10 Books Like The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Looking for books like The Guest List? Check out this list of 10 thrillers below which will have you on the edge of your seat.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley was published back in February
2020, and became an instant bestseller. This book is everywhere - with over
250,000 reviews on Goodreads, if you haven't read it yourself, you're bound to
have seen book bloggers and bookstagrammers urging you to do so.
I'm a huge fan of thrillers, so I'm not too sure why it took
me so long to get around to reading this book - but I finally read it last
month and was not disappointed. I think what makes this book so popular is that
it perfectly blends the suspense of a typical psychological thriller with the
cozy, intimate setting of an Agatha Christie novel.
If you also read The Guest List, and are looking for similar
books - you've come to the right place! Check out this list of 10 thrillers
below which are just like it.
The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
"During the languid days of the Christmas break, a
group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year
together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation,
they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the
perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic
blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.
The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if
foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences
about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown
too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous
revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.
Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how
close is too close?"
This may seem like an obvious suggestion, but Lucy Foley's
first novel, The Hunting Party, was also a bestselling thriller. It's not quite
as hyped as The Guest List, but - not being able to get enough of Lucy Foley it
seems - I read it straight afterwards. Do I think it's as good as The Guest
List? Yes and no. It's a bit slower paced, but the ending was definitely more
of a shock to me. Is the hallmark of a good mystery not to keep you guessing
right till the very end? This book certainly meets that criteria.
The Turn of the Key - Ruth Ware
"When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for
something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a
live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan
Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart”
home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish
Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a
nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting
trial for murder.
Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain
the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the
constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning
technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off
at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a
far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview.
It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults
around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.
It was everything.
She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to
obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal.
She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least
not of murder. Which means someone else is."
This one is very similar in style to The Guest List, in
terms of its isolated setting. I remember being absolutely terrified when I
read this book, which is pretty rare and a testament to Ruth Ware's excellent
writing. The ending also comes out of nowhere - I loved it.
The Wife Upstairs - Rachel Hawkins
"Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane
is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of
McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one
will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side
tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is
her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester.
Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His
wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies
lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is
he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection
she’s always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is
increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a
rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern
lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win
Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up to her?"
Again, a thriller blended with that cozy domestic setting,
which simply serves to make it all the more eerie.
The Wrong Family - Tarryn Fisher
"Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.
Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie
and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect
life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks
in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.
Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the
retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in
peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling
conversation between Winnie and Nigel…
She shouldn’t get involved.
She really shouldn’t.
But this could be her chance to make a few things right.
Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own,
then you were wrong about her, too."
Last year, I read The Wives by Tarryn Fisher, and I really
enjoyed it - is there anything more unsettling than thrillers based around the
intimacy of family?
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
"Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous
painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand
house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable
areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot,
and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another
word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation,
turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures
the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art
skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and
spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a
long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her
to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a
twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to
consume him..."
Described as 'the perfect thriller', The Silent Patient will
keep you guessing until the very end. You will not be able to put this one
down!
The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell
"Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones
returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire
life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who
I am.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents,
but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks
of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions.
Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know
is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision
course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk
with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy
ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the
kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled
note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living
in a house with the darkest of secrets"
This is a thoroughly unsettling novel which you will be
unable to stop reading until you've uncovered the dark family secrets which lie
at the heart of the story.
Every Last Secret - A.R. Torre
"Cat Winthorpe has worked hard to get what she has: a
gorgeous home; social standing; and William, her successful, handsome husband.
Then a friendly new couple moves into the estate next door. While cautious, a
good neighbor like Cat greets them with open arms and warm hospitality.
Neena Ryder isn’t a fellow lady of leisure. A life coach
with off-the-rack dresses, personal issues, and a husband who hasn’t delivered,
she’s anxious to move up in the world. This beautiful new town is a step in the
right direction. It’s also making Neena aware of what she doesn’t have. Namely,
William. When Neena’s infatuation escalates into obsession, it’s just a matter
of eliminating a few obstacles to get the life she wants. The life next door.
As Neena’s secret fixation grows, so does her friendship
with Cat. But beneath their cordial interactions is a wealth of temptations,
secrets, and toxic jealousy. For both women, the desire for a perfect life can
turn perfectly dangerous."
This book was recently published in December 2020 and sounds
perfect for fans of 'what goes on behind closed doors' mysteries.
The Woman in the Window - A.J. Flynn
"Anna Fox lives
alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She
spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling
happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into
the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect
family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she
shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid
bare."
The Woman in the Window is a fast-paced thriller with an
unreliable narrator and a plot twist you won't see coming. If you haven't
already read this hugely popular thriller, and you enjoyed The Guest List, you
will definitely enjoy this.
The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
"When you read this book, you will make many
assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will
assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is
about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of
this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing."
Told through dual perspective, this dark and twisty story of
a not-so perfect marriage highlights that there's always two sides to every
story.
The Couple Next Door - Shari Lapena
"Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all--a loving relationship,
a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are
at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion
immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated
story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually
happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding
something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets,
secrets they've kept for years."
If you're a fan of
books based on the premise that appearances can be deceiving (and there's
certainly a fair share of that in The Guest List), this one's for you.
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