Lucy Foley writes a great edge-of-your-seat thriller, and The Midnight Feast fits the bill. Set at a brand-new seaside resort in Dorset of England, this suspenseful novel had this reader guessing until the end.
Bella Springfield comes to the resort on her own, unlike most of the wealthy guests at the Manor, a posh spa-like getaway for the megarich. Saving up for months to attend, Bella has an ulterior motive for being there.
Locals don't like the place. Owned by Francesca Meadows who inherited the land and building from her wealthy grandparents, she has transformed it into the exclusive retreat. Francesca has also transformed herself. But Bella knows the evil Francesca is capable of.
Referred to by one of her employees as "that goopy yoga princess", Francesca fancies herself as a wellness guru. However, we soon learn of her phoniness, her narcissism, and her connection to a terrible thing that she was a part of as a teen which is what Bella came to address.
Told with an alternating timeline, the story goes between Bella's teenage experience in the area while on vacation at a nearby campground and the present when a dead body is discovered at the foot of the cliffs after a summer solstice party at the Manor. Locals and Manor staff-members hold secrets to the past that bring the story to a shocking and gratifying crescendo.
Sprinkled with creepy folklore of a strange group called "the birds", The Midnight Feast teeters on the edge of seeming like a dark fairy tale. One of Francesca's mantras is "we all contain multitudes", and this is illustrated many times over as characters reveal themselves to be someone unexpected. Definitely a slow burn, this one pays off as it comes to its climax. I give The Midnight Feast four stars out of five.
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