The Midnight Feast
It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.
But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.
THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP
It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at… The Midnight Feast.
The Manor Signature Drink
About the author
Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry. She is the author of five novels including The Paris Apartment and The Guest List. She lives in London.
Plot Summary
The Midnight Feast unfolds across two timelines: 2010 and 15 years later, centered on a hidden murder and a wealthy family’s destructive secrets on the Dorset coast of England.
The Past: 2010
In 2010, working-class teenager Bella vacations in Tome and befriends the wealthy Francesca Meadows and her twin brothers, Hugo and Oscar. Bella quickly witnesses the family’s dark side: she overhears Francesca’s brothers sexually assaulting a local girl, Michelle. Later, Bella sees Francesca’s grandfather, Lord Meadows, kissing another local girl, Cora. Bella learns from her boyfriend, Jake Walker, that mushrooms they picked are poisonous. At a barbecue, Francesca gives Cora a brownie made with the toxic mushrooms, killing her. Francesca and Lord Meadows cover up the murder, and the guilt sends Jake into a heroin spiral, causing him to leave Tome.
The Present: 15 Years Later
Fifteen years later, Francesca Meadows owns the Manor, now a luxury hotel set to open on the summer solstice. The renovation is managed by her husband, Owen Dacre, an architect who hides his working-class local roots. Bella checks into the hotel under an assumed name, intending to force Francesca to confess to Cora’s murder after receiving an anonymous magazine clipping from Jake. Jake’s brother, Eddie, works at the hotel.
Bella leaves a message for Francesca, who responds with a threat. Bella and Eddie stumble upon an animal sacrifice by a mysterious occult group called the Birds. On the morning of the solstice ceremony, Bella shows excavators a map in her old journal, leading them to dig up a skeleton. Owen arrives, realizes the skeleton is his mother, Cora, and blacks out. When he recovers, he realizes Francesca is the killer.
The Final Confrontation
At the solstice ceremony, locals spike the cider with hallucinogenic mushrooms. Bella realizes Eddie is Jake’s brother and shares the full truth of 15 years ago. A hallucinating Francesca confronts Bella, knocks her out, and locks her in the library. Michelle, now a hotel manager, locks Hugo and Oscar in the wine store. Francesca sets the Manor on fire and drives away. Owen and Eddie chase her. Eddie, wearing a crow costume from the Birds, scares Francesca into crashing her car, chasing her off a cliff to her death.
The next morning, Detective Jake Walker arrives to investigate the fire and the skeleton. He is reunited with his brother, Eddie, and learns Hugo, Oscar, and Francesca are dead. Two months later, Owen decides to rebuild the burned-out Manor as a community center for the town, while Jake focuses on rebuilding his connection with his long-lost brother.
Characters
Bella Springfield
is the novel’s protagonist, driven by a quest for justice. As a teenager, the middle-class Bella is manipulated by the wealthy Francesca Meadows to sneak out and witness dark secrets. Despite intense peer pressure, she slowly learns to exercise her own agency, such as spending time with Jake Walker and refusing drugs. The adult Bella, fueled by the birth of her daughter and an anonymous tip, transforms from submissive to assertive.
Her transformation is rooted in a past act of Class Tensions in a Small Town: she adopted the name “Bella” (instead of “Alison”) as a teen to mask her working-class origins. Adult Bella now weaponizes this experience, reinventing herself with a new identity and elaborate backstory to infiltrate Francesca’s life and expose the 15-year-old murder of Cora. Her journey is defined by her determination to hold Francesca accountable.
Francesca Meadows
is the novel’s primary antagonist, a wealthy, self-involved, and manipulative owner of The Manor hotel. Her character is static; despite adopting the elaborate, performative persona of an enlightened, spiritually-evolved role model in adulthood (complete with crystals and holistic healing), she remains a narcissist who treats others as playthings. This mirrors her grandfather, Lord Meadows, and underscores the novel’s theme of Class Tensions. Her snobbery and self-interest are exposed when she chooses to protect her reputation over acknowledging her crimes. Her carefully crafted facade ultimately shatters under pressure, revealing the murderous, selfish individual beneath.
Eddie Walker
is a sweet, sensitive 19-year-old local who works as a dishwasher at The Manor. He is positioned as the sincere eyes and ears of the reader. Eddie feels like an outsider within his own family due to his job and his allergies preventing him from working on the family dairy farm. He carries the trauma of his brother Jake’s drug addiction and sudden departure. His internal conflict, driven by his father’s resentment of the wealthy Meadows family, highlights the Class Tensions in Tome. Eddie’s moment of growth comes during the climax: upon learning the truth about Francesca’s role in his brother’s downfall, he dons the cloak of The Birds (a local legend) and intercepts Francesca, causing her death. This act transforms him into a reluctant avenger.
Detective Inspector Jake Walker
Eddie’s older brother, is introduced as a dedicated detective who works on cold cases—a clear sign that he is seeking redemption. As a teenager, witnessing Cora’s death and being complicit in the coverup led him to depression, withdrawal, and a crippling heroin addiction, which caused his estrangement from his family. After getting sober, Jake dedicated his life to solving historical criminal injustices. His return to Tome to investigate the fire and the skeletal remains is his final act of penance, as he is drawn back to the scene of the trauma that derailed his life.
Owen Dacre / Shrimp
Francesca’s architect husband, is a visionary, but deeply image-conscious man who thinks of himself as his “most masterful construction.” He remade himself from a poor local fisherman’s son named Shrimp to a successful architect to win Francesca. However, his past continues to haunt him: he grew up resentful of the locals who bullied him and, after his mother, Cora, disappeared, he burned down the local pub in an act of rage. His fascination with fire is a potent symbol of his suppressed anger and makes him a red herring in The Manor’s fire. The discovery that Francesca murdered his mother Cora shatters his carefully constructed persona, forcing him to confront his past and ultimately lead to a powerful act of community healing by rebuilding the Manor as a public space.
The Meadows Family
Lord Meadows is the secondary antagonist, an entitled philanderer who consistently uses his power and political connections to shield his family from consequences. His careless coverup of Cora’s burial site provides the critical evidence for the investigation years later. The family also includes Francesca’s twin brothers, Hugo and Oscar, who are characterized as privileged and arrogant. Their sexual assault of Michelle as teenagers is a crime that eventually leads to their death as adults when Michelle locks them in the burning Manor’s wine store, demonstrating an act of Vigilante Justice by a local victim.
Book Club Questions
Initial Impressions
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How does The Midnight Feast compare to Lucy Foley’s other thrillers like The Guest List or The Paris Apartment? Did you find this particular mystery—with its focus on past secrets—more or less compelling?
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What was the effect of the novel’s 15-year time jump? Which of the two main sections of the novel (the past or the present) did you find most interesting, and why?
Personal Reflection and Connection
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The novel contains explicit depictions of sexual assault and gendered violence. Did you find these scenes difficult to read, and do you feel they were necessary to the novel’s themes of class and justice?
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Which of the minor characters—such as Michelle, Owen, or Delilah—did you find most compelling, and what about their backstory or current motivations intrigued you?
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Bella’s working-class background makes her feel intensely out of place among Francesca’s wealthy family. Have you ever felt similarly alienated in a social setting? How did you respond to that feeling?
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If you could go back and resolve a deep injustice from your own past, what would it be? What would genuine justice look like for you in that situation?
Societal and Cultural Context
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The novel’s depiction of class tension is rooted in English culture. How do you think the novel would be different if it were set in the United States, and would the same intense social friction exist in a country without such clearly defined class markers?
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The shadowy environmental group, the Birds, acts as an antagonist. How does this group and the town’s resistance reflect environmental anxiety and the local versus corporate conflict in the modern world?
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In what ways does the novel echo the structure and tropes of the classic country house mystery genre? Do you see parallels to works like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None?
Literary Analysis
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Bella’s Transformation: How does Bella’s personality and behavior change across the 15-year gap? How does the novel successfully explain her evolution from a submissive teenager to a determined adult seeking justice?
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The Manor as Symbol: How does The Manor function as a symbol of social class and systemic power in the United Kingdom? What symbolic impact does the novel’s ending—the burning and planned rebuilding—have on this symbol?
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How does Bella’s early exposure to sexual assault and cruelty affect her attitude toward romantic and intimate relationships later in life?
Creative Engagement
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If you were producing an adaptation of this novel, who would you cast in the roles of Bella and Francesca? Would you use the same actresses for both the teenage and adult timelines?
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Imagine a sequel following Owen as he establishes the new community center on the site of the old Manor. What challenges might he face in gaining the community’s trust, and how might his character continue to change after his wife’s death?
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