How did The Midnight Feast end? (spoilers) | Lucy Foley

This is my spoiler-review of Lucy Foley’s The Midnight Feast, where I get into everything that went down and explain that juicy ending! What happened after everything came together? Let’s get into it below! If you don’t want to be spoiled, head back to my unspoiled review first and then stop back here later!

Who are the narrators and what is the setting?

There are four narrators plus a written narration of events that occurred fifteen years before the present timeline. Each of the narrators has a “role” outlines in the official synopsis (you can find that here). The present story takes place at the grand opening of The Manor, a woodland luxury resort owned and managed by a woman named Francesca (aka, The Founder). The Manor is built on what was once Francesca’s coastal family estate, and she has transformed the estate into a retreat.

Francesca hired an architect named Owen to do the design work on the resort, and eventually Francesca and Owen married (aka, The Husband). When they first met, Francesca was confused over how Owen heard about the job. She thought Owen applied, but he thought her office contacted him about it. Hmm… seems fishy, right? All you need to know at first is that Owen got the job and later, the two fell in love. In addition to Francesca and Owen, the narrators include a guest at the grand opening named Bella (aka, The Mystery Guest) and a staff member and local named Eddie (aka, The Kitchen Help). The chapters that take place the day after the solstice are narrated by a police detective named D.I. Walker.

What is the book about?

Francesca has worked hard to transform her family’s coastal estate into a luxury retreat, complete with white linen-clad employees, a spa, woodland “hutches” with outdoor baths, and a stunning cliffside swimming pool. Francesca’s husband Owen happens to be the architect of this“Pagan chic” retreat—nothing crusty or too dark. Crystals at check-in, charged up for the guests to immediately use for healing.

But as the opening night commences and heads towards a midnight celebration for the guests, it’s clear that some people are there for reasons other than just to enjoy the luxury amenities. Bella, for instance, seems out of her element. Is she really wealthy like the others, or is there another reason she is here? And what is going on with Owen and Francesca’s seemingly small, but odd story about how they connected?

Secrets are lurking beneath the grand opening, and events from fifteen years ago may not be as buried as they thought. Everything will come to a head at the midnight feast…

What are the timelines?

The book has three timelines. The first is the night of the solstice, which is also the night of the grand opening of The Manor. This is narrated by Francesca, Owen, Bella, and Eddie. The second is the day after the solstice, where D.I. Walker narrates the discovery of a body and the aftermath. The third is narrated through journal entries from the past (2009).

If you haven’t read British thrillers before, then just know that any book taking place on an “ancestral estate” will definitely have a past that bubbles to the surface at an inconvenient moment for the characters. In this case, it’s mostly inconvenient for Francesca, who planned this whole luxury resort on property that holds a lot of secrets.

What happened in 2009?

Let’s briefly review what we learned about the past. Back in 2009, a teenager named Allison is keeping a journal about her summer, which is largely spent with another teen named Frankie whose family owns a large estate. I’m sure you can guess that Frankie is Francesca, the owner of The Manor in the present. But who is Allison? We don’t have to wait long to find out that after a comment from Frankie about the name Bella, Allison takes the name Bella on as a pseudonym. We now know the identity of our mystery guest in the present, but the question is how the events of 2009 will link to the present.

A few things are going on at once. A boy who they call Shrimp is hanging around off and on. Frankie and Bella go to the woods with Frankie’s brothers, Oscar and Hugo, and another local girl. Bella and Frankie leave the other three in the treehouse, and Bella worries that something bad happened when she hears disturbing noises.

Later at the pool, Bella is assaulted by Frankie’s brother Hugo in the pool house. She doesn’t tell Frankie, but Bella now suspects that the girl in the treehouse was assaulted by Frankie’s brothers. Meanwhile a local named Cora who is a few years older than them starts hanging around. After a disturbing incident at one of the midnight feasts, Bella distances herself and she meets a local named Jake who she’s interested in. Eventually, Bella goes back to The Manor.

One night when Frankie and Bella are in the woods, Bella spots Cora leaving Frankie’s grandfather’s cabin. Strange… When she mentions it to Frankie, her friend gets angry. Remember the teddy bears in the woods song? It features prominently and ominously over the story, and as Bella says, there is something much worse than teddy bears in those woods! When Bella discovers the song on Frankie’s ipod, she realizes Frankie is behind all of the scary things that have been happening in the woods.

Bella and Jake go back to Frankie’s after she apologizes and asks Bella to come. Bella tells Frankie that the mushrooms they gathered in the woods are poisonous, not magic mushrooms. The next time they are all in the woods, Frankie brings brownies but only Cora eats one. They soon find her poisoned in the woods. Bella confronts Frankie, who pretends she never got the text about the mushrooms. Frankie’s grandfather covers up the murder and threatens Bella and Jake to keep quiet about it.

How does this tie to the present story?

We already know that Bella is the journal author and Francesca is Frankie, but who are the other characters? I mentioned a local boy hanging around that summer who they called Shrimp. It turns out Owen is Shrimp—but neither Owen nor Francesca put together their past connection. We also find out that “Shrimp” (Owen) was Cora’s son. She had him as a teen and never told Bella and Frankie. Frankie faked a note from Cora that made it sound like she ran away, so Owen never knew she was dead.

I actually suspected while reading that Eddie was Shrimp. Eddie is a character we don’t really meet in 2009, but he definitely has a tie to it. Eddie is Jake’s younger brother. After Cora’s death, Jake and Bella are wracked with guilt. Bella returns to the property and sees that Frankie’s grandfather buried the body on the property. She makes a map of the location and sends it to Jake, but he never responds. Jake got addicted to drugs and allegedly drove his bicycle off a cliff. Bella heard about his accident and thought he took his own life. Eddie tells her that Jake didn’t die that day, but he did leave and become estranged from their family.

What is unfolding in the present?

Let’s rewind back to the bird theme in this book. Early in the book, we know that Francesca’s grandfather cautioned her about the birds as a child. Francesca doesn’t heed this advice, but the birds are everywhere in this book. Dead birds winding up on people’s doors, in the treehouse, and swarming all over. Francesca actually used them to taunt Bella and the others. But the birds have another important role in the story.

When Francesca and Bella finally come face-to-face, they have a big confrontation about the events of 2009. Bella tries to caution Cora that the murder will be discovered. The night of Cora’s murder, Bella saw “the birds” and tells Francesca they saw the murder (the bird comment is important, so remember that for the big reveal). Francesca strikes her, knocking Bella unconscious.

During the solstice celebration, the guests seem to have been drugged. Francesca gets a call from Owen who tells her that a body was found on the property and that it’s his mother. Francesca is shocked and says she didn’t know Cora the cleaner was his mother. Owen clocks her mistake—she clearly already knew whose body was buried on the property.

This brings us back to the mystery of who from Francesca’s office reached out about the job (remember they had different stories about this?). It turns out it was Michelle, Francesca’s right hand and the manager of The Manor. Why would Michelle do this? Michelle is the local girl who was assaulted by Frankie’s brothers in the woods. Francesca let it happen. Later when Michelle learned about the murder, she set everything in motion. As part of her plan, she needed Owen to meet Francesca and come to the Manor, so she reached out to him about the job without telling either her motive.

How did The Midnight Feast end?

Francesca lights the manor on fire, thinking Bella is inside and will burn in the fire. But the only people who burn in the fire are her brothers, Oscar and Hugo (not a big loss, in my opinion). Meanwhile Francesca tries to flee and sees a figure in a dark cloak and bird mask watching her. She scrambles into the woods and plummets to her death. As dawn breaks, the day-after timeline catches up and D.I. Walker is on the scene to investigate. When Bella sees him, she knows instantly who it is—D.I. Walker is Jake.

In the aftermath of Francesca’s death, we learn several things. First, Owen has inherited The Manor as Francesca’s husband, and transforms it into a community center. Jake found that being a detective helped him repent for what he witnessed years ago. Jake is the one who sent Bella the clipping about the grand opening of The Manor, prompting her to come back. He also knew exactly where Cora’s body was because of the map she drew. Meanwhile Eddie learned that Francesca was the murderer and behind his brother’s addiction and his family falling apart. The person in the cloak and bird mask that Francesca saw before her death was Eddie.

What was the deal with the birds?

Remember when Bella tried to warn Francesca that she saw “the birds” that night and that they know what Francesca did? She meant the group of pagans who call themselves the Night Birds. The Night Birds perform ritual sacrifices at the solstice and dress in cloaks and bird masks. They are believers in nature and setting order and balance.

When Eddie found the cloak and mask in a cupboard at home, he thought they belonged to his father. At the end we learn that they actually belong to his mother, who is part of a group of women calling themselves the Night Birds. It is alleged that Francesca’s grandfather’s death was due to the Night Birds.

What did I think?

I tend to get a bit harsh towards authors that leave too many plot holes and loose threads (see Kubica, for example). It doesn’t mean those books aren’t good or entertaining, but a book like The Midnight Feast is in a league above. Everything in the story tied together and had purpose, which is a feat of its own. Even more compelling, every twist was one I could look back on and find that there were clues all along. Brilliant!

This is a cinematic book—I could picture a screen adaptation the whole time. The nods to famous horror films and folklore are fun. I had the teddy bears in the woods song stuck in my head multiple times and that is one creepy song if you think about it!

Francesca is such a horribly delicious villain. Everything about her is unlikable. I found it interesting to see the grown-up Francesca compared to the Frankie in the journal. For a lot of the book, I thought that she may be self-centered, but not a bad person. The tormenting of Bella was kind of next level, though, wasn’t it? She played me too, who thought of her as shallow, rather than malicious. But as we learn, Francesca knew she had created poisoned brownies, and she not only intended Cora to die from them, but Bella and Jake as well. Evil.

So what about that ending, then? Some things were left to infer, but I felt like Foley gave us enough information. First, I can’t be the only one who was rooting for Bella and Jake to get back together. This wasn’t hinted at, other than Bella’s final section saying that they were meeting to go for a walk and talk. So to me, that means there is hope there!

I also felt like there were mild hints about Michelle and Owen potentially having a spark. Was I the only one? It’s hard to say with Michelle, though, because we were also led to understand in the final paragraphs that Michelle is also a Night Bird. This was shown when she went to sit at the table with the other presumed Night Birds. I liked that this was inferred, but not stated outright. It made it more intriguing. These people are making sacrifices in the woods, so probably best they keep their membership quiet!

Why didn’t anyone recognize the others?

I’ve seen this question a lot, and people commenting that it is implausible. I disagree with that take. Let’s walk through the main players who should have recognized one another.

Owen and Francesca
Owen actually did recognize Francesca when they met, way before they were married. He says at one point that she was this beautiful teenager he looked up to as a kid. Francesca didn’t recognize Owen as Shrimp—but then again, he was a kid who was well beneath her station in life, and who she never knew was named Owen. For his part, he did tell her that his mother abandoned him, but she didn’t know his mother was Cora until the end. Remember, Cora never told Bella and Frankie that she had a child.

Bella and Francesca
This one is more straight forward as an answer. Bella obviously knew who Francesca was (Frankie) and she went to this event specifically for her. Remember that Bella’s real name was Allison—she only called herself Bella because she liked the name. When she registered under the name Bella, we can safely assume Francesca didn’t recognize it—especially because Bella tells us she wrote a fake bio. But what about physically—should Francesca have recognized Bella? She actually does recognize her, but only once she gets a good look at her. Bella has changed her appearance quite a bit, and she blends in as just one guest of many. Remember when Francesca is surprised to see “Sparrow”? That’s Bella!

Eddie and Bella
This one is less expected, because Bella mentions that she hadn’t met Jake’s brother before. However, when she and Eddie first meet and she asks him for a martini, we see her muse that there’s something about him that is familiar. Later, she puts together the resemblance to Jake and the pieces come together. Eddie wouldn’t be expected to know Bella because they didn’t meet.

Francesca and Michelle
Michelle obviously knew exactly who Francesca was, and it worked to her favor to avoid letting her know who she was. Francesca straight admits that she never paid any attention to the girl her brothers assaulted because she was just a “girl from the chippy shop”. This is probably more to do with Francesca not caring about people below her status enough to remember them. It seems stranger to me that Hugo and Oscar didn’t recognize Michelle, but then again, maybe they assaulted enough girls that one doesn’t register more than any other. Gross.

Final Thoughts

I loved this—especially the twists around the birds. Foley is an expert at adding a mystical feel to her stories, but largely having an explanation. The folklore was rich throughout. The whole book felt like it was set in a fairy tale forest! One of my favorite scenes were the birds swarming all around the lawn. That really freaked Francesca out (it would freak anyone out, to be fair), and I thought it was clever of Michelle to taunt her with the very symbols that Francesca used to taunt Bella with. Poetic justice!

It was left open-ended, but I liked that we were led to think that the Night Birds may have been responsible for Francesca’s grandfather’s death. The question is side-stepped, with them only admitting that perhaps people really can be scared to death. I think there may have been a bit of proactive vengeance there, personally.

This might be my favorite Lucy Foley yet!

You can find all of my spoiler-reviews at my book spoilers hub!