The Guest List: A Novel

Lucy Foley

Jun 2020 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Jot Davies, Chloe Massey, Olivia Dowd, Aoife McMahon, Sarah Ovens, and Rich Keeble

About this audiobook

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“I loved this book. It gave me the same waves of happiness I get from curling up with a classic Christie...The alternating points of view keep you guessing, and guessing wrong.” — Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient

""Evok[es] the great Agatha Christie classics...Pay close attention to seemingly throwaway details about the characters’ pasts. They are all clues.” -- New York Times Book Review

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner  – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

Ratings and reviews

I agree with other reviews that the story is well written. I really enjoyed the way you got perspective from each character and that they used different voices for the audiobook. but I will say, it took me a LONG time to actually get into the "mystery" of it. I was about 65-70% through it before I felt it picked up and got more interesting. still overall a good book though.

Oh the unraveling! Great story that kept me interested from the start. I loved all the narrators and the different accents... it added so much more to the book.

4.5/5 best thriller I've read in a while. I love the way this book was written and how each chapter reveals more and more about each of the characters and from several different perspectives. It was fun to keep guessing who the killer was without even knowing who died til near the end!

About the author

Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry. She is the author of five novels including The Paris Apartment and The Guest List. She lives in London.