No summer is complete without a page-turning thriller. Fast-paced and full of plot twists, these thrillers will have you glued to your sun lounger six hours later without ever taking your eyes off them. With over 5.5 million copies sold worldwide, Lucy Foley knows how to captivate her readers with her spine-chilling novels.
Lucy began her career as an author with a series of historical novels, but in 2019 she switched genres and published her first thriller novel. Hunting party. Since then, she has published three more novels. Guest List The landing was The New York Times List of the best thrillers of 2020.
Her latest work is Midnight feastthe story is set during the opening weekend of The Manor, a new country mansion hotel in Dorset. The backdrop to the health and pleasure retreat is an ancient woodland full of secrets and a past that cannot remain buried forever. Something, or someone, comes back to haunt The Manor’s owner, Francesca. The question is, who will survive this midsummer weekend under the scorching sun?
We caught up with Lucy to discuss what lies beneath the glamour of the wellness industry, misogyny in the publishing world, and how she’s taking those twists and turns in practice.
Cosmo UK: Midnight feast come from?
Lucy Foley: The initial inspiration was a hotel opening near my parents’ house. [house] It’s rural. We were really excited about it, but there was some animosity going around in the local rural community. That was one of the first things I pitched to agents as “SoHo farmhouse meets rural farmhouse.” The Wicker Man‘.
So, are the hotels in the book based on real places?
It’s a total mix. I wanted it to be on cliffs, on the coast, but I also wanted there to be an ancient woodland behind it, with strange things happening amongst the trees. I wanted it to be the West Country, but I didn’t want to limit it to anywhere in the West Country in particular, because I wanted to soak up all the local legends and folklore and just forget about pretty much everything and come up with my own legends and places.
What kind of research did you do for this novel?
I’ve travelled a lot in the West Country, not so much to explore the folkloric side of it, but I did need to stay in a hotel. [writing] That was great because I’m sitting in a tracksuit at a messy desk. I wanted the hotel to feel like a character in itself, a place that the reader would really want to go to.
In folklore [research,] I had read Thomas Hardy and onwards, had a great collection of folk tales, and had seen the films. Wicker Man, Blood on the Devil’s Claws And obviously MidsommarThere is a great gin A strange walk. I felt they were at the forefront of a folklore revival, so I read a lot of folklore and did some weird walks myself.
I currently live in Sussex and am close to a lot of pagan sacred sites, like Chanctonbury Ring, which apparently summons the Devil if you walk around it three times the wrong way.
Was the character of Francesca inspired by a particular woman?
she [Francesca] What’s interesting is how worryingly simple her writing was. Of course, you can point to women like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Moss who have wellness-related lines. In a way, she [Francesca,] It’s like the British version of modern wellness, but a much more sinister one.
But let me be clear on this point: I’m all for anything that makes me feel better. I’ve lived with chronic pain for three years, probably longer, and things like acupuncture and Reiki have been very helpful while I searched for a cure. What pisses me off is the cynical, profit-driven wellness that people like Francesca are obsessed with. [the book] It was a case of pitting financial wellness against an ancient, rustic, free-spirited pagan spirituality.
But I also felt sorry for her in a way, because everyone should have the opportunity to reinvent themselves, and she did terrible things in the past. And to what extent should you be forgiven for that? What if you’ve done something terrible and unforgivable in the past? You [reinvent yourself]I think that’s the question at the heart of this book. I may not have realized I was asking it. [that] When I started writing.
I won’t give away any spoilers, but the novel has themes that unravel our perceptions of women and how underestimated we are…
I have found that to be a definite thread. Paris apartments and Midnight feastbut there has always been an element of feminism running through my writing, even though I didn’t necessarily realise it was something I was actively exploring when I started writing.
I don’t know if it has anything to do with recently becoming a mother, and the thought of “What will my kids think of me when they grow up? Will I just be ‘mom’ or will I have some other identity?” certainly messes with self-perception.
Several mothers are featured in this book. Bella is thinking about what kind of mother she will be to her daughter. She feels that there are some things in the past she must correct before she can be her most authentic self and the mother she wants to be.
Eddie thinks his mother is just someone who wears dressing gowns and makes Horlicks, but there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye.
You mentioned recently that your husband is a fan of literature written by women, which seems unusual. Do you think there is still a lot of misogyny in the publishing industry? If so, why?
Absolutely. I find it odd that, as a woman, I read both men’s and women’s work. I think it’s probably a true 50/50 split. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the fact that men don’t read women’s work, which I think is odd.
Perhaps publishers bear some responsibility for this. Some books are packaged in a way that is obviously feminine.
We even had a conversation about my cover, and my husband said, “You know, as a guy, I wouldn’t pick up that cover because I’d be embarrassed to read it on the subway.” That’s his test.
But women make up the majority of the publishing industry, both readers and writers…
I previously wrote three historical novels. [moving into thrillers] I wrote it for anyone to read, and I was inspired by authors like William Boyd and Sebastian Faulkner, and was surprised when they expressed it in a very feminine way.
Since I moved towards crime and thriller novels, it has become more democratic and I’ve noticed that many more men are reading my books, which is great.
“Midnight Feast” by Lucy Foley
The characters in your novels go through a lot – do you ever feel like you want to protect them or treat them less?
One of my favorite characters to write is Francesca, but probably my other favorite is Eddie, who has been through a real journey and there were times when I held back on things that were necessary to make the book better, so I had to write a softer version at first and then lean into it.
I want my characters to go on a journey in the book, I want them to change and be transformed by events, and that can be quite stressful for them at times.
Your novel has a lot of twists and turns, do you plan them out before you start writing?
I really want to. I’ve been to events before with other writers, and they’ve spent a year creating beautiful spreadsheets and planning their book before they even picked up a pen.
I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it. Basically, a book doesn’t feel alive until I start writing, so I like to develop the plot as I write.
I had some big set pieces in mind that I wanted to include in it, and some twists in mind from the beginning, but some of the things that really excited me about this book came to me during the writing process.
Can you tell us about the upcoming TV drama? Midnight feast?
This show is being made for television as a limited series, which is perfect for this show because it has a slightly larger canvas, and I want to allow them to get into the village, so to speak, and explore a wider range of characters.
I’m going to be in the writing room, and I’m really excited about that, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s not going to make it into the final version, because sometimes you have to make some tough decisions about what you fit into those 90,000 words. [with the TV show] It helps you to gain a deeper understanding of people and places.
Can you think of a dream cast?
I loved hearing about the fan cast, and I thought Paul Mescal would be Eddie, Harris Dickinson The triangle of sadness.
You are the queen of thriller novels, do you plan to stop writing in this genre?
I mean, you can never say never. I wrote three historical novels first, and I loved writing them. I read really widely. I love a great story and really strong characterization. So, watch this space. Maybe it’ll be a romance or something more literary.
With the warmer weather fast approaching, what’s on your summer reading list?
Kiri Reid’s come and get it and again End of Summer By Charlotte Philby.
What book gives you an instant summer feeling?
Bonjour Tristes by Françoise Sagan. I think she wrote it when she was 18. The characters are about 16. This summer in the south of France, she [the main character] I spent the whole time lying in the sun and kissing this boy on the beach. There’s a thriller-style twist to it.
Lucy Foley’s “Midnight Feast” is now available
Senior Entertainment & Lifestyle Writer
Lydia Venn is a Senior Entertainment & Lifestyle Writer at Cosmopolitan UK. She covers all topics from to the latest celeb news. She also regularly writes for the Work & Life section, highlighting exciting new releases and sharing the latest must-haves. In her role, she has interviewed everyone from Margot Robbie to Niall Horan, and her work has appeared in an episode of . After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Exeter, Lydia went into journalism, contributing to , before working as Features Editor for , and speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Talk Radio. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gilmore Girls and 00s teen movies, and in her spare time she re-watches Real Housewives with a margarita in hand. Find her on .
