Lucy Foley Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Lucy Foley is an English author of contemporary, historical fiction, mystery and fiction books. Prior to switching to full-time writing, Foley worked as an editor at Headline and later at Hodder where she was involved with young adult writers including Lauren Oliver and Laini Taylor.

Her experience as an editor, seeing drafts day in and day out motivated her to become a writer. Lucy is a graduate of UCL and Durham universities where she majored in English Literature.

One of Lucy Foley popular books is The Hunting Party, a suspense novel that will surely appease the fans of Ruth Ware and Agatha Christie. This stylish and yet suspenseful novel assumes the notion of the “locked room mystery,” and detailed applies it to an opulent hunting cottage in the Scottish highlands where a small group of friends find themselves caught up in a blizzard.

Part psychological suspense part classic crime written in Agatha Christie style, The Hunting Party, is a great read appealing on many levels.

The Hunting Party

Published by HarperCollins, The Hunting Party follows a group of old friends on a get-together party to celebrate the New Year in a remote cottage in Scotland. The novel setting is closely based on Fort William, a real country estate in the Western Scottish Islands that the author knows well. Lucy Foley lived in the country estate for two summers. When she was planning a third-time visit with her husband, she got an email warning her of the heavy snowfall that would make it impossible for anyone to get into or leave the estate. It’s this emails that inspired her Hunting Party novel.

In the book, once the old friends arrive in the estate, they spend 48 hours getting to know each other and catching up on their lives, remembering the old times they had together and drinking. Many of the friends knew each other back in the campus days at the Oxford University. While their friendships back then were once strong, it soon becomes clear that friendship destroying secrets and old rivalries lurk beneath the surface. Before 12 on the New Year’s Eve, a body is found in the snow. The broken body is an indicator that the death was no accident and a proof that a killer is among the friends, who are now all trapped in the estate by the blizzard, no help can gain access to the estate, and no one can leave.

While not Lucy’s first book, The Hunting Party is her first thriller novel. Her three previous historical novels include The Invitation, The Book of Lost and Found, and Last Letter from Istanbul. According to an interview published online, Lucy explains that her reading tastes are quite broader and she writes as she reads. Besides writing historical books, she wanted to craft something darker and thanks to the email she received warning her about her third visit in the remote Scottish estate, she was able to find a plot for her fourth book. Additionally, what also influenced Lucy Foley into writing her first thriller novel was the adaptation of Agatha Christie book, And Then There Were None by television screenwriter Sarah Phelps’.

The Hunting Party is considered as an update of the traditional country house mystery, in that the killer is one of the friends on the snowbound cottage, a character is already known to the readers, but no one cannot pinpoint the killer from the group. The author was drawn to the “tidiness” of the murder mystery book noting that with a murder mystery story, you should have to tie up all the threads in the end. The author reckons that the downstairs/upstairs element of historical country house murder mysteries set in the 1920s exist in modern society. You’ll find those rich folks who visit remote estates and splash money around and so the author found it relevant to create a story in that line.

Rather than just writing a typical house murder mystery, Lucy Foley was also keen to add some exciting elements of the psychological thriller. The story also explores what this Scottish wilderness brings out from each of the characters, far away from the peaceful lives in London. As a first-time thriller author, Lucy found the trickiest part of writing her novel; The Hunting Party is getting to know what to reveal on the one hand and what to keep truly hidden on the other hand and also knowing the amount to reveal at a given time.

The Book of Lost and Found

After a recent death of her beloved mother, Kate finds herself floundering. The only constant in her life was a routine visit to her grandmother in a nursing home. But when her grandmother, Evier confesses a shocking secret to her, at the same time presenting Kate an old portrait which she had kept for many years, Kate is soon filled by a mix of emotions, grief, frustration, anger and then her grandmother dies.

Kate’s mission to find the woman in the portrait her grandma gave her takes her to unimaginable places, from a peaceful home in London, straight to Paris and then New York City. She finally arranges a meeting with a secluded but prominent artist, Thomas on the Corsica Island but she has no idea what her future would be. She’s scared and sure that she had made a terrible decision. But the strong determination she had inherited from her ballerina mother keeps her moving forward. And soon, Kate learns about the dark past and comes to discover a profoundly romantic story spanning for decades.

From 1928 England when Alice and Thomas met as children, through 1939 in Paris and then to Kate and her desperate search in 1986, the lives of the people involved took different turns. While there was a great deal of happiness, there was also mourning. What would Kate find in her desperate but hesitant search? The Book of Lost and Found is a story of deep abiding love, but also of sadness, separation, loyalty and caring. Lucy Foley makes sure that the reader is with her heroine, Kate throughout her journey as she seeks answers to her question.