modern version, with dating apps, Tinder, revenge porn and suchlike making an appearance, but the underlying pattern is very Christie-like.
The event in this novel is a wedding. Jules, a control freak who runs an online magazine, has only known Will for a few months, but is madly in love. Will is an impossibly handsome and charming actor, star of a TV show called Survive the Night, where he is left tied up and blindfolded in a forest or tundra, and has to use his wits to make it out. (Of course, there is a TV crew busily filming his exploits, and apparently there are also stuntmen involved, but real-life Will still manages to exude athleticism and charisma.)
All the guests are anxious and insecure. Jules (‘The Bride’) has never found herself so in thrall to a man. Jules’ best friend is Charlie, who gets ‘weird and stiff’ when anyone mentions Will’s stag party that he had attended. Hannah (‘The Plus-One’), Charlie’s wife, is warm and motherly, but not at ease with the loss of self that comes with motherhood. Olivia (‘The Bridesmaid’), Jules’ half-sister, is a high-strung, silent, wraith who cuts herself. Johnno (‘The Best Man’), Will’s childhood friend, is unemployed and out of his element with the rest of the well-to-do attendees.
The exception is Aoife (‘The Wedding Planner’) who also owns and manages the island property where the wedding is held. She is calm, capable and organized.
A wedding day is a neat little parcel of time in which I can create something whole and perfect to be cherished for a lifetime, a pearl from a broken necklace.
Jules, Hannah, Olivia, Johnno and Aiofe each get chapters in their voice, so there are multiple points of view. In case you get them confused, Foley helpfully labels each chapter with the person’s name and title (‘The Bride’ etc),. Although many of the same incidents are referred to over and over again, Foley does a good job of building those incidents up with additional information each time. Everyone is in a state of high anxiety, so their voices do occasionally sound similar, but their pasts are different enough that it’s easy to keep track. The plot relies on a remarkable set of coincidences, but Foley explains them all quite logically.
And boy, does Foley like her Gothic. The creepy overtones of the island are laid on thick and strong. Some examples:
The idea is in my head now: long-buried corpses emerging from black earth.
On the crest of a hill rising up beyond the marquee is a bristle of dark shapes […] the strange, upright forms seem to be grave markers.
The chapel is beautiful, yes, but there’s definitely something tragic about its beauty, even slightly macabre. It stands out against the sky like a twisted, long-fingered hand, reaching up from the ground.
Tension builds up the night before. Then a waitress screams. People’s blood runs cold. A small crew walks out into the wild gale looking for the body…. you get the idea. It’s enough over the top that it never gets too harrowing (again, much like a Christie).
if you have a taste for the mildly Gothic, this is reasonable lightweight entertainment.
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