The Midnight Feast

Francesca “Frankie” or “Fran” Meadows acts as the primary antagonist of The Midnight Feast. Foley characterizes her as a wealthy, self-involved, manipulative, owner of The Manor hotel. Like many of the other characters in the novel, Francesca’s character remains static throughout the narrative, failing to grow or evolve over the course of the plot. In this context, Foley frames adult Francesca’s repeated claims of her own self-improvement and enlightenment, the benevolent persona she cultivates and presents to the world as both ironic and performative. In contrast to Francesca’s descriptions of herself, she consistently acts in her own self-interest to the detriment of the people around her.

As a teenager spending the summers at her grandparents’ manor in Dorset, Francesca would “collect” locals for her amusement—a detail that undergirds Foley’s characterization of her as a narcissist. She fails to see others as fully human, instead treating them like her playthings to be manipulated. Her distain for the “little people,” as she refers to those less privileged than herself, is reflected in the indifference with which her own mother treats her. Francesca often tells Bella that she feels let down by “everyone from my fucking mother on” (214). Foley connects Francesca’s snobbery, self-involvement, and indifference to her grandfather, Lord Meadows, who consistently exercises his wealth against the working class locals to benefit his family, highlighting the novel’s thematic interest in Class Tensions in a Small Town. Most notably, he swiftly covers up Cora’s murder and threatens Bella and Jake to prevent them from reporting it.

As an adult, Francesca superficially reinvents herself by adopting the persona of an enlightened, spiritually-evolved role model. She appropriates a variety of holistic healing practices rooted in Eastern medicine to promote health and well-being, such as healing crystals, vitamin infusions, and Reiki (a form of energy healing). Over the course of the narrative, Foley exposes Francesca’s personal evolution as a constructed facade and marketing tactic rather than an expression of sincere beliefs. As her husband, Owen Dacre, notes, she tends to pick and choose when to follow these beliefs. When the pressure of the solstice party intensifies, the façade drops and Francesca reveals her true personality.

Eddie Walker, a sweet, sensitive 19-year-old from Tome, works as a dishwasher at The Manor. His father, a dairy farmer, runs the nearby Seaview Farm and resents The Manor, knowing Francesca Meadows wants to force him off his property. From Eddie’s initial introduction—working in The Manor’s kitchen—Foley sets up an internal conflict between his father’s resentment and Eddie’s need to keep his job a secret from his family, underscoring the Class Tensions in a Small Town. When Eddie was young, his brother Jake became addicted to drugs. His father kicked his brother out of the house, causing a rift in his family. Despite only having a few memories of his brother, Eddie misses him and wonders about his fate.

Foley positions Eddie as the eyes and ears of the reader—the only POV character not inherently involved in the tragic events of the past—characterizing him as sincere and down to earth. His inability to work on his family farm due to allergies makes him feel like an outsider even within his own family. As the events of the narrative unfold, his understanding of his family and community comes into sharper focus, and the truth of what happened to Jake the night of Cora’s death provides context for his addiction. Like many of the Tome locals, Eddie is superstitious, having grown up with rumors and legends about the woods. He’s shocked when Delilah takes a feather from a crime scene, which Eddie considers bad luck. Despite their breakup, Eddie is disappointed when he learns that Delilah is dating Nathan Tate, a local bad boy and drug dealer, providing yet another situation in which Eddie feels like an outsider, unable to make sense of the actions, motivations, and desires of those around him.

Eddie demonstrates growth and initiative when he takes matters into his own hands the night of the solstice, donning the black cloak and headdress he took from his parents’ basement and stepping into his legacy as one of The Birds. After he learns the truth of Francesca’s connection to his brother’s struggle with addiction and eventual estrangement, he sees her fleeing the burning Manor and intercepts her, wearing the crow costume and causing her to fall from the beach cliff. After she dies, Eddie feels guilty about contributing to her self-inflicted death, emphasizing the depth of his empathy and care for others.

Foley introduces Detective Inspector Jake Walker, Eddie’s older brother, as a diligent, detail-oriented, hardworking detective. Prior to investigating events at The Manor after the solstice celebration, he worked investigating cold cases in London. The narrator notes, He’s drawn to working cold cases, or cases that have long gone unsolved, because “when you solve a case—there’s nothing like it. Righting a historic wrong. Getting justice for the victim and their family when it’s been denied for so long” (165). His dedication to working cold cases foreshadows Foley’s reveal that Detective Inspector Walker is actually Jake, exposing his connection to the other central characters in the narrative.

In 2010, Jake, a Tome local, meets Bella on the beach where she is vacationing with her family. As a teenager, Jake shows a proclivity for farmwork and his parents expect him to take over the family dairy farm. However, witnessing the death of Cora and being complicit in the coverup of her murder changes Jake drastically. He becomes depressed, withdrawn, and addicted to heroin. His addiction leads him to act recklessly, going so far as to steal his family’s tractor and selling it for drug money, putting the family in financial peril.

After his father kicks him out of the house following the tractor theft, Jake eventually gets sober and dedicates his working life to righting historical criminal injustices. Foley frames his relationship with his work as a redemptive act for him. As he explains to his brother, Eddie, when they are reunited, “I had to find a way to live with myself. This job, it’s been good for me. Solving murders. It was like … penance, I suppose” (397).

Owen Dacre, Francesca’s visionary, avant-garde architect husband, works on the redesign and redevelopment of The Manor into a boutique hotel. Foley introduces Owen as an adult—quiet, image-oriented, and obsessive. He thinks of himself as his own “most masterful construction” (45). Like Bella, he alludes to having remade himself and curated his self-presentation in order to portray himself as a successful, wealthy architect, especially to his wife, Francesca. However, unlike Bella, Owen transforms himself to hide the secrets of his past, while Bella transforms herself to expose them.

Owen grew up in Tome a poor fisherman’s son known as Shrimp. He feels angry and resentful of the locals who tease him for his poverty and strange behavior. He enjoys playing with matches because they give him “a sense of control” (267). His fascination with fire foreshadows his role in burning down the local Tome pub and implicates him as a red herring in the climactic fire at The Manor. Teenage Owen grows even more resentful and sullen after his mother, Cora, disappears. He assumes she abandoned him and acts out in anger, burning down The Crow’s Nest: the “heart of everything […] The place they all gathered. The people who had bullied and judged and then pitied my family” (267).

As a teenager, Owen was obsessed with Francesca. When he’s contacted as an adult to interview for the job redeveloping The Manor property, his ability to attract her confirms to him the success of his transformation. However, Owen’s carefully crafted persona begins to crack during the events of the opening weekend. He has an affair with Michelle—a person also concealing her connection to Tome and the Meadows family. Owen’s simultaneous revulsion and attraction to Michelle evokes his own feelings toward Tome and his own childhood self. Owen’s discovery that Francesca murdered Cora, Owen’s mother, cracks Owen’s carefully constructed mask and he’s finally able to begin to heal the trauma of his past. By the end of the novel, Owen shows clear character growth, shedding his resentment of the Tome community and focusing on personal wealth and power. He uses his inheritance of The Manor to build a community space all the locals can enjoy.