At a luxe wedding held on island off the coast of Ireland, the guests' resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. And then someone turns up dead.
Foley...outdoes herself again with this page-turning thriller; it's like experiencing Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None rolled into one ... The island and the ancient folly where the wedding party stays are themselves characters, adding to the feeling of almost supernatural mystery and the unease that something is lurking in the shadows and getting ready to strike ... Only a handful of thriller writers can accomplish what Foley does here: weave a complex plot from the perspectives of eight characters plus an omniscient narrator without causing confusion or reader exhaustion when the plot bounces from one person to the next. Fans of Christie, Louise Penny, and Ruth Rendell will absolutely love this book, which doesn't reveal its secrets until the very last page.
... a delicious blend of classic crime setup and wicked, sometimes truly nasty characters with a dramatic bent ... an ensemble cast of sinister figures, and Foley does a superb job fleshing out the backstories of numerous wedding-goers through a seamless use of alternating narrators ... For a book that is in many ways true 'popcorn reading,' The Guest List also has a surprising weight at its core. Much of The Guest List is spent reveling in the juicy drama and secrets of its cast of characters, but as readers explore those secrets, they will find that a number of these men and women are carrying with them heavy burdens. Much of this story is shiny, over-the-top glamour, but there are moments of real sorrow interwoven among the revelry. This is by no means a deeply twisted or disturbing book; it is hugely entertaining and a ton of fun to devour, a 'popcorn read' in every sense of the word.
At times the story threatens to overwhelm itself with a bit too much ominous darkness and 'anxious distraction,' but fans of the genre will enjoy the proceedings, imagining just how good that sumptuous wedding cake might have tasted.
