The Guest List by Lucy Foley

It is rare that I stay up reading past 1:00 a.m. to finish a book, but that was the case with The Guest List. In the spirit of an Agatha Christie mystery, I just had to find out the ending and resolution. 

Set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, The Folly, a restored 15th century building is the site of the wedding of two prominent stars, Will, who has a Survival television show, and Jules, the publisher of a fashion magazine. The only access to the island is by boat. Their friends and relatives are gathering to celebrate the occasion and they provide the narrative. As in many Christie novels, it is a closed group of people who could possibly mastermind a murder. The island with its steep cliffs, haunting cemetery and cave is a character in itself. 

The novel begins the night of the wedding with the discovery of a blood-stained body. No clue is given as to who it is or who has committed the crime. The chapters are then flashbacks to the day before, the day of the wedding, and the wedding itself. Each player has his or her own perspective on the events and the background story. Jules finds a note, written anonymously,  that warns her not to marry Will because he is a cheat and liar. Olivia is the half sister,  Charlie is Jules' oldest friend, Hannah, Charlie's wife, is the Plus One, Johnno is Will's friend from boarding school and his best man and Aoife, the wedding planner. Each have his or her own secrets that all form part of the intriguing puzzle as to the victim and the murderer.

For the most part, this is the wedding from hell with copious amounts of alcohol and even some weed and cocaine. The groomsmen exhibit traits and actions that could really be characteristic of young boys despite them being in their thirties. There are tales of criminal acts at boarding school and horrible bullying at Will's stag party. It is also a story of addiction including self-harm, and alcoholism. Much of what motivates the characters is their familial relationships and the harm that has come to them.

Each player is developed by Foly and remains true to her depiction of them. The reader feels some degree of empathy, especially toward Hannah and Olivia,  but has a difficult time really liking many of the others. They seem to be self-serving, status-seeking, or even a bit vile. 

It was a suspenseful book that left the reader hurrying to get to the final chapters to have the criminal act revealed. Foley plants her clues with skill and after reflecting on all of them, the reader has clear understanding ast why and how the murder was committed, and wondering why no one had done it before. 

An Inside Job by Daniel Silva

An Inside Job is Daniel Silva's 25th novel in the Gabriel Allon series, which is a series that I absolutely love. Allon is a retired head of the  Israeli intelligence agency and is now working full time as an art restorer in Venice at the Tiepolo Restoration Company. He lives with his wife Chiara, owner of the Tiepola and their twins, Irene and Raphael. 

Despite retiring from the espionage business, he still finds himself in the midst of international crimes and misdemeanors! On his way home from his restoring of a Titian in a church in Venice, he sees a corpse floating in one of the canals. His investigative prowess aids in his learning that she was an art restoration specialist whose most recent place of employment was the Vatican Museum. The painting on which she had been working covered another painting that she believed had been painted by Leonardo DaVinci. Because Allon was close to the Pope, he called in those connections and flew to Rome only to find out that the painting in question had been stolen from the Vatican's collection. 

The crux of the novel is to find out who has stolen the painting, the theft of which has got to be an inside job. Allon relies on several of his compatriots to solve the crime, which goes deeper than the theft itself. Those implicated include members of the Camorra, a man impesonating a priest who has a close relationship to the Pope, and even a Cardinal. Using his skills as an expert restorer, Allon paints a new copy of the DaVinci and masterminds a heist of it to uncover the real culprits. In doing so, he calls on his associates from past novels, including Ingrid Johansen, a master computer hacker and thief, Martin Landesmann, and Veronica Marchese, director of the Tuscan Museum and a very close friend of the Pope. Also reappearing in the novel are Sarah Bancroft and Julian Isherwood who manage and own a London art gallery and Sarah's husband Christopher Keller, a former FBI operative. 

This latest novel in the Allon series was a super enjoyable read - as much a travelogue as a mystery or espionage narrative. The plot was crafted well and the characters, all 42 of them, had a critical role in the crime or its resolution. And now will wait until July for the next installment.