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.
A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF THE YEAR
“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?
Lucy Foley was suggested to me by a dear college friend (Thank you, Erika!), so I knew she’d be my next read. We find out pretty early on that there is something mysterious that happened while the guys were at boarding school together that may have included someone dying. It’s mysterious as to who or what throughout the book. We also find out that something happened with/to Charlie on the stag (bachelor party) that was pretty severe but no one will talk about it.
The narrators for this book are Aoife, Hannah, Charlie, Olivia, and Johnno. Each chapter of the book bounces between the perspective of each of these characters and between the present and past. At first, the sequencing irritated me, but when I got to the middle of the book, I absolutely loved it. There are some twists, folks, and I WAS HOOKED. The more I read, the easier and easier it is to guess the endings. This one surprised me, and because of that, I highly recommend. I am reading The Paris Apartment next, and I’m excited to see if that one lives up to Foley’s reputation.
Olivia – Julia’s bridesmaid and half sister (they share a mother), withdrawn and not at all happy to be at her sister’s wedding, recently had a traumatic breakup
Will – Julia’s groom, tv star
Julia (Jules) – Will’s bride, owns a magazine called “The Download”
Hannah – Charlie’s wife, feels like a fish out of water in the posh, expensive surroundings of the venue and the wedding guests, the “plus one”
Alice – Hannah’s older sister, commited suicide
Charlie – Hannah’s husband and Julia’s best friend and best man, MC for the wedding day/night
Aoife (pronounced EE-fa) – the wedding planner and owns the wedding venue property
Freddy – Aoife’s husband and resident chef on the property
Pete – groomsman, boarding school friend
Femmy – groomsman, boarding school friend
Duncan – groomsman, boarding school friend
Johnno – Will’s best man, became friends in boarding school, surley, brooding, forgot his suit for the wedding and borrows Will’s spare
Pretty Colors Unabridged 