The Guest List is Crawford's Books’ November Book Club pick. Then, you’ll wake up, realize you have been reading, and eagerly dive back into the story. Other mystery authors may have done this before, but Foley does it with such finesse that you don’t even realize you’re being sucked into the bog on this tiny, remote island in the middle of the Atlantic, thinking you’re hearing voices, until your head has slipped below the earth and you realize you should have called for help. Foley’s got you hook, line, and sinker with these two narrative devices. Along with having to deal with five unreliable narrators, you don’t learn who the victim is until the final pages of the story. Especially when you meet the other three. You start with the Plus One and are thinking, “Who cares? The wedding party didn’t even really invite you,” but Foley’s voice is so endearing that you are immediately taken with her. Mystery told by the criminal’s POV? How about five POVs where you don’t know who to trust? Red herrings? How about not know who the victim is until the end? The mystery unravels as told through five points of view: the Bride, the Maid of Honor, the Wedding Planner, the Best Man, and the Plus One.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley is her fifth standalone novel and could be best categorized as the little sibling Caper Mystery novel that never thought it was good enough and so it had do everything better.

Novels read in book club will fall into the following categories: Detective (crime is solved by a detective/police officer), Cozy (no violence), Caper (told from the criminal’s POV), and More (not strictly a mystery)! Mysteries will be reviewed based upon the crime taking place, the intrigue of the information that gets revealed, the relative success of red herrings, and the satisfaction of the ending. Welcome to another Crawford’s Mysteries and More! Book Club Novel Review.

Reviews of the guest list