Our host for this month is Brenda Hanson. Our book is "The Guest List: A Novel," by Lucy Foley.
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate a wonderful wedding. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine or a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every other detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bride’s oldest male friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?