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.

A group of priviledged Londoner go away to Scotland for a New Year treat and one of them gets murdered. The tale is very cleverly written from all different perspectives and so reveals everyone's opinions of each other and the love and hate that exists between them and the thin veil that hides love, lust, jealousy and envy. Could it be one of the group themselves or is it the strange other guests or indeed the a member of the lodge staff who have their own secrets to keep. It all happens during a white out and the group are trapped until communications with the outside world can be re-established. A gripping and imaginative tale.

I cannot agree with the reviews that include the Agatha Christie comparisons-that strikes me as a bit generous. Yes, this was a page turner to be sure but sometimes it dragged and sometimes you wondered if all the characters included in the book were even necessary?? Friends since Oxford get together for their annual get together during the New Years holiday and murder follows. But, you won't even know for sure until the last third or so of the book who for sure was even murdered. The best part of the book to me was the setting-a luxe lodge in the middle of nowhere Scotland during a bad winter storm... other than that--- the characters were very unlikeable and sometimes felt like they were cut out of cardboard. As long as you are not looking for a brilliant thriller, I think that this book delivers a solid mystery in a bleak setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Lots of twists that makes is a good read and keep you guessing. Edgy and yet enjoyable. Loved it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was full of twists and turns as to who had committed the crime, because the author cleverly outlined the fact it could have been anyone. I also liked the dedication of each chapter to a particular character. A very atmospheric read as the story was based in Scotland. Would thoroughly recommend this book. Will definitely read more books by this author.

I read this on a plane journey so it was a nice way to fill the time- it's a pleasant read and in particular, the rolling descriptions of rural Scotland, with its raw beauty and grim darkness are very appealing. A group of friends arrive to a lodge, mostly separated from civilisation, to celebrate the New Year as they have done for the previous decade. The story unfolds through several narrative lenses and has the feeling of a Christie novel.

I had some liking for several of the characters, and others I loathed outright. This is clearly the author's intention and it is very difficult to put yourself in a supporting role for any of the visitors when someone turns up dead. The story twists and turns but the conclusion is neither jaw dropping nor a particular surprise. Some cliche'd tropes crop up here for sure- the strains of marriage and children, infidelity, upper class misanthropy, jealousy and greed. To compare this to Christie might appear favourable at first glance, but in truth, like Christie in 2018, it's a little predictable. It's an enjoyable read and I would recommend it- I think it would be a good story for someone who wants some contemporary murder mystery without too much grit.

Being Scottish piqued my interest in reading this book and also because I enjoy a good thriller. Lucy Foley totally captures the “dreich” barren landscape of a remote Scottish winter and it was a perfect setting for the whodunnit that unfolds. I found the book rather confusing in the beginning, with several different characters point of view all battling to hook me in, but that’s maybe something other readers wouldn’t struggle with. Once in and up to speed with who everyone was, I found myself enjoying the plot but found most of the characters highly unlikeable, with the exception of Heather and Doug. Although the reader is left until near the end to discover who was murdered, I found it fairly obvious from quite early on and I figured out who done it without too much difficulty. All in all an enjoyable read and would recommend it to others readers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a great book to read, very atmospheric and although it starts off slowly, the pace quickens a lot once the plot gets moving.
This book reminds you to ask yourself how well do you know those people around you?
A very creepy thought.

If you like your thrillers thrilling and your plots character driven, I have found just the book for you.
The premise is a classic, a bunch of old friends get together in a remote location and somebody tragically dies…. Was is a spouse? A friend? The grumpy groundskeeper? Only time and a wonderful narrative will tell.

It really is a treat though, the main characters are a group of old university friends getting together for their traditional New Year getaway. It’s been a few years since they all graduated and translating friendships from those years to mature adult relationships is hard work.

The chapters alternate between perspectives, which is really great because you get to read about the same past events through the eyes of different characters and get a better picture of how their minds work. Obviously, some of the characters are more reliable than others and there are a few with dark pasts that are very slowly dragged out of them at a frustrating pace but it’s worth it! Best of all, not all of the characters are likable – they’ve done dodgy things in the past, like every other person on the planet, and that just makes it all the juicer.

Another thing that I liked was that it was set in rural Scotland, but the total isolation of the area isn’t romanticised – it’s a dangerous place to be when the weather cuts them off, with no phone signal or access to basic amenities. As a result, it makes the entire story more atmospheric and tense rather than waxing lyrical about lochs and pine trees (both of which are beautiful, but probably not what you’re noticing when someone’s been murdered). If you get a chance, read this book when it’s snowy and cold out for added thrills…

I adored Foley’s writing style with this book and couldn’t put it down, I’ll happily pick up anything she’s written from now on without question

I've always wanted to spend Christmas/New Year in a Highland Lodge myself and being snowed in seems such fun....However I'm not sure I would be so keen now as it is a scary prospect that this makes such a good setting for murder! The characters are well developed, although I did find myself forgetting who was/did/related to who/what. Not easy to guess the final outcome so that is always a good plus for a murder mystery novel..

Excellently crafted psychological thriller, enjoyably written and just flat out entertaining. I loved the off-the-wall twist at the end.

'The Hunting Party' by Lucy Foley is out in January 2019 and it is perfectly timed as it is set at New Year(2018) in a snow and ice bound lodge in the remote Scottish Highlands.
A group of well to do friends in their thirties have arranged to spend the holiday there after struggling to see each other as much as they would like due to work and family commitments . No expense spared in booking it (by Katie) the ante upped in the catering department by Emma and exclusive access to the Central Lodge (the original building is out of bounds due to safety reasons) gives them a 50,000 acre area where they can relax, hunt, take saunas and generally unwind. whilst being waited on by the Lodge manager, Heather and general caretaker/gamekeeper Doug.
But, as the friends gather to celebrate New Year, the snow and icy conditions mean that after they arrive they are effectively cut off from the outside world, based in an area known for poachers, smugglers, oh and a serial killer called the 'The Highland Ripper' is on the loose....and then 2 unexpected guests turn up...
Tensions mount as the sense of isolation creeps in and then a body is found.
Perfect winter reading, you can literally feel the chill coming off the bones of the corpse, this is a fantastic story with tension mounting to unbearable levels as the guests become engaged in a game of cat and mouse and old rivalries rise to the surface.
Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for letting me read this in return for an honest review.

Not exactly an original proposition but it was made interesting by the well described interpersonal relationships between friends. However, one was to meet an untimely end and we were left with a 'who done it'. I cannot say it was a page turner and I felt a degree of relief when I'd finished it.

Let me say first, there was no way that I wasn’t going to get the end of this book. After the first few pages, I began to be drawn into the story line and wanted to discover not only the identity of the victim and murderer but also the secrets to which all the others characters alluded.
Unfortunately, I think this was more down to my unyielding sense of voyeuristic nosiness than to the feeling of suspense and drama in the plot line. The characters were mostly without any redeeming features and all felt very two dimensional while the device of jumping between dates was quite confusing, especially at the beginning. This novel felt like it should have been either much longer or a short story.
It’s not my usual kind of read- I downloaded it expecting a snowy murder mystery a la golden age of crime, so I’m sure it will appeal to many- but I came away feeling slightly unfulfilled.

An updated whodunit with the Scottish highlands equivalent of a locked-room mystery. A group of old friends go to a remote lodge for New Year, tensions mount and a body is discovered early on New Year's day. The weather has closed in and no one can leave. Many of the characters take turn to narrate the story as it goes back and forth from New Years Day to the lead up. We don't know who did it or who the victim was but we certainly don't like or trust most of them. It is an intriguing read but I did find the frequent change of narrator/viewpoint and time a bit confusing at times.

Wonderfully atmospheric this well written story about old friends transports the reader to a beautiful but desolate and somewhat unwelcoming remote area of the Scottish Highlands. An annual ritual of spending New Year together brings a mixture of excitement and trepidation among the group. While most like to reminisce about their younger days and recapture their youth with wild abandon, others have moved on and are comfortable with their more adult existence. Unsurprisingly, disagreements occur and drunkeness threatens to reveal dark secrets that could threaten the enduring friendships. Amidst a heavy snowstorm a body is discovered of a missing guest. Who is it? Were they murdered or was it an unfortunate accident? Can people really remain good friends for many years or do differing lives and paths always get in the way?
I thoroughly enjoyed this tense and gripping book with the unfolding drama that had me guessing throughout.

I have to be honest, I struggled to like this book. The 'guest' characters are without exception shallow, unpleasant, self-centred creatures who don't appear to have matured at all since leaving university where they all met. Eventually I began to hope they would all be dispatched one by one à la 'And Then There Were None'.

Given the setting of a remote hunting lodge cut off by the snow, the tension failed to build. By the middle of the book it became fairly clear who the murder victim was going to be, the big reveal of the murderer's identity was implausible, and the red herring plot twist was brief and pretty much irrelevant to the story.

Good for whiling away a couple of hours waiting for your flight to be called, perhaps, but I'm afraid it failed to get my heart racing.

The Hunting Party is atmospheric and menacing. A group of thirtysomething university friends and their partners gather to celebrate new year at a remote but luxurious hunting lodge in Scotland, where old tensions resurface and proceedings turn somewhat nasty. The story is skilfully told from multiple viewpoints and, although the characters aren’t particularly likeable, Lucy Foley nonetheless manages to draw you in with a plot that leaves you guessing both what as well as who did it.