The Writer Who Keeps Me Awake
It feels like reading is having a renaissance. I’ve always been a reader. I love escaping to different worlds or uncovering the truth in the mystery or hanging out with a fun and funny bunch of characters for a while. I’m not big into horror novels and I don’t really do non-fiction, the world is scary enough sometimes. But, there is one author who keeps me awake at night, but not out of fear, it is because I need to know what will happen next.
Lucy Foley novels may not be in line to win a Pulitzer, but they do keep me entertained and that’s one of the main reasons I read. I’ve read all of her mystery novels and I can’t wait for her next novel. Foley is a master at ending a chapter. She makes it so difficult to stop reading. It is one of those situations where you say just one more chapter, or just until I reach a stopping point and then you’re suddenly awoken when your kindle falls and hits you in the face.
The British author sets her novels in Europe, they’re all told from the point of view of several different characters. I love the point of view storytelling motif. You never know if you have a reliable narrator when the perspective continually changes. Who is seeing the story the “right way,” who is hiding and what is being hidden.
If you have a love of mysteries and have read a lot of books or seen a lot of movies in the genre you may figure out some of the “twists” in the novels as I did, but it still did not take away from the reading experience. I wasn’t sure I knew what was going to happen but I did have an idea. This goes back to the idea of the journey vs the destination, reading the novel was fun and exciting. Working and trying to figure out ‘whodunnit’ is part of the reading experience and while I could see some of the reveals coming there were others that I was not expecting. In one of her novels I thought there was a mistake, a typo, or perhaps a bad editor, turns out it was a clue as to what was actually happening and to part of the mystery.
It is fun little clues like that that make reading mysteries enjoyable.
I also love an audiobook. I really enjoyed the audiobook of The Paris Apartment as each point of view character was voiced by a different performer. It made the novel come alive in a way that may not have happened if I had just read it on my own. I love immersion reading (reading the book and listening to the audiobook simultaneously) and it really enhances my reading experience.
Foley’s novels are all individual stories and can be read in any order, they were released in the following order: The Hunting Party, The Guest List, The Paris Apartment, The Midnight Feast. You can find all of her work here or check out a local bookstore or your local library.
