By Lucy Foley
This book is about a destination wedding weekend. The event occurs on a remote, unpopulated island off the coast of Ireland. Haunted and inhospitable to locals, Freddy and Aoife are determined to make it The wedding destination. Their first booking is The couple, Jules Keegan, internet influencer extraordinaire, and Will Slater, rugged reality TV star. But rather than the wedding being the pinnacle of the weekend, someone is murdered, and the suspects are the only other inhabitants: the wedding guests and party.
I like Foley’s style. She lets the reader wonder who the victim is for many pages while also providing us character insight into those involved. Jules takes controlling to new heights, and has a violent temper, while Will seems so handsome, charming, and charismatic, it defies reality. Is one of them the victim? The murderer? Their wedding party is also no picnic – the groomsmen are all emotionally immature and seem to be hiding a violent secret, while the bridesmaid, Jules’ sister, has a tenuous grip on sanity. Surely one of these is the victim, and is it more than one murderer? And so on we go, wondering which way is up and who survives.
There are Murder on the Orient Express vibes along with The Secret History. The ending is nuanced and satisfying, as the reader feels a wide range of emotions for each character as new layers and motivations are revealed. Sibling rivalry and relationships are key, including those friends we make that become like our siblings. Consequences and mental health are all slippery goals throughout the novel. As we are forced to examine sibling relationships, we cannot forget how parents shape their children, purposely and otherwise. Ultimately, scars from childhood seem to run the deepest.
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- Good mental workout, trying to figure out both victim and murderer and motive
- The reader learns so much about each character without feeling bogged down in details or flashbacks
- I feel like every Bridezilla deserves some part of her wedding to go awry, and my sentiment was rewarded
Cons
- I figured it out – I know I’m pretty fickle about this, sometimes it is a con and sometimes it is a pro – but I really wanted one more plot twist that left me dumbfounded
- The person arrested for the crime is not the person who committed it, and I can’t decide how I feel about that
- You will hate almost every one by the end of this book – very few good humans in this book. There should also be more divorce amongst them.