Despite having multiple viewpoint characters (a practice I’m not usually fond of), Lucy Foley’s The Guest List is both absorbing and easy to read. It is definitely the sort of book where you should not read reviews ahead of time, as they are bound to spoil the suspense. The executive summary is that 150 guests are invited to a destination wedding on a remote island off Ireland’s west coast, and then… well, I can’t tell you what happens then, since of course it would give away what you’ll have to discover for yourself.

But I can tell you some bits and bobs. First, the characters. Since I hate crowds, I had thought of 150 guests as a huge wedding, but I’m told that in the upper crust it’s a tiny one. (You probably knew that.) Maybe eight or ten of these are presented in depth, often as chapter headings to clue you into who the viewpoint character is for that chapter. Other chapter headings clue you into the timeline. Between the two systems you can readily avoid being confused, since you always know who’s who and what’s when. (Not all the chapters are strictly chronological, so the timeline option helps a lot.) Anyhow, if you’re one of those readers who have trouble reading about characters you dislike, you may find yourself wanting not to be on this guest list, at least if you finding yourself “knowing” too many of those who are on it. The ushers, in particular, made me truly uncomfortable, as they all reminded me of the classmates that I most disliked at Andover. My discomfort was compounded by the fact that I dislike weddings and have been dragged to only six of them (including my own), so they are not associated in my mind with happy occasions, though all six managed to be murder-free.

The author is a master of setting and characterization, both of which are essential to the plot. Occasionally the foreshadowing can be a little heavy-handed, as in this paragraph:

It occurs to me it could conceivably be someone we know. It could even be someone who’s coming to this island today.

But even that bit of heavy-handedness can be forgiven, as it’s obvious from the start that anyone who has read any Agatha Christie will know that there must be a murderer in a group of wedding guests traveling to a remote island.

So I definitely recommend The Guest List, as long as you’re not on your way to a remote island in the storm-tossed Atlantic.

Categories: Books