The Guest List: The Biggest Crime Thriller of 2020 from The No.1 Bestselling Author of The Hunting Party

Nonsensical. The plot meanders. There’s too many red herrings and tricks. It all became a bit too dramatic and high stakes. The only character worth rooting for is the island the cast is on rather than the human characters themselves.

I love crime fiction and I have read a lot of it, but, dear God, this book is terrible. The characters were stereotypes and mostly unpleasant and I hoped that most of them would be bumped off. Towards the end of the book I just skimmed each page as it was so predictable and over written. Please people, buy a book by Sara Paretsky instead of this nonsense. Oh and I guessed the ending half-way through the book.

Intriguing and captivating. I think that some of the reviewers who gave this book one star may have bad intentions. Read it and judge for yourself. I thought it was great!

Whatever else this book may be – and it has its faults – it is a riveting page-turner. It almost demands to be read at one sitting. There may be few felicities of style, but the writing is strong and direct and admirably suited to its purpose.The situation is not original. Other thriller writers have gathered together a group of people in a remote situation, from which there is no release during the course of events. It is a variant on the closed room mysteries, so superbly exploited by Agatha Christie in particular. To invoke Agatha Christie is certainly not intended as any kind of criticism – rather the reverse.As with many similar suspense novels, the conflicts and the climax to which they lead are hidden in the past. In particular, lies the boys’ public school with its harsh regime and trials and bullying that were a feature of such institutions. That the ex-Headmaster is the father of the bride and the groom a past pupil, is central to all that happens. It is true that with few exceptions the characters are singularly unappealing, though they are sharply realised through for the most part their own words. It may be a cliché that binds them together but they are alive and individual enough to exercise a firm grip on our attention. A Society wedding is the main focus of the action, bolstered by evocative description of the hazardous landscape that surrounds the folly where the guests stay. Additional sources of interest are the couple who are the wedding’s organisers, the bride’s sister, in the role of bridesmaid, and the married couple Charles and Hannah, who stand largely apart from those whose backgrounds are rooted in their school experiences.This is not a great literary experience but it is an enthralling read, which I strongly recommend.

This is a proper page-turner and a great one to read when you're snug indoors with the wind howling outside.I wanted to read this book, because I liked the idea of the story of a murder during a wedding party on a remote island. The claustrophobic atmosphere creates a sense of mystery and menace, sustained throughout the book. There is a good mixture of characters, some detestable and some sympathetic. I must admit, at times I found myself thinking "do grown adults really behave like this at a wedding?" but maybe I've led a sheltered life...The short chapters meant that I read it fairly quickly, as I kept wanting "just one more chapter".Four stars well deserved for keeping me well entertained last weekend. Looking forward to more by this writer.

I felt all the way through after skipping half the book that I'd read this before the same idea for a book in numerous other books I have read over the years. Nothing stands out in this book it's boring too long and sadly not original the story line done so many times by other authors and it's so much the same as the hunting party. I did get to the end by skipping half the book and was not impressed at all.