The Guest List

The Guest List is a 2020 mystery novel by British author Lucy Foley. The story takes place at the wedding of Jules Keegan and Will Slater, which is being held on an island off the coast of Ireland. The plot has been compared to the works of Agatha Christie, as a murder occurs with limited suspects and each guest has a secret which will be revealed.

It was published in May 2020 by HarperCollins and on 2 June 2020 by William Morrow. It became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Washington Post bestseller, selling over a million copies in 30 territories. The novel was named one of the best thrillers of 2020 by The New York Times, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery and Thrillers.

Plot
Friends and family are invited to the wedding of Jules Keegan, a magazine editor, and Will Slater, the host of a popular survival reality show called "Survive the Night", which is taking place at an island off the coast of Ireland. The novel begins the night of the wedding, when a storm hits the island and causes a blackout; the lights come up to reveal that one waitress has found a dead body. Moving backward and forward through time, and cutting between the perspectives of various characters, the guests arrive on the island, which is owned by Aoife, a wedding planner, and her husband Freddy, a chef.

Hannah and her husband Charlie are guests of Jules, as Charlie is her childhood best friend, but Hannah is suspicious of how close the friends are and retreats to a cave, where she meets Jules's younger half sister, Olivia. The other guests include Will's best man, Johnno, and his ushers, Femi, Angus, Duncan, and Peter, who all attended the same boarding school. Each of the guests is hiding a secret, which is revealed throughout the course of the novel.

Background and publication
Lucy Foley published her previous thriller novel The Hunting Party in 2019, which was a bestseller. Foley originally intended to set the novel on a Greek island but while on Inishbofin, an island off Connemara in Ireland, she decided that it would be a better setting. Many reviews compared the novel to the works of Agatha Christie, particularly And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. Similar to Christie's works, Foley often writes closed circle mysteries, wherein the murderer cannot escape the scene of the crime and there are limited suspects.

The novel was published in May 2020 by HarperCollins and on 2 June 2020, by William Morrow. The audiobook was published by Harper Audio in 2020 and was voiced by an ensemble cast of Jot Davies, Chloe Massey, Olivia Dowd, Aoife McMahon, Sarah Ovens and Rich Keeble.

Reception
The Guest List received generally positive reviews, including a starred review from Library Journal. It became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Washington Post bestseller, selling over a million copies in 30 territories. The novel was named one of the best thrillers of 2020 by The New York Times, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery and Thrillers. It was chosen as a pick for Reese's Book Club. The audiobook was a 2021 Audies Finalist.

The Library Journal praised the setting and Foley's ability to navigate a complex plot with eight characters' perspectives. The plot was described by Marie Clarie as "enthralling", with Harper's Bazaar commenting that "Foley has honed her unique brand of reverse-whodunit suspense down to a science". However it received a mixed review from Publishers Weekly, which praised the setting but criticized the twists as not matching the novel's tone. Jane Murphy in a review for Booklist argued that the dark tension detracts from the novel in places but commented that the tone and plot will be enjoyed by fans of the genre. Good Housekeeping and The Washington Post praised the tension, which was described by the former as "building [...] to breaking point", and the atmosphere, including peat bogs, a mansion and caves.

Adaptation
On October 24, 2023, it was announced that Hulu will be adapting the novel into a television miniseries. Liz Tigelaar will be the executive producer as well as Lucy Foley.