A showbiz couple plan the ultimate Instagrammable wedding, set on a wildly beautiful and windswept island off the west coast of Ireland. They park their massive marquee right in the path of an Atlantic storm, deluding themselves that their golden couple status will bend the weather to their will. That's the set-up for a new "closed circle" murder mystery by author Lucy Foley, which follows her bestseller The Hunting Party, as she told Ryan Tubridy today.

Trapping her characters on an island, just as a storm is closing in, is a favourite technique of Lucy's, as she told Ryan:

"What I write are kind of closed-circle mysteries where all your suspects are kind of arrayed before you, so you know one of them did it."

Foley says some of the inspiration for setting her crime thrillers in this kind of location came from Agatha Christie. Foley has loved the veteran crime writer since she was very young, but she says the novels read differently as an adult.

"I think I read my first Agatha Christie when I was about 12, which is probably too young. The interesting thing about them is you can read them as a child for the puzzle and then you read them again as an adult and you're like, this is quite dark, you know, there's some dark stuff going on."

Lucy's Irish background inspired the choice of venue for The Guest List, she says. Her grandfather left Connemara for the UK decades ago and both she and her father spend many childhood summers in the West:

"My dad spent all of his childhood in Connemara, fishing and running wild."

Lucy says Connemara and the Aran Islands had a deep impact on her:

"Standing there looking out at the Atlantic, thinking, there isn't much between me, well, there isn't really anything between me and the North American continent. It's quite a sort of desolate feeling, isolating but wonderful."

No spoilers here, but Lucy Foley hints that the picture perfect wedding would not look so great in an Instagram story after all.

"Unfortunately, some of the guests have brought some slightly dark baggage with them."

You'll have to read the book to find out what happens when that "dark baggage" is unpacked, but you can get some delicious hints about the progress of the movie version of Lucy's last novel The Hunting Party, hear about Lucy's admiration for screenwriter Sarah Phelps, and get a sneak preview of Lucy's next novel, all in the full interview with Ryan Tubridy here.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley is out now, published by Harper Collins.

Ruth Kennedy