I’m at a loss how to describe the plot of The Midnight Feast, the latest mystery suspense story by Lucy Foley, without giving away anything critical. It is dark, it is gothic, there is West Country paganism, teenage friendship, spite and a bit of romance set at an ultra-glamorous cliff-top hotel in Dorset which opens at midsummer. Told in three timelines. In 2025 as The Manor, described as ‘Soho Farmhouse meets Daylesford Organics,’ opens its doors to guests. At the same location fifteen years earlier when the house was occupied by a retired Government chief whip and his wife. And again in 2025, the day after the opening night party, billed as a midnight feast with mystery musical guests, art in the gardens and a Midsommar theme inspired by the folk horror film.
This is a clever thriller juggling timelines and character arcs, at the heart of which is a them v us dynamic between the house and the locals. People are not who they claim to be, the fun is working out who is who. Untangling the true identities of Francesca Meadows, hotel owner, her guest, staff and villagers is a continuing puzzle as I tried to connect the 2025 and 2010 storylines together. There are a lot of characters to keep track of.
During the summer solstice of 2010, a teenage girl on holiday with her family at a caravan park in Dorset meets a rich girl who is cooler and more confident than her and wants to be her friend. The events of that summer, romance, manipulation, bullying, drugs and death have repercussions on everyone there. The bird theme is a creepy folklore thing attributed to the local villagers, a kind of vigilante group who dress up in black bird costumes to impose justice on wrongdoers. On midsummer night, the birds come into their own.
Francesca the hotelier is a control-freak Goop-influenced woman who sells a lie; locally grown organic produce, for example, that is bought-in from London not grown locally or on the hotel’s organic veg plot. Her husband Owen is a fitness-obsessed architect responsible for developing the woodland retreat lodges, set in the hotel grounds. She doesn’t know he’s installed a tracker on her mobile phone, he doesn’t know she commissioned hidden cameras throughout the hotel. There are loads of secrets, over-the-top opulence, silliness and eerie things happening in the woods. And there is murder.
The hotel’s setting next to ancient woodland adds a gothic darkness to this thriller that is a welcome relief from the champagne, meditation and crystals. I found it a little slow at the beginning but once the guests arrive and the midnight feast approaches, the pace takes off.
An entertaining thriller which kept me guessing, it’s not just a whodunnit but who-was-it-done-to.

Click the title to read my reviews of these other novels by Lucy Foley:-
THE GUEST LIST
THE INVITATION
THE PARIS APARTMENT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘The Snakes’ by Sadie Jones
‘Summer House with Swimming Pool’ by Herman Koch

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#BookReview THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8o0 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-