Notes from the Shelf

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The Guest List by Lucy Foley is a 319-page locked-room murder mystery that takes place on a small island off the coast of Ireland. The story centers around the wedding of Julia (Jules) Keegan, publisher of a popular online magazine called The Download, and Will Slater, rising TV star for Survive the Night. What should be a happy celebration turns dark when a body is discovered.

There is the bride, Jules, who is a control freak that doesn’t tolerate deviations from her perfect plans.

There is the groom, Will, who maybe isn’t as perfect as he seems.

There is the bridesmaid, Olivia, who has a secret of her own that she’s been keeping from Jules.

There is the plus-one, Hannah, whose husband Charlie is Jules’s best friend; perhaps Charlie and Jules are too close sometimes.

There is the best man, Johno, who has a secret with Will that has bonded them for life and could ruin everything for Will if it were to be let out.

There is the wedding planner, Aoife, who, along with her husband Freddy, wants to put their abandoned family island back on the map.

The story jumps between the present when the body is found during the wedding night and the previous day leading up to the wedding, and each chapter is from a different character’s point of view. I liked that it kept skipping back and forth between the present and the past day. Each character has a secret motive for why maybe they would be the killer, and I liked how the story revealed these motivations slowly. I knew from the beginning who was dead, but I didn’t have the killer figured out until the end.

There were many moments in the book that creeped me out or gave me a physical reaction to what was going on. I feel bad for a lot of the characters, although I didn’t end up feeling back for the victim. I thought the tone of the book and the way the setting was described was perfect for a murder mystery.

There were some things I saw coming, but was totally shocked by other revelations. Some of the characters had surprising connections to one another, I guess in a similar way to The Orient Express. Overall, it was a fun read, I just wish the ending had a little bit more details on the aftermath of the murder.

It’s revealed about two-thirds of the way in who’s the victim, and then with only about 20 pages left it’s revealed who’s the killer, then an arrest is made once the police finally arrive, and all the characters go their separate ways without much added. I would’ve liked to see more of what they each thought about the whole thing after the fact and how their lives after are affected by it.

I give The Guest List 4 stars.

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