Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Trouble is afoot in the woods in Lucy Foley’s new thriller The Midnight Feast. A new resort has opened in the woods on Francesca’s family land. She intends to offer the highest class of treatments for her wealthy guests. I had found myself becoming drawn to resorts in my reading. This novel may have cured me. The locals are not impressed with Francesca’s offerings either. While she purports to be supporting local interests and businesses, she is instead importing goods and cutting off right of ways. Mysterious things begin to happen and everyone wonders if the ancient birds who are thought to be guardians of the woods are responsible. Echoes of Poe’s “The Raven” adds to the enigma..

With a wide cast of characters, Foley creates a layered and suspenseful mystery. Bella is a mysterious guest. Through her journal we find that she has had very close ties with Francesca and these woods in the past. Eddie is a local working as a dishwasher secretly as he thinks his family won’t approve. Francesca’s besotted husband has secrets of his own that seem to be catching up with him. Everyone seems to. Through this variety of narrators, Foley expertly illustrates how the sins and mistakes of the past can have profound impacts on the future. She plumbs the need for revenge and for reparation. The structure is complex as Foley manages different timelines. We know fairly quickly that someone has died and that the resort has burned. She tracks the progress of the day of those discoveries. She tracks the events leading up to the fateful night - through the different points of view of these characters. She uses a summer journal to explore events from years before - when Francesca and Bella were kids. I am as always fascinated at her ability to manage the complexity of the work - in such a way as to build suspense and keep me guessing. Throughout, she weaves the legends of the birds - who guard the land and exact justice - an excellent fantastical element.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who finds herself living in a nursing home at a fairly young age. She mentioned how often the older residents speak of their regrets - the relationships they would repair - the things they would do differently. In many respects Lucy Foley is focusing on these ideas in The Midnight Feast. Certainly the events and regrets - the need for revenge and change are much more intense as needed for such a successful thriller, but the needs seem very similar to me. I spend more time than I care to admit revisiting the past - considering what I might change if I could. While some reflection is productive and necessary, the danger of too much time spent there is clear. Foley captures well the horror that can happen if a balance between the two cannot be achieved. I think The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley coming on June 18 is my favorite of her works - a beautiful balance of entertaining thriller and insightful look at human nature.