Every Lucy Foley Book, Ranked—From 'The Guest List' to 'The Midnight Feast'
The mystery-thriller author has written several best-sellers—and was even tapped to revive a beloved Agatha Christie series.
If you haven’t heard of Lucy Foley before now, you’re about to. The best-selling, renowned mystery-thriller author has not one, not two, but four books being made into adaptations, and her upcoming novel, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, marks the first time an author has revisited Agatha Christie’s beloved character Miss Marple in 50 years.
Foley’s meteoric rise wasn’t immediate: The historical fiction books she started out writing “were not best sellers, by any means,” as she told The Hollywood Reporter in April 2025. “I did an event in London, I think it was for my second historical fiction, and seven people came…and five of them were known to me. Once you’ve experienced that, you don’t take anything for granted.”
By 2022, however, the British author had broken into a whole new genre with murder mysteries, selling more than 3.5 million copies between 2018’s The Hunting Party, 2020’s The Guest List, and 2022’s The Paris Apartment and spending more than 200 weeks on the international best seller list.
Article continues belowAs we await the September 2026 release of Foley’s latest, commissioned by HarperCollins with Agatha Christie Limited—considering she was tapped to revive one of the legendary writer's famed characters—we're taking a look at her entire catalog. Below, see the best books by Lucy Foley, ranked, from her ambitious debut to her most recent thriller.
The Best Lucy Foley Books, Ranked
The Invitation may not be a thriller, but there’s still an element of mystery to this historical-fiction romance novel as journalist Hal attempts to get to know the glamorous Stella. After the pair spends an unforgettable night together, she all but disappears. So when Hal receives an invitation to Cannes and finds himself aboard the same yacht as her, he can’t help but dig for answers, albeit with bittersweet results. The ratings for Foley’s second novel were also bittersweet, landing it at the bottom of the heap.
Described as "beautiful yet tragic," Foley's last historical novel is a bit of a tear-jerker, but still worth a read. In the aftermath of World War I, Nur and her family have been displaced by British Allied soldiers, who have taken up residence in their former home in Constantinople. But Nur needs their help to treat the sick orphan boy who has come into her care. The boy has a secret that could ruin them both—and so does Nur, who is dangerously close to falling in love with the enemy.
The plot of The Midnight Feast will be somewhat familiar to fans of The White Lotus; it begins with the opening of a luxurious resort and descends into chaos as a fire breaks out, a body is discovered, and guests fall under suspicion. Make no mistake, however: Foley’s premise was her own. “I did have the idea for this book before The White Lotus came out,” she told The Hollywood Reporter, noting that it was inspired by the local uproar that was caused when a new hotel opened up near her countryside neighborhood.
Darker than Foley’s normal fare, some will find it less palatable than her previous works, but according to Foley, that’s by design. “I knew I wanted to go a bit darker, to go into folk horror,” she said. “I knew that would leave some readers cold…but if you try to please everyone you’ll end up with something really vanilla.”
As Foley’s first foray into mystery, there was a lot at stake with 2018’s The Hunting Party. It didn’t disappoint, marking the author’s first appearance on the New York Times Best Sellers list and earning her a whole new audience. Set at a remote estate in the Scottish Highlands, it chronicles a holiday gone off the rails when a group of longtime college friends gets snowed in, and the cracks in their relationships begin to show. Spoiler alert? One of them won’t make it through to the New Year alive.
Rated even higher than her thrillers on Goodreads, The Book of Lost and Found is Foley’s first-ever novel. This ambitious debut follows Kate, who is learning about her family’s hidden history for the first time in the wake of her mom’s death. Set across continents, generations, and time, the novel covers the roaring ‘20s, World War II, and plenty in between, but at its heart, this one boils down to a story about love, enduring and true.
This thriller about a woman who arrives at her brother’s apartment in Paris only to find him missing kept us up all night long. Between the eerie cast of characters that are his neighbors, the high-profile investigation Ben has found himself wrapped up in, and the unpredictable plot twists, the suspense couldn’t be higher as Jess works out her sibling’s whereabouts. In true Foley fashion, this book sees the city itself becoming a main character, and the ending? Let’s just say “epic.”
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Guest List was a hit straight from the get-go. Taking place on a remote island in Ireland, it’s centered around a perfectly planned wedding between a budding TV actor and a magazine publisher. Everything should be idyllic, but instead it’s all about to go awry, with someone turning up dead. Said Foley: “I felt a wedding was ripe for the murder mystery treatment—they’re wonderful occasions but also potentially times of heightened emotion and stress and people can behave very badly.” We’ll say!
How to read Lucy Foley’s books in order
If you want to read Lucy Foley’s books in order, you’ll first want to start with her three historical novels: The Book of Lost and Found (2015), The Invitation (2016), and Last Letter from Istanbul (2018).
From there, you can delve into her thrillers, which begin with 2018’s The Hunting Party, and continue on to The Guest List (2020), The Paris Apartment (2022) and The Midnight Feast (2024).
Foley’s latest book, the highly anticipated Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, will be released on September 22, 2026.
Lucy Foley will release her next book, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, in September.
Which Lucy Foley books are being adapted?
Three of Foley’s books are currently being adapted for TV, with one more headed to the big screen.
Her most popular book, The Guest List, was originally optioned by See-Saw Films, but stalled after a while. “It was that thing where the projects were someone’s baby, and then they left and someone else inherited it. And we couldn’t quite get it together after that,” Foley explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2025.
However, it's still in the works and will be turned into a limited series. The Guest List has since moved to Best Day Ever, the production company from Liz Tigelaar, known for being the showrunner on Hulu hits like Little Fires Everywhere and Tiny Beautiful Things. “They’re brilliant and she totally gets it. That’s all I’m allowed to say,” Foley, who will serve as an executive producer, shared.
Also being queued up for the small screen are The Paris Apartment and The Midnight Feast. Sony's 3000 Pictures was originally adapting The Paris Apartment for film, but Foley told THR that it's since been shifted to TV, which she admited "makes a lot of sense." The Midnight Feast, meanwhile, is being helmed by Universal International Studios, with Foley among the executive producers, alongside Sue Naegle (formerly of Annapurna Pictures) and Ali Krug (Deadringers, The Staircase).
Finally, The Hunting Party is on the way—but this one is still in early stages. Like The Guest List, it had also been optioned by See-Saw Films, but now has a new team behind it. Producer Mark Roybal and Wiip (Mare of Easttown) will turn it into a major motion picture, but they're still looking for a screenwriter for the project.
While Foley is attached as an executive producer to both The Guest List and Midnight Feast, she has no plans to write her own adaptations. “At the moment, I’m not sure if that’s something I would do. I feel the books need to have a different life onscreen, and I think somebody else is better suited to do that,” she told THR.
It hasn’t stopped her from fancasting, however: “I’ve been dreamcasting the character of Eddie, the 19-year-old kitchen hand in The Midnight Feast as Leo Woodall,” she confessed. “I had Harris Dickinson for awhile as well, but I think he might have aged out of the character since I started thinking about it.”
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