Bestselling British thriller author Lucy Foley is back at it again with her recently published The Midnight Feast (available, literally, wherever books are sold).
You might know Foley from her last book The Paris Apartment or her previous locked room-esque entries, The Guest List and The Wedding Party. Her latest novel brings us once again to a location that feels a bit remote, even if not technically so. It's all about an exclusive seaside resort that's got the townies in a lather and a target on the back of the very Goop-y proprietor. But the owner of this resort has some serious skeletons in her closet and there's more than one person out for revenge. The story is told in many points of view and multiple timelines where we start with finding an unidentified body and spend the novel trying to figure out who got killed and whether the killer will get away with it.
Even though I've read all of Foley's books, I'm not her hugest fan. And, yet, I keep reading them, which has to tell you something about her writing. She truly is a capable writer and I think her biggest skill is instilling a sense of dread in the reader. I felt that sense of foreboding from the very first page all the way until I was about 70% through and the pacing picked up so much that I was almost entirely focused on the action and whether my predictions would come true. While it took me at least a third to really get into the book (newer authors rarely get that kind of leeway), it paid off. Once I was halfway in, I just kept on reading right on through to the end. So, that's another superpower she has.
I disliked some elements of the novel, however. Turning a happy children's song into something that was meant to be creepy just really didn't work for me. It wasn't scary, and seemed a bit odd. No spoilers here but elements of the final resolution felt anticlimactic and almost like a betrayal of the tension that had been built in the many preceding pages. And there were, in my opinion, too many points of view with some POV characters left a bit undeveloped.
If you liked Foley's prior novels, you know what you're in for and I think you'll be a fan of this one. If you didn't like the other ones, then why are you like me and keep reading them? And if you've never read one of Foley's books, but you are a fan of one of my favorites, Ruth Ware (especially, One by One), I say give The Midnight Feast a try and then let me know what you thought of it.
I got a copy of The Midnight Feast courtesy of Netgalley. If you're interested in checking it out, might I suggest seeing if your local library has a print or electronic copy?
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