The bride manipulates her oldest friend and alienates his wife.

Her younger sister has left university mid-year, tries to avoid everyone and cuts herself where it won’t show. The bride’s parents are divorced, the father in his 5th marriage and neither parent had given her much attention growing up. Many were into drugs and used foul language, were verbally abusive to each other, were bullies, and the comparison (used in the book) to Lord of the Flies was all too apparent. Very few of the characters were likeable.

While this is an interesting departure from the usual mystery story, it took me a number of chapters before I decided whether I liked it or not. Instead, the secrets are uncovered slowly through the stories and observations of the narrators and eventually several members of the party are revealed to have reason to seek revenge for a past injury. There is no search for the killer, no following of clues, no uncovering of motives because while a body is found at the very beginning, the identity of the victim is not known until almost the end of the novel. It’s Hannah who walks the tightrope between all the tense relationships and tries to help Olivia, the bride’s half-sister and only bridesmaid in whom she recognizes warning signs of a disaster waiting to happen. It is carefully crafted, moving back and forth between the wedding day and the day before (though not in a confusing way as in some newer novels I can think of) and told by several members of the group of first arrivals: the bride, the groom, the bridesmaid (bride’s half-sister), the wedding planner, the best man (Johnno), and the wife of the bride’s oldest friend who’s referred to with the belittling phrase “the plus one”, Hannah. This is not your usual murder mystery nor is it told in a straightforward fashion. The bridal party arrives the day before but the story starts at the reception following the wedding with a waitress in shock after discovering a body. The groom, Will Slater, is the smooth, handsome star of an overnight adventure/ survival TV show. The bride, Jules Keegan, has a successful magazine start-up and the upscale image to go with it. The premise is an elite wedding in a remote setting, an island off the west coast of Ireland with a tragic history and an old castle referred to as The Folly. That’s where I first heard about this book and Lucy Foley, author of several books none of which I had read. It’s not very often I see books advertised on television but I guess coming up to Christmas it becomes the thing for some sellers/publishers to do. Today’s Monday Mystery is The Guest List.

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