Sunday Times best selling author Lucy Foley follows the success of her debut crime novel, The Hunting Party, with The Guest List. The location this time is a remote island off the rugged west coast of Ireland, Foley having been inspired on a holiday to Connemara. The event is the wedding of a successful couple from London. Interspersed with the private school guests are Jonnho –the best man from a working class background; Olivia, the beautiful but troubled bridesmaid and sister-of-the-bride and Hannah, the seemingly sensible ‘normal’ one who always appears in control. The wedding planner, Aoife, has everything meticulously organised for a perfect day but when the weather changes the whole mood of the party takes a sinister turn.

Using a similar format to her previous novel Foley gradually reveals the diverse characters by moving back and fore in time and allowing them to tell their own backstories. The chapters are short with no words wasted in the text. However, in the style of a classic Agatha Christie mystery this contemporary psychological thriller holds the reader’s attention and keeps them guessing right to the end – not just to see who committed the crime but also to discover who doesn’t make it home alive…

Foley, who studied English literature and was a fiction editor before turning her talent to full time writing, loves travelling and describes the location for this novel in graphic detail giving the reader an eerie sense of foreboding right from the start. But, despite the mysterious backdrop the story at times appears a bit contrived, with perhaps just one coincidence too many. It will be interesting to see what comes next from this young author and whether or not she sticks with what she knows, and what is clearly a popular formula for her readers, or whether she ventures into something new.