Author: Lucy Foley // Published: December 3, 2018
★★★
Everyone’s invited…everyone’s a suspect…
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?
DON’T BE LEFT OUT. JOIN THE PARTY NOW.
No one is more disappointed than I am that I didn’t love this book. This was my first by Lucy Foley and I really thought it would blow me away. To be completely honest I had wanted to start with The Guest List first but ended up settling for this one instead. When something is described as ‘reminiscent of Agatha Christie’ you know I’m there. This book however was missing something.
I never go into these books hoping I’ll like the main characters. I don’t usually but I feel like I disliked these characters a lot more than I normally would. Which would probably be the point. I’m usually okay with multiple points of view but I’ll be honest, I feel like they all blended together here. I feel like there wasn’t much to distinguish between them and I kept going back to the beginning of the chapter to double check which character I was reading from.
As for the plot twists, I might have guessed a few small points. I wasn’t really surprised by the ending but I can’t say I was expecting it either. I just found it a bit underwhelming. Especially since I was holding out for a big reveal at the end. As much as I was disappointed with this one I’m still planning on reading Lucy Foley’s other works. I’m hoping The Guest List will be what I’m looking for.
About the Author
I live in London, but love traveling – both in real life and on the page (hence the appearance of some far flung locations in my writing).
My latest novel is The Invitation – set in the film world of the 1950s, along the Italian Riviera.
My debut novel, The Book of Lost & Found, published in early 2015.
Have you read The Hunting Party?
The Perks of Being Noura 