The Midnight Feast

The Midnight Feast (2024) is a mystery written by best-selling mystery writer Lucy Foley. Lucy Foley is known for her twisty, contemporary mystery novels including The Guest List (2020) and The Paris Apartment (2022). The Guest List was critically acclaimed and listed as one of the New York Times best thrillers of 2020. The Midnight Feast is the story of people brought back together in a small town on the English coast for the opening of a fancy boutique hotel, 15 years after the murder of a local woman. As the story unfolds through shifting timelines and perspectives, long-held class tensions and secrets come to the surface. In the background lurks a mysterious group called the Birds with connections to the ancient forest being privatized and destroyed for the hotel expansion.

This guide is based on the 2024 Harper Collins UK edition of The Midnight Feast.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of alcohol addiction, as well as discussions of sexual assault and suicide.

Plot Summary

In 2010, Bella—a young, working-class teenager, vacations in the small town of Tome on the Dorset coast of southern England. There, she meets Francesca Meadows, the granddaughter of the wealthy owners of the Manor, an old, stately mansion. She spends the summer days with Francesca and her twin brothers, Hugo and Oscar, even though the wealthy family belittles her for her naivete. One day, Francesca pressures Bella into going into the woods with them at midnight. That night in the woods, Bella overhears Francesca’s brothers sexually assaulting a local girl named Michelle. Soon after, another local girl named Cora begins to hang out at the Manor as well. Francesca once again leads them out to the woods to go mushroom picking and Bella sees Cora kissing Francesca’s grandfather, Lord Meadows. Francesca is furious when Bella tells her. Meanwhile, Bella begins spending more time with a cute local boy, Jake Walker. Bella learns from Jake that the mushrooms they picked are poisonous and calls Francesca to warn her not to eat them. One night, Jake, Bella, Cora, and Francesca are at the Manor for a barbecue. Francesca gives Cora a brownie made with the toxic mushrooms, and Cora dies. Francesca and her grandfather cover up the murder. After the incident, Jake spirals into a heroin addiction and leaves Tome soon after.

Fifteen years later, Francesca Meadows owns the Manor bequeathed to her by her grandfather who died of a heart attack rumored to be caused by a mysterious occult group called the Birds. Francesca has turned the Manor into a luxury hotel and plans the opening ceremony to coincide with the summer solstice. Francesca entrusts the renovation and redesign of the Manor to her husband, well-known architect Owen Dacre—who’s concealed his past as the son of a local fisherman from his wife.

Bella checks into the hotel under an assumed name, intending to force Francesca to confess to the murder of Cora 15 years prior. She had learned of the new hotel from a magazine clipping sent to her anonymously by Jake. Jake’s brother Eddie works at the hotel as a dishwasher. The night of the opening ceremony, the locals cause a disturbance at the hotel in protest of the destruction of the ancient forest. Tasked with calming the protesters, Eddie learns the protest is being led by her ex-girlfriend Delilah and her new boyfriend, Nathan Tate.

The day after the opening ceremony, Bella unearths her old summer journal and leaves a message for Francesca to meet her in the woods. Instead, Francesca sneaks into Bella’s room and leaves her a threatening message in response. Owen feels suspicious that his wife is hiding something from him. Meanwhile, Bella and Eddie stumble upon an animal sacrifice being held by the Birds in the woods and run away scared.

The next day, Francesca has a large ceremony planned at the hotel for the solstice. That morning, Eddie finds a crow costume worn by members of the Birds in his basement and takes it to work with him. On the morning of the ceremony, excavators arrive to prepare the terrain for the hotel expansion. When Bella sees them, she shows them a map in her journal indicating where Cora’s body is buried and tells them Francesca left instructions for them to dig up the spot. Owen arrives, sees the skeleton, and understands that it’s his mother Cora’s body. He blacks out. When he comes to, he calls Francesca and realizes she was the one who committed the murder.

The night of the ceremony, the locals spike the cider being served with hallucinogenic mushrooms. At the party, Bella suddenly connects the dots, realizing that Eddie is Jake’s younger brother. She shares with him everything that happened 15 years prior. Meanwhile, Francesca drinks some of the spiked cider and begins to hallucinate. She confronts Bella and they argue in the library. Francesca knocks Bella out and locks her inside. Meanwhile, Michelle, who has been working as a manager at the hotel, locks Hugo and Oscar Meadows in the wine store. Francesca sets the Manor on fire. She drives away. Owen chases her. Eddie follows on his bicycle. He puts on the crow costume and scares Francesca into crashing the car. He chases her off the cliff and she dies.

The next morning, the police respond to the fire and the skeleton found by the excavators. Jake Walker, now a detective, arrives on the scene to investigate. At the Manor, he learns that Hugo, Oscar, and Francesca Meadows are dead. He is reunited with his brother, Eddie, whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Two months later, Jake is beginning to rebuild connections with his family from whom he’s been estranged all this time. Even though it was ruled an accident, Eddie feels guilty for his role in Francesca’s death. Owen decides to rebuild the burned-out Manor as a community center for the good of the whole town of Tome.