I’d say Lucy Foley is one of our best contemporary authors.

Skillful.

For me this book was very good, but not “great“.

Most people consider The Guest List (2020) to be better.

She’s moved from historical fiction to “mysteries” over her career.

Midnight Feast is her 2024 book.

It’s the opening night of The Manor, the newest and hottest luxury resort, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And it’s not too long before the local police are called. …

This story is told over 3 time frames, yet isn’t confusing. She did that well.

Chapters are told from the first person point of view of a number of characters. This worked, keeping a somewhat complicated plot from getting mixed up.

It includes (possibly) a supernatural element. Also good.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The most recent (2023), as I post, in the Ruth Galloway series. Set during Covid.

Quite good.

Some issues are finally resolved in the complicated life of Ruth.

When builders renovating a café in find a human skeleton behind a wall, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the nearby University of North Norfolk.  …

Ruth sees at once that the bones are modern. They are identified as the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor. Suspicion falls on him and also on another course member – Ruth’s friend Cathbad, who is still frail following his near death from Covid.

… just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. Was it guilt that led him to flee?

EllyGriffiths.com

The 6th book in the Virgil Flowers series ➙ Mad River.

Not one of the best — but I did appreciate the ending.

Jimmy Sharp, Becky Welsh, Tom McCall. They were Bonnie and Clyde, they thought, and what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.

The first person they killed was a girl, during a robbery. The second was a man whose car they needed. The third and fourth, well, those were personal. Then, hell, why not keep on going?

As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But something doesn’t feel quite right to him about the whole thing. The kids, the victims, the people chasing them — something’s off.