I will always recommend Lucy Foley books. Every. Single. Time. Yet again, this one made me gasp, yell, and cheer by the end.

The Midnight Feast is similar in tone to Lucy Foley’s other suspenseful books: beautifully creepy with a hint of what I like to call, “wait-a-second” suspense. This particular story is set in the naturally eerie cliffs of lower Great Britain, at the newly opening resort, “The Manor.” In true Foley fashion, the chapters alternate narrators, points of view, and timelines, leaving the reader to figure out who is who, who is hiding something, and who is dead. The story unfolds of the beautiful Francesca, the lady of the house, and the guests who are attending her opening night– some newly visiting and some bringing back buried secrets from the past. As the reader– and Francesca– start to realize who is who, strange things start to happen at The Manor, and those birds everyone keeps mentioning start to seem like less of a myth and more of an omen.

The pros: Lucy Foley has mastered twist endings. She never ceases to shock me in the last chapter of her books and then again on the last page: I like to call these “the decoy twist” and “the real twist.” The character revelations in this one are fantastic, right down to the last page, and because of the way the mystery of who has died is laid out, the reader is led to believe one of a dozen other red herrings before that final twist. It actually amazes me how frequently I am able to read her books and still be shocked by the next. While I did not love the plotline of the folklore surrounding the birds, they set the stage for a very satisfying girl-power moment at the end of the story, and they do lend themselves to the overall tone, which is wonderfully foggy.

The cons: This one is not an easy read. The writing is really lofty, and if you don’t pay attention, it’s easy to miss details between narrator shifts and timeline changes. Anyone who has read Lucy Foley will probably also agree that The Midnight Feast is very similar to The Guest List–enough so that if I’d read them back-to-back, I’d confuse the two. The entire concept of the  birds is a bit difficult to follow, given that it was meant to be confusing to the characters themselves.

I read this book with my book club, and the general consensus was that it was a fantastic book. We all tend to gravitate toward both suspense and female authors, so Lucy Foley will always be a go-to for myself and my circle. The Midnight Feast is a great option if you are looking for a book that will take you more than the weekend but less than a week to read, and you are looking for some suspenseful– but not scary– twist endings.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Book Club rating: 3.93 out of 5 stars

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