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A wedding on an island off the west coast of Ireland, a storm that cuts it off from the mainland, and a body found before the night is out: that is the set-up of The Guest List (2020), the novel that sold more than a million copies in 30 territories and made Lucy Foley one of the best-known names in British crime fiction. She had worked as a fiction editor at Headline and Hodder & Stoughton, and began with three historical novels set in 1920s England, 1950s Italy and occupied Istanbul. In 2019 she turned to murder with The Hunting Party, and in 2026 the Christie estate gave her Miss Marple. This guide covers her eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 2015–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Lucy Foley has written eight novels: three historical novels (2015–2018), four standalone thrillers — The Hunting Party (2019), The Guest List (2020), The Paris Apartment (2022) and The Midnight Feast (2024) — and the Miss Marple novel Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026). Start with The Guest List; below is what each book is about and how they connect.
Where to Start with Lucy Foley
If you want her best-known thriller
→ The Guest List (2020) — the island wedding that sold more than a million copies.
If you want the book that started her crime career
→ The Hunting Party (2019) — old friends snowed in at a Highland lodge.
If you want Miss Marple
→ Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026) — her authorised continuation novel.
If you want her historical fiction
→ Last Letter from Istanbul (2018) — Istanbul under Allied occupation in 1921.
8 Lucy Foley Books, in Order
The Book of Lost and Found
Her debut moves between 1986 and the early twentieth century. Kate Darling, a 27-year-old photographer grieving her mother June, a celebrated ballerina, finds an old sketch of a dark-haired woman who looks like June, and follows it to Corsica and the elderly painter Thomas Stafford. His story, told in parallel, runs from a childhood friendship with Alice Eversley in Cornwall in 1913 to a 1928 house party and wartime France.
The Invitation
Rome, 1953. Hal, a struggling journalist, meets the guarded Stella at a party; a year later an Italian contessa invites him to report on a yacht voyage along the Italian coast to the Cannes film festival, with a film star, an ingénue and a reclusive director on board. Stella is among the passengers, and she has the most to hide.
Last Letter from Istanbul
Istanbul in 1921, under Allied occupation after the First World War. Nur, who sells embroidery to get by, is protecting a young boy with a dangerous secret when George Monroe, a British army medical officer, is billeted in her family’s house. It was her last historical novel before she moved to crime.
The Hunting Party
A group of old friends gather at an isolated hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands to see in the New Year; when snow cuts them off, one of them is found dead and another is the killer. Foley withholds who the victim is for much of the book. Her first crime novel, it was a Sunday Times number-one bestseller.
The Guest List
Jules Keegan and Will Slater marry on The Folly, a remote island off the coast of Ireland; a storm sets in, and a guest is killed before the night is over. The story is told by several of the guests and staff, each with a secret. It sold more than a million copies in 30 territories, won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and was a Reese’s Book Club pick; Hulu announced a television adaptation in 2023.
The Paris Apartment
Jess, broke and out of a job, arrives in Paris to stay with her half-brother Ben and finds his flat empty. The other residents of the building — among them a socialite, an alcoholic and the concierge — are unfriendly, and each knows something they are not telling. It reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
The Midnight Feast
Midsummer on the Dorset coast: Francesca Meadows opens The Manor, her family home turned luxury retreat, for its first weekend. As in her other thrillers, the celebration ends with a death and a cast of guests and staff who all have something to hide. It was chosen for Reese’s Book Club.
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel
An authorised Miss Marple continuation novel, published in September 2026. In the post-war years Miss Marple stays at a grand hotel in the Swiss Alps reached by a single mountain railway; among the guests are an actress, a politician and a doctor. A body is found, a blizzard cuts the hotel off, and she has to find the killer before they strike again. Foley had written a Marple short story, “Evil in Small Places”, for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (2022).
In What Order to Read Lucy Foley
None of Foley’s novels continue from one another, so you can read them in any order. The real division is between the three historical novels (2015–2018), which are love stories set against the twentieth century, and the four contemporary thrillers that followed from 2019, which all trap a group of people in one place with a killer among them.
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel stands slightly apart: it uses the same closed-circle shape but belongs to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, so it reads well after any of the thrillers, and after a Christie or two.
A reading path
1. The Guest List (2020)
2. The Hunting Party (2019)
3. The Paris Apartment (2022)
4. The Midnight Feast (2024)
5. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026)
Everything Else Lucy Foley Published
Beyond the 8 key books: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Short fiction
1
1 book · 2022
- 2022Evil in Small Placesa Miss Marple short story in the anthology Marple: Twelve New Mysteries
The years · 1986–2026
Quick facts about Lucy Foley
- Known for
- Lucy Foley is known for closed-circle murder mysteries in which a group of friends or guests is cut off in a remote place and the story is told by several of them.
- 1986
- Born in Sussex, England
- 2020
- The Guest List
- 2026
- Her Miss Marple novel
- Born
- 16 August 1986, Sussex, England
- Education
- English literature at Durham University and University College London
- Before writing
- Fiction editor at Headline and Hodder & Stoughton
- Debut
- The Book of Lost and Found (2015)
- Breakthrough
- The Guest List (2020), more than a million copies sold in 30 territories
- Award
- Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2020)
- Miss Marple
- Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026)
The red mark is 2020: The Guest List, the island-wedding murder that became her best-known book.
How Lucy Foley Writes: Everyone Is a Suspect
Foley’s thrillers share one structure: a small group of people in an isolated place — a Highland lodge in the snow, an island in a storm, a Paris apartment building, a Dorset retreat, an Alpine hotel in a blizzard — with a death among them. Writing about The Hunting Party for CrimeReads in 2019, she said she wanted “a modern Agatha Christie” and that “everyone should be a suspect”.
The stories are told in turn by several narrators, usually in the first person, each holding back something from the reader. She often moves between the hours before the crime and the time after it, and in The Hunting Party she keeps back even who has died; Harper’s Bazaar called the approach a “reverse-whodunit”.
Before crime she wrote three historical novels, and the period detail and dual timelines of those books carry over into the settings of the thrillers. Her years as a fiction editor at Headline and Hodder & Stoughton came before any of it; the Miss Marple commission in 2026 brought her back to the writer she had named as her model from the start.
Watch
Lucy Foley on writing her Miss Marple novel
In a short interview for Agatha Christie Ltd, Foley talks about writing Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, her Miss Marple continuation novel.
Frequently asked questions about Lucy Foley’s books
How many books has Lucy Foley written?
Eight novels: three historical novels (The Book of Lost and Found, The Invitation and Last Letter from Istanbul), four standalone thrillers, and the Miss Marple novel Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026). She has also written a Miss Marple short story, “Evil in Small Places” (2022).
What are Lucy Foley’s books in order?
The Book of Lost and Found (2015), The Invitation (2016), Last Letter from Istanbul (2018), The Hunting Party (2019), The Guest List (2020), The Paris Apartment (2022), The Midnight Feast (2024) and Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (2026).
Where should I start with Lucy Foley?
With The Guest List (2020), the island wedding murder that is the clearest example of how she builds a mystery. If you prefer to start where her crime writing began, read The Hunting Party (2019).
What is Lucy Foley’s most famous book?
The Guest List (2020). It sold more than a million copies in 30 territories, was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller.
Do Lucy Foley’s books need to be read in order?
No. Each of her novels is a standalone with its own characters, so you can start anywhere. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel features Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple but does not require you to have read Christie.
Is The Guest List being made into a TV series?
Yes. Hulu announced a television miniseries adaptation in October 2023, with Liz Tigelaar and Lucy Foley as executive producers.
What is Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel?
Foley’s Miss Marple continuation novel, published in September 2026 with the authorisation of the Christie estate. Miss Marple is a guest at a hotel in the Swiss Alps when a body is found and a blizzard cuts everyone off.
Has Lucy Foley won any awards?
The Guest List won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller and was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. It was also named one of the best thrillers of 2020 by The New York Times.
What did Lucy Foley write before thrillers?
Three historical novels: The Book of Lost and Found (2015), The Invitation (2016) and Last Letter from Istanbul (2018). Before that she worked as a fiction editor at Headline and Hodder & Stoughton.
Where is Lucy Foley from?
She was born on 16 August 1986 in Sussex, England, and studied English literature at Durham University and University College London.
Footnotes
- Lucy Foley — Wikipedia
- The Guest List — Wikipedia
- HarperCollins pre-empts Foley’s crime debut — The Bookseller, 2017
- Lucy Foley on Agatha Christie and locked-room mysteries — CrimeReads, 2019
- Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel: An Interview with Lucy Foley — Agatha Christie Ltd
- The Hunting Party — HarperCollins
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I wanted a modern Agatha Christie, and that desire led me to writing a thriller.”
— Lucy Foley, “On Agatha Christie and Locked-Room Mysteries”, CrimeReads (2019)
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