The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

EXCERPT: I have a darkness within me, a violent darkness that I have kept at bay for so long: an inky bottomless well of it like crude oil buried deep, deep beneath the ground. I close my eyes and inhale the smell of burning wood and feathers from the beach and I smile.

ABOUT ‘THE MIDNIGHT FEAST’: Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin…

Midsummer, the Dorset coast

In the shadows of an ancient wood, guests gather for the opening weekend of The Manor: a beautiful new countryside retreat.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. And the candles have barely been lit for a solstice supper when the body is found.

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at…

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST.

MY THOUGHTS: I wanted to like The Midnight Feast more than I did. I did love the final 20% which I just raced through but I felt vaguely irritated by the rest of the book.

The story is told from five points of view: Francesca – the owner of the Manor; Owen – her architect husband; Bella – the guest in Woodlands Hutch #11; Eddie – a local, the dishwasher and aspiring bartender; and Detective Walker – SIO on the case. The storyline unravels over two timelines, 2010 when the characters were teenagers, and the current day.

Eddie was definitely my favorite character. He was likeable, honest and unpretentious. He has a dysfunctional family background and is torn between his allegiance to the locals and his own aspirations.

Detective Walker comes a close second. Although, I’m not really sure how Detective Walker got called in on this case. It wasn’t a cold case, which is his forte.

I liked the (basic) plot – it had good bones.

I really disliked the bacchanalian excesses – it just killed this read for me. Also, I’m not sure why the characters took so long to recognise one another.

I could not understand why Sparrow kept returning to Frankie’s house when it is perfectly clear that Frankie is a manipulative bully, and her brothers are sexual predators. Why would she even think of going back?

The black feathers were a nice, slightly creepy touch, but much more could have been made of this aspect. I wanted more creepy. Subtle creepy. Spine tingling creepy. There was definitely the scope for it. I liked the nod to Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds, which I read again recently.

Although I did love the final 20%, especially that final paragraph, overall I was left feeling vaguely disgruntled.

I usually love Lucy Foley’s books and I am not quite sure what went wrong here but The Midnight Feast was only just an okay read for me. Will that stop me reading more from this author? – that’s a definite NO. I’ll be at the front of the line for her next offering.

⭐⭐⭐

#NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: I came to writing through a love of reading — I previously worked with books as a fiction editor, a literary agent’s assistant, a bookseller and a literary scout!

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.