My first foray into Foley !
An engaging murder mystery.
A two-day celebrity wedding extravaganza is to take place on a tiny, uninhabited, windy island off the windswept west coast of Ireland. The last surviving islanders had moved to the mainland long, long ago. Abandoned, soulless, buffeted harshly by the elements of nature, the land is mostly dark hilly crags, rocky cliffs with caves, rifts, and woods in its entire two-mile length, from end to end. The flatlands are largely marshy with suppurating bogs fed by the sea, an overpowering stench of rotting vegetation hovers menacingly over it ; to add to its sinister isolation a choppy, treacherous sea separates it from the shores of mainland. The spooky desolation is further exacerbated by its evil reputation. Legend has it that the original inhabitants were brutally killed by invaders and the bodies either swallowed up by the bogs or thrown into caves. Their ghosts now haunt the island. All of it makes for an irresistible backdrop for a thrilling, chilling murder mystery.
On an upland in this island lies an ancient castle in ruins, Folly, with dilapidated outhouses. Aoife and her husband, Freddy, had bought the property and after due renovation now run it as an exotic resort. A heavy discount , bride’s Irish ancestry and the free publicity accruing from a bold, unconventional glamorous wedding venue tipped the scales for Folly. Guests will stay there and the festivities held in specially erected massive marquee on the Folly grounds.
A privileged few , mostly groom's school buddies and intimate friends and step-sister of the bride, arrive on the penultimate day for an early start to the wedding carousal. All goes to plan except that a storm brews up on the wedding night bringing in its train a sweeping, whistling gale that shakes the very foundations of the marquee while festivities are in full swing.
The lights flicker ,go out ,and come back again. It's midway in the narrative. Then murder happens. The reader is left free to figure out to the very end ‘whodunnit’ and to ‘whom’. That’s a truly creative twist. It, however, ‘uncooks’ the meat of suspense and sinister drama somewhat, I feel.
The story format is non-linear. Each chapter is a time bubble of one of the six main characters capturing snatches of their living moments in their forty eight hours stay on the island. And the bubbles froth randomly over time and character. So the narrative sways to and fro, both in time and the character within the bubble. That causes some strain on the reader to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s. Thankfully, the chapters are short. That each doles out tantalising hints of a grieving personal past seemingly unconnected to the ongoing event keeps readers' interest alive. What for are these details keeps ringing in the reader’s mind.
What I particularly liked was the author’s build up of a loom of doom and gloom and presentiment of mis-happening. The narrative superlatively creates this foreboding atmosphere, an imminence of tragedy foretold by ominous portents , an anonymous note warning the bride to desist from going through with the wedding, and characters nursing undisclosed secrets, intense jealousies, hate - all sufficient causes to impel any of them to murder . But murder who?
The writing is attractive and fluent. Makes for ease of reading, but for the unusual narrative format. There are some improbable coincidences and some situations seem contrived or at least a bit stretched. That costs the book some literary merit.
Nevertheless, an entertaining thriller, a good time pass especially when thrills beyond the confines of the home are severely limited. Overall, I found it a good read but one that fails to climb to the pinnacles of suspense, mystery, and drama of a Christie.
