The synopsis got me like no other: the Scottish Highlands, a group of people, and one killer. I've always been fascinated by closed doors murder mysteries, therefore I had high hopes for The Hunting Party, especially since early reviews raved about how amazing the book is. Unfortunately, the story was a little bit miss for me, for a few reasons.

The Hunting Party features nine friends, who gather together to celebrate the new year, and two employees of the place they stay at. There's five different point of views: Heather (caretaker), Doug (groundskeeper), Emma, Katie and Miranda. Honestly, it felt too much and the author made a strange decision, as all the female point of views were written in first person and Doug's in third person. Not only that, the three friends sounded so similar that it was difficult to keep up. The identity of both victim and killer narrowed down pretty quickly, because half of the nine friends got a lot more attention than the rest. These kind of structural choices ate some of the mystery.

Another thing was the character chemistry and their bonds. It became quickly clear that the group of friends weren't really close. They had secrets and resentment, and I ended up asking, why are they even friends? They barely liked each other and especially Miranda seemed to delight in bullying others. They were all pretty much unlikable characters, few of them were alright but then again, they were the ones left in the background. I did find Heather and Doug's chapters more enjoyable and interesting, because they weren't snobby and felt more likable characters.

There were redeeming qualities in The Hunting Party; it's fast paced and easy to devour, and the setting of the remote Scottish Highlands was stunning. I read it in three days and it kept me relatively captivated, but I think it could have been so much better if the point of views had been limited or structured differently, and the characters hadn't been such unlikable.

Overall, The Hunting Party was a meh read for me. I'd recommend something else, mainly And Then There Were None, for closed doors murder mystery, because this one doesn't have that much mystery or heart-pounding thrill, and is a bit predictable.

I really enjoyed this book, thank you Netgalley.
A group of old friends from university meet up each New Year’s Eve and this year they have chosen a remote loge retreat in Scotland. But every year their friendship feels more and more forced and they have to try harder to have fun. This year is no exception and revelations are made which can change lives.
When I first looked at the contents of this book I saw that it was written from lots of view points and changed between time zones a lot, which I wasn’t sure I could get on with. However, don’t let this put you off as it doesn’t deter from the story or become confusing, in fact it adds to the tension built up throughout.
There were 2 characters from Sweden which appeared and didn’t really have anything to do with the story so I’m not sure why they were there, but otherwise, I couldn’t put this book down and it’s highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it - a perfect murder mystery for the winter.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the chance to read this book.
“That’s the thing about old friends isn’t it? Some times they don’t even realise that they no longer have anything in common. That maybe they don’t even like each other anymore”

A group of old university friends have a yearly tradition of bringing in the New Year together. It’s December 2018 and this year they have organised a secluded and very exclusive lodge in the Scottish Highlands. I loved the setting of this book, very atmospheric and eerie.

Told from multiple points of view, the celebrations don’t quite go to plan, secrets are spilled, tensions rise and one of the group is mysteriously murdered. The group are snowed in, with no way of the police getting to them. Will the murderer strike again and why did they strike in the first place?

This is a stay up past your bedtime, just one more chapter kind of book.

The Hunting Party sounded like a good read from the off: great location, a group of friends celebrating New Year's Eve in style and a missing person. Unfortunately it didn't work for me, mainly because there were far too many POVs and halfway through each chapter I found I had forgotten whose POV I was reading. I also didn't like or empathise with one single character. And why were most of the POVs written in the first person and some in the third? This confused me so much. It was a slow read for me and the tying up of loose ends was rather trite. Sorry not for me. Thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC

Full review to come.
I deeply apologize, but life is a handful lately and I'm using all my free time to read, not review. I hope everybody understands.

Nine thirty-something friends who’ve known each other for years gather as guests at a remote lodge in the Scottish Highlands to celebrate New Year’s Eve. While their lives have all changed since their university days, their relationships and group dynamics are still handcuffed by their shared history.

An unexpected death, suspicious staff members, troubling secrets, and a killer on the loose; Lucy Foley’s fourth novel is quite a swerve from her earlier oeuvre of historical and contemporary love stories. An atmospheric, wintry tale that would likely translate well to screen, the tagline could happily read ‘Agatha Christie meets The Big Chill’. The Hunting Party blends elements of classic ‘cut off from the outside murder mysteries with a tale of friends whose relationships and ideas of themselves are fracturing.

There’s plenty to like in Foley’s first mystery. The set-up quickly draws readers in, the isolated lodge setting is incredibly evocative, and there’s a really good narrative drive as the viewpoint switches between characters and back and forth in time. Several interesting issues are touched upon. This is a page-turner with a capital P, although there are occasional moments where ‘author hand’ is a little too obvious or the characters feel more like they’re movable pieces in a game rather than as full-fleshed as they may otherwise be. Minor quibbles aside, The Hunting Party shows that Foley is well-suited to the crime and thriller genre, and hopefully this intriguing and enjoyable read is just the beginning for her.

This was such an interesting read that I enjoyed very much. I found the book to be gripping and a real page turner. This book is about a group of friends who go away together to a lodge located in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands to celebrate the New Year and to catch up with each other like they used to during their Uni days, but while there one of the friends disappears, and a murdered body if found. (I won’t say too much more now).

I found this to be a well written storyline. The story is told through the point of view of at least 5 different characters (If I counted correctly), which consist of the guests and staff that work and look after the lodge. I did sometimes struggle to remember which point of view I was reading because it does switch back and forth from the different characters quite a bit.

I really enjoyed the suspense factor in the book, especially as we don’t learn who has been murdered until quite late into the storyline. Also, with all the different twists we don’t know who committed the murder either.

There were some very interesting and intriguing characters in this book and I couldn’t wait to find out more about them. But at the same time there were also a few characters that I just didn’t like, and found them a little unnecessary

Overall, even with some of the slow sections in the book I still really enjoyed this book. It’s a great thrilling mystery that I recommend you give ago if you haven’t already read it.

I would like to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for my eARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I heard so many good things about Lucy Foley’s new novel that I was really looking forward to reading it. My expectations were pretty high, as I read many positive reviews, and I am happy to say that they were fully met. I was so immersed in the novel that I had trouble putting it down and I read it in two days.

A group of friends, a remote location, a snowstorm that stops everyone from getting in and out, a murderer among them, a suspenseful atmosphere worth of an Agatha Christie’s novel, these are all elements that make this novel twisty, compelling, and unputdownable.

The protagonists met at Oxford University ten years earlier and they have been friends since then. There is the golden couple, Julien and Miranda, who has been together since college; there are the new parents, Giles and Sanita; there is Mark with his girlfriend of three years, Emma, the outsider of the group who would do anything to fit in with Mark’s friends; there is Katie, the single quiet workaholic friend; and there are Nick and Bo who are there just because they are friends with Katie. These nine people spend every New Year’s Eve together and this year, they have rented The Lodge, an exclusive house in the Scottish Highlands. Everyone is hiding something and when a body turns up, past jealousies, secrets and lies risk to come to light.

Told from different points of views and on two timelines (before and after the murder), THE HUNTING PARTY is a twisty and gripping novel. The characters are flawed and often not very likable. They are very well-drawn and jealousies, secrets, and tension between the group of friends is palpable through the pages. One of them is killed and one of them is probably the murderer and Lucy Foley does an amazing job keeping the reader in the dark about their identity and, despite the hints she gives here and there, I didn’t figure it out until at the end when it was all revealed.

I loved the setting the author chose for this gripping novel. A remote house, a beautiful winter landscape, snow everywhere, they all fit perfectly with the twisty and chilling plot of the novel and, thanks to the author’s attention to details, I could almost picture it in my head.

THE HUNTING PARTY is a riveting, captivating, and atmospheric read that will keep you on the edge of your seat, a well-written and gripping story that you won’t be able to put down and I’d like to thank HarperCollins for providing me with a copy of the book.

Being from the Highlands of Scotland, the location of this book is what drew me. There have been a number of books with a similar setup - a group of school/uni friends meet up in a remote location and there is a murder. This book felt very different from the others however, as it jumps between the group arriving and a body being found. The story continues until the two timelines collide, and only then do we find out who has been killed, and who killed them.

The group are all pretty awful people, getting worse as we get to know them. The mystery is even more intriguing as we not only don’t know the killer, we don’t even know who the victim is.

A great page turner which keeps you guessing until the end.

Brilliant story in the vein of Agatha Christie.
A group of friends go to an isolated estate in the Highlands to celebrate New Year.
Early on in the book it is identified that one of the party has been murdered and due to the fact that they are snowed in it has to be one of the party.
The beauty of the storyline is that you do not know to the very end who has been murdered and who committed it.
The story flips back and forward between New Year and a few days later and over this time you are enlightened about their relationships and also their secrets.
Mixed in are the manager of the estate and the game keeper who both have their secrets.
One of those books that keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

What I Have to Say
The ending ruined this book to me. The reveal of the murder. Because the author took the same way out that tons of other crime writers do to explain why this person did the things they did. So, SPOILERS FOR MOTIVE OF MURDER BUT NOT THE ACTUAL KILLER: surprise surprise, it was a personality disorder, because why else would someone kill someone? If there were more books about people with personality disorders living healthy lives without being cast as the villain every time, this wouldn't be so big of an issue. The fact is there are people living out in the world with these issues. And every time they see themselves in fictions they are the twist in a crime novel. The world is sending them a message to say that they are destined to kill someone and THAT IS NOT OKAY.

Until that, I really liked the book. I'm really upset with how that one bit of the book ruined the rest of it for me. Because the plot was really engrossing. The characters were engaging and completely dis-likeable in the way that some plots work with dislikeable characters and the setting was beautifully written. I loved the feeling of beauty all around that was created at the start of the book and the way it changed to an isolated, desolated landscape as the storm hit.

I wish I could recommend this book, because it really kept me reading and enjoying it for most of the book, but I know the damage it does to people with personality disorders, so I just can't.

I really liked the story line and the characters. The plot even though predictable kept me engaged. A good book for the holidays.

„The Hunting Party“ is a classical murder mystery. A group of old friends spent every New Year Eve together. This time they go to a remote resort in the Scottish Highlands. Then one of them turned out dead and it seems that it was no accident.

They call themselves friends but it is very obvious that they grow apart. They don’t even like each other anymore. They are just used to the fact that they are friends. There is a lot of drama going on in this few days and sometimes you have to remember that they are adults. They are all thirty-something but behave still like schoolkids. But I liked who the author portraits the dysfunctional friendships although it took me a while to keep the male characters apart. At the beginning they were all the same to me and I mixed them up. The setting in the cold and snowy Scotland is atmospheric and eerie. The main problem is that there are two more characters, employees at the lodge, which I did not care for at all and I did not like their storylines. I would have preferred to keep the focus on the friends.

The story is told through the eyes of the female friends and the employees. In almost every chapter there are flashbacks to their past. Unfortunately this slowed the story down. Every time I got excited about what happened there was another long flashback and the tension was gone. Or it was a chapter told from the POV of the gamekeeper and I got bored. I think this kind of storytelling was a bit unfortunate for the book. It made it very slow. I really liked the idea and everything about the book yelled “read me” at me. I enjoyed the toxic friendships and the atmospheric setting. But it was a bit slow, then the two unnecessary and uninteresting storylines and too many flashbacks. It is not a bad book. It’s an easy read and I enjoyed parts of it. I am just not overexcited.

An ambitious murder mystery. 3/5 stars.

I was excited to read this as it looked like an interesting combination of some classic murder mystery tropes with darker thriller elements. Perhaps I went in with inflated expectations because sadly I was left disappointed.

I appreciate that the author is trying to take a different approach to a classic murder mystery problem. Like many “closed suspect pool” mysteries, the story starts with the discovery of a body, leaving the characters and us to work out who the murderer is. The Hunting Party runs another mystery in parallel to the “whodunnit” by also keeping back who the victim is until confirming the identity of the deceased at about the 80% mark.

This dual mystery is preserved by using flashbacks from the present to the events of the past three days as the friends of the titular party reunite in the Scottish Highlands and get snowed in. I imagine a lot of work went into structuring the novel in such a way to keep us guessing and the flashbacks work well, are clearly signposted and don’t become confusing. Information is also limited by the use of several first person viewpoints, which was slightly tricky to grasp at the start of the novel but made for smooth reading once I’d learnt everyone’s names. My brief period of confusion may also be partially due to the majority of the viewpoints being those of the female guests who are all of similar backgrounds and so have similar voices. I was relieved the voices of the two members of staff were markedly different.

However, while an interesting idea, I think the double mystery went on too long. I prefer murder mysteries where the reader knows the identity of the victim so we can focus on scrutinizing their interactions with the other characters and so work out who may have motive for murder.

That said, you can have a fair guess who the victim is at about the halfway point. The bigger issue for me was I didn’t care because most of the guests were shallow, self-obsessed and entirely ungrateful for and unaware of their staggering levels of privilege. The only characters I had any sympathy for were the staff and consequently the only genuine tension I felt was near the end of the book when one of these characters goes off and does something ridiculously dangerous. Unsurprisingly I flew through that section of the novel because I was worried about their safety. If I’d felt similarly about any of the potential victims then the rest of the book, including the eventual reveals, would have been similarly gripping.

Overall: The Hunting Party is an ambitious murder mystery which works hard to maintain two threads of suspense and I’m sure many readers will find it an enjoyable read. Sadly I needed to care more about the members of the party to become involved in the gradual revelation of the victim and killer.

Nine friends get together at a remote hunting lodge in Scotland for New Year. Bad weather strikes and they are stranded along with two other guests and the lodge staff, but worse than that, there's a killer amongst them.

Told from several points of view, all of the characters had their own secrets. I thought that it was well-written, not finding out who was killed until late in the book was a nice touch, and I loved the location, but to be honest I found the plot very predictable. You could see what was coming from a mile off which spoilt it a little as a thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, HarperCollins UK, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

I raced through this faster than I'd thought I would. The characters are almost all idiots, but they're meant to be. This meant that I did find myself rolling my eyes quite a bit, and actually hoping certain people might end up getting murdered (!) but still, it was a good, trashy read. I sometimes struggled to know which point of view I was reading as it switches a lot - I had to flick back quite a few times to check who was now telling me what was going on. But it was incredibly readable & I'd certainly read more by this author.

I read this book over two evenings and couldn't stop thinking about it during the day. It left me uneasy, unsettled and feeling desperately claustrophobic. A group of friends spend NYE in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. One of them goes missing, there's a body, the killer is amongst them. We have to wait a long time to find out who both the victim and the killer are, and Foley takes full advantage of this, throwing us off into all kinds of distracted paths. I guessed the victim fairly early on, but the killer (and motive) came as a complete shock. I was still thinking about this book for days afterwards.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

a group of friends get together every new years eve...they are life long friends from university days,they have seen the best and the worst of each other but they make this pilgrimage to rekindle those bygone days and refresh their friendships

they are in some remote spot in scotland and the drinking and games start but this year for a change there is an undercurrant felt by all

and then a body is found....could it really be possible that one of their own killed someone from their group

what a book this one is...and as the storyline develops with each chapter going backwards and forwards days at a time we see it from each perspective....

a thoroughly gripping book that makes you question your own friendships as it only takes one person in your group to turn it all toxic

this book kept me up as i had to find out who the killer was and what ended up with all those friendships...also gonna keep my eye out for more books by this author

A well written debut where the author cleverly captures the atmosphere of old friends who have outgrown each other; the undercurrent of resentment, the strained determination to have a good time and the wishing that the time away together was shorter!!

The characters, though well drawn were somewhat cliched. I did like the Agatha Christie mystery style of this book and the premise is the basis of most murder mystery games (which I love) but for me some of the reveals in the book were a little too obvious and not particularly thrilling. Having said that I did enjoy the book it was well paced, had some really good twists and me kept turning the pages. I just didn't love it as much as I expected to - it may have been the victim of it's own hype.

3.5 stars

Many thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. My honest thoughts and opinion are expressed in this review.