How little it takes, I think, just some shadows, really, to make ourselves unknown to each other.


The Hunting Party is a book about terrible people going away on holiday for the New Year and one of them ending up dead. It's a book about growing up and growing apart, but with a very deadly twist. It reminded me, in a way, of Donna Tartt's The Secret History though without her flair for the poetic and the big sweeping vistas of New England in winter (that sense of alienation and the foreboding feeling that something dark is right around the corner), but also of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which I remember reading and loving as a teenager. Instead, this story follows a group of Oxford friends who reunite for a New Year's Eve party in a lodge in the Scottish highlands. Cut off from civilisation and hiding secrets that could tear the group apart, they are all shocked when a dead body is discovered in the snow; it seems among them, there is a killer.

The main thing to bear in mind about The Hunting Party is that basically everyone in the Oxford group is an unlikable prat. The main POV characters are Miranda (the glamorous one), Katie (her best friend), Emma (the newer addition to the group), along with Doug, the gamekeeper Doug and Heather, the manager of the property, both of whom have their own demons and troubled pasts to run away from. The plot swings between the before and the after of the murder, as things escalate to a dangerous and deadly climax. Foley adeptly manages to keep you guessing about who the murderer might be and the revelation, though shocking, isn't completely unexpected - the clues are definitely there if you're paying attention.

By making everyone an irredeemable arsehole, it is, at times, hard to truly sympathise with any of them (though, it should be noted, that I don't think that the victim deserved their fate). This is a group of people blind to their privilege, making it obvious that none of them will come out of this unscathed. Even in their first person accounts, biased as you would expect them to be, it's clear that Foley wants you to dislike them, but also to cast a light on the kind of people that would embody the phrase, 'so this is how the other half lives'. Foley even manages, for quite some time, to keep the identity of the victim a secret, which was an interesting choice, even if the language was sometimes stilted and awkward; when Heather, the manager and the one who has most consistently referred to guests by their names, stops thinking of (view spoiler) by their name and instead starts using more generic terms, it doesn't at all feel natural.

There is also a subplot involving (view spoiler) which I genuinely couldn't care for. When you have a killer among a group of people who are cut off from the rest of the world, I feel that adds enough tension and drama, without some other thing to distract from what's happening. I wanted to see whether Foley would go somewhere really interesting with this, but she doesn't and it feels like a distraction, the sting from the end really taken out (mostly because I didn't care for that character at all and I genuinely don't see what it actually added to the final story). Speaking of, the ending is almost frustrating in how some people seem to get away, like (view spoiler), but I would say from the perspective of how the murder plot pans out, it's reasonably satisfactory.

I sound like I'm putting the book down a lot, but I did find it an engaging read. I zipped through the novel, turning the pages on my Kindle frantically and only wanting to see what would happen next, worried I would miss my train stop. When it launches, it would make the perfect kind of novel to read in the haze of the Christmas excesses and the 'New Year, new you' mantras all over social media. Quick, zippy, dark and dangerous, making you appreciate your group of friends even more.

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley for me personally, is a hard one to review. It’s similar to an Agatha Christie novel, a whodunit novel.
A group of friends that have been friends from their Oxford University days. Decides to celebrate the New year in, by renting a lodge in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands. When a Snow storm breaks and they are all stranded together. But, they make the best of things by drinking champagne and throwing dinner parties etc. Until, a body turns up. The friends now stranded and waiting until the weather gets better, they soon learn about each other and their friendships are not as good as it seems.
This is a good effort for a debut novel. This story was well written, suspenseful, wondering who was the killer, while being snowed in. Each one of the characters not trusting each other, but try to enjoy their time together all the same. Each chapter centred around a different character and the background of their stories that brings it up to present day. I just didn’t like any of the characters in this story. There were no likeable ones I thought they were all vain, apart from the staff Heather and Doug. I thought for me personally, there was too much of their background story but not enough main one.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a copy of this book 3.5 stars from me.

Proper old school whodunnit and has properly put me off meeting old school and uni friends. Very atmospheric which had me curling up under a blanket. I will be recommending this and waiting with baited breath for the next book

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS


I enjoyed the first 75%or so of the book.
When you didn't actually know who the murder victim was,and actually couldn't be 100% sure who the suspects were.
Getting to know each of the characters.
To be honest,none of the guests seemed very nice....even at the beginning,so no sympathy for whichever died.
When it was revealed who had died,and that it wasn't the ripper... I'm afraid for me it all went downhill.
It felt like everything was thrown at the story.... affairs,drugs,stalking,then obviously murder.
Far fetched is how I'd describe it.
Still enjoyable,but not quite as good as the beginning of book promised.

A superb story excellently written, could not put this book down, will definitely be looking out for other titles by this author, I am a firm fan of her work.

A fantastic read from start to finish.
With a gripping story line, you'll find this book hard to put down!
Would love to read more books from Lucy, shes a fantastic writer.

This is fun, creepy take on a country-house mystery, with a cast of characters who are all slightly terrible, in a wonderfully enjoyable way. Set in a hunting lodge on New Year's Eve, the atmosphere builds like the blanket of snow around the hunting party as they drink champagne, celebrate, and watch their friendships fall apart. It was twisty and unpredictable, and I enjoyed trying to stay one step ahead of the plot and work out who the body was before the characters got their themselves.

It's no secret that I love a bit of Agatha Christie so when I kept seeing reviews of The Hunting Party saying that in plot and tone it evoked the great lady herself, I couldn't wait to give it a read. In that sense, The Hunting Party is murder mystery 101, it ticks all the boxes. Set in an isolated luxury lodge in the snowy Scottish highlands, a group of nine friends go there to spend New Year's Eve; they are Oxford University alumni, each with a back story and secrets. Add in two other random guests from Iceland that no-one knows much about and three lodge employees who all have more to their characters than first meets the eye and you have the perfect blend to create just the right level of intrigue and suspense. As lodge manager, Heather says, 'Some people, given just the right amount of pressure, taken out of their usual, comfortable environments, don't need much encouragement at all to become monsters.'

We are told in the prologue that someone has been murdered, then the narrative jumps between the present and back to the preceding few days to tantalisingly reveal the story. Not only that, five characters - Heather, Doug, Miranda, Katie and Emma - are given their own chapters throughout the book. This might seem like a lot of plates to be spinning, but it never felt confused or cluttered, Lucy Foley skilfully uses these devices to give us multiple points of view, move the story along at a perfect pace and add a pulse of suspense that beats loudly through every chapter.

The Agatha Christie comparisons are richly deserved, you know one of the characters is murdered, but are kept guessing throughout a majority of the read as to who the victim is, let alone who the murderer is. Not only that, the ending throws up a few twists I was not expecting, which really upped the pace for the last quarter and left me wishing it wasn't all over when I reached the final page. This is a truly great and satisfying murder mystery that you need to add to your TBR list!

A group of friends from university, now in their thirties, travel to a remote resort in the Scottish Highlands. What promised to an idyllic retreat to celebrate the New Year turns into tragedy when one of the party is found dead. Lucy Foley expertly depicts growing strain amongst the friendships within the group, unearthing long-held resentment and jealousy. The Hunting Party is reminiscent of Agatha Christie meets Clare Mackintosh.

An enjoyable story of the breakdown of relationships between a group of ‘old friends’ when taken out of their comfort zone and stranded on a snowbound estate in Scotland.
Interesting background stories revealed throughout the book that keep you guessing who is the guilty party. Even the victim is not revealed until the end.
#LucyFoley,#NetGalley,#TheHuntingParty

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting. I was totally caught up in the story from the start. I wanted to know who had died and who the murderer was. A group of friends together for New Year sounds like a really good holiday. However there are secrets and lies. Not all the characters are likeable. Some of them I would never want as friends. The mix of characters makes it a really good read and adds to the suspense. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This was a very good read. The setting was wonderful and the atmosphere of the lodge was perfect. You could almost feel that you were there.
I felt that the characters were very interesting and believable.
The house party from hell, with friendships that were not what they seemed.
The feeling that "something" was going on kept up my interest and the book was read in no time at all.
It was very good indeed. I loved it.
Thank you Netgalley.

In the end it was a good enough book to read but I wasn't a fan of the way it was written - jumping back and forth between dates and then jumping around with the different characters. It made it confusing to remember what was said when and by whom. And a book set in Scotland using 'New Years Eve' rather than Hogmanay, especially by the Scottish characters is unforgiving!!!

I wanted to like this book. I liked the premise, it promised a good 'closed door' type mystery but I just did not like (or hate) any characters. I didn't care how they got to where they were. I skim read most of it, so I could read the viewpoint of the house staff. It's not that the writing was bad, I enjoyed the bits I read.

I received this book from Netgalley. A murder mystery set in the snowy Highlands of Scotland. This is a very atmospheric novel, reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel set in modern times.Lucy Foley gives the reader a real feel for the weather conditions surrounding the hunting party but does not seem to use the same depth with her characters all of which except for Heather and Doug are seemingly quite obnoxious without a redeeming factor between them.

The plot runs along at a fairly quick pace but to be quite honest I had no real interest in who was dead and by whose hand. This was maybe less the fault of the author as the dislikeable characters she created. Now I would definitely look out for the back story to Heather and Doug's reason for taking on work at The Lodge.

A wonderful story with mystery and characters that felt real. I shall be looking out for more from this author

This is one twisty little blighter of a book!

Foley takes us to the Highlands in Scotland and introduces us to a group of friends (who all met at Oxford and are still in touch many years after graduation) who are having a reunion for New Years Eve.

In this luxury but remote place the heady cocktail of festive fun, too much booze and withheld secrets and grudges makes for a brilliant setting. Add in a body and this cocktail suddenly becomes lethal...

Foley isn't afraid of introducing you to a group of people who are mostly unlikeable yet intriguing. I don't mind a good plot full of unlikeable characters (but this may not be the book for you if you do need someone to connect to), it adds to the diversity and is ultimately quite realistic given that the story is about very career driven ego centric couples. Added to the mix are some very troubled staff members, leading you to think that the murderer could literally be anyone.

A brilliant (and somewhat original take on a good old fashioned murder plot) is that you don't find out who has been murdered until nearly the end of the book. All the way through (from the very first chapter) you know there is a body, where it is found, then we find out the gender (no spoilers here!) and whilst you can have a good old guess it's not confirmed until very late on. This makes brilliant guess reading as in order to find a killer you have to know the victim and motive. Throughout most of this book you have no clue!

I had trouble at times remembering who was who as the story is told from 5 different points of view: Miranda (the 'It' girl from Oxford), Emma (Miranda's new bestie who tries to emulate Miranda's perfection at every opportunity), Katie (used to be Miranda's bestie but has since distanced herself) then Heather and Doug (the lodges staff...both young and single yet want to live in a remote location?). However each character and their back stories are very juicy. You will want to power through to find out all about them!

I really enjoyed this book. I adored the backdrop of the beautiful Highlands and the fact that the harsh weather turned this picturesque landscape into a hostile prison, cutting the group off from the world made the atmosphere perfect. Any fans of Agatha Christie will most certainly enjoy this book.

A great 4 star read for me!

I would like to thank Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

There's more than a touch of the Agatha Christie's here...

Take a cast of (mainly) unlikeable characters - many with secrets and troubled pasts - put them in a snowbound Scottish setting, throw in a few red herrings, stir, and add murder!

Really enjoyed this novel - I did actually guess "whodunnit" but not until near the end of the book.

I've previously read Lucy Foley's more "historical" style novels - this is very different and contemporary. A good read for an autumn (or snowy!) day.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for my honest review.

I really liked the setting for this book and enjoyed the cold, desolate landscape. I also enjoyed getting to know the characters, their reasoning and responses all entirely authentic thanks to their carefully revealed backstories. A real strong point of this book was the slow drip of secrets.

BUT as we were heading towards the reveal of both a murder victim and a murderer the secrets became a little easier to unravel and I was hoping for a better secret/twist than was actually revealed.
Heather in the present day kept referring to 'a body' or 'a guest' to keep the gender of the victim secret from us. But the past stories of the guests were all building up to Miranda being the victim, so much so that I hoped there was NO WAY it could be her because it was just so obvious. But it was!
So there was no point Heather keeping the victim's identity from us because we knew all along.

The murderer also became obvious as we knew Emma was the historic stalker although I did appreciate all the red herrings as all the guests had a motive.
The drugs sub-story wasn't needed however and I found that a huge distraction.

Still I enjoyed it despite the obvious ending.

I quite enjoyed this one (eventually). A whodunnit with a twist.

A group of old friends have travelled up from London and are spending New Year in a remote lodge in the Scottish Highlands. Soon after they arrive the estate is cut off from the outside world by snow but they have plenty of food and alcohol to help celebrate the festive season. The only ones on the estate are the friends, one other couple and two people who work there.

A body is discovered. The identity is not revealed at that point but given that no one can get in or out of the estate the killer must still be there.

I struggled a bit initially. The story is told from each character's viewpoint but there are lots of flashbacks to times before the body is found. I seemed to be taking ages to even get to the halfway point.. I didn't find it 'un-put-downable', at least initially. Nor did I really care for any of the characters. However the story is quite well written and the tension does build up. Things start to go wrong, tempers flare, cracks appear.

I almost gave up around the halfway mark but rather than abandoning the story I did something that many readers frown upon - I jumped to nearer the end of the book and started reading. I actually found it much more interesting, got to the end, decided it might be worth reading the rest of it and so went back to the middle and read on.

In the end, I quite enjoyed it. The Hunting Party might just have been the wrong story for me at that time I tried to read it. I suspect if I were just starting it now, I would enjoy it.