#TheSearchParty #NetGalley This was a very difficult book to get into and it did not have me eager to pick it up at all. It is told from different perspectives mainly from the teens involved in the search party and in a one sided interview style that I found thoroughly confusing at o which teen it was. The pace was slow and dragged and I found myself skimming great parts of the dialogue eager for action which did not happen. The story line was an interesting one and I was really looking forward to reading bud sadly this did not work at all well for me.

A dark physiological thriller with complex characters, any of whom may be responsible for the disappearance of Sadie. Her friends, an assorted group of teenagers, frustrated with the lack of progress being made by the police, set out as a search party to try and find her. Their journey takes them into dark woods, with food and drink scarce and tiredness taking its toll, fear is heightened as they are spooked by noises and strange events. An underlying element of mistrust surfaces between the group as they each wonder if one of the others is to blame. Meanwhile DI Rob Fleet is under pressure to resolve the case once the group are back and giving their version of events. Atmospheric and creepy, this book delivers in spades and will have the reader turning the pages long into the night to discover the shocking truth that gradually unfolds.

16 year old Sadie Saunders has gone missing without a trace. While the police are searching the river and edge of the woods, her friends become convinced they’re looking in the wrong spot. They form their own search party, and head off deeper into the woods. After a couple of nights, the police receive a desperate call from the group of friends. When they reach them, there is a dead body... but it isn’t Sadie. ⁣
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With rumours circulating wildly about Sadie in the lead up to her disappearance, the web of secrets and lies amongst the teenagers, and tensions simmering just below the surface... who can be trusted? ⁣
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This book is told from multiple points of view, which in the beginning was a little confusing - but once I had worked out who was who and got used to the format, the pace picked up. This had me guessing right until the end, there were just so many lies that you could never believe what you were reading. I formed a couple of theories towards the end, and only one turned out to be half right. The writing was very atmospheric, I felt just as creeped out as the teens when odd things started happening in the woods. If you like twisty crime dramas, give this a go!⁣
Pub date is August 2020, thanks @netgalley and @vikingbooks for the ARC 😍⁣

This book is written in a different way to most and I found that added to my enjoyment of it.
You get the police and personal perspective of DI Fleet interspersed with the narrative from the teenagers in the search party. Gradually the relationships and the events are disclosed along with the baggage from Fleet's past.
i loved the way the truth was revealed over time, like an archaeologist uncovering a mosaic or a jigsaw puzzle where you can begin to see the whole picture. Although the ending is not quite the picture you were anticipating.
I would like to read more from this author.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Lelic’s The House, I was overjoyed when I was given the opportunity to read his new novel, The Search party, and I wasn’t disappointed! The novel is plotted with skill, the writing is rich yet clear and the twists are ‘twisty’ yet also believable. I think that’s where Lelic shines: he has a great ability to write realistic stories, which feel as though they could happen in the house or town next door.

At first, it took me a little while to get used to the teenagers’ POVs, as these chapters read more like a stream of consciousness than a ‘normal’ narrative, and I was worried they would go on for too long and I would get bored of the format, but I’m pleased to report that after the first few pages I really got into it. I have rated it a 4 star instead of 5 purely because sometimes I felt that the teenagers’ narratives were a little too ‘self-aware’ and occasionally slipped out of story-telling mode and into 'authorial' mode.

That being said, I really enjoy mysteries with many possible suspects, and this is a great example of such a narrative. Would recommend!

‘The truth lay buried in their stories somewhere, Fleet remained convinced.’

Teenager Sadie Saunders has been missing for six days. The entire town thinks she is dead: murdered. And they think they knew who did it. But her friends are not sure. They are aware that they are suspects. Abi, Mason, Cora, Fash and Luke (Sadie’s twin brother) form a search party to look for her, but only four of them return.

The group has headed off for the woods where Sadie was last seen. Each of them has a secret, all of them knows more than they will admit.

In a series of one-sided interviews with the teenagers we learn of the events leading to the death on the search party. We view the police investigation through the eyes of DI Robin Fleet, who has his own links through a personal tragedy to the town where Sadie disappeared.

It took me a while to adjust to the one-sided conversations as a means of obtaining information, but it works well. Each of the teenagers has a perspective, each conversation adds to our knowledge of events. Each conversation adds to the tension. The more information we have, the more possibilities appear.

What happened to Sadie? And which teenager died?

This is a novel which rewards concentration. Yes, there are twists and turns, but there are some subtle clues along the way.

While I enjoyed this novel, it was the characters of DI Robin Fleet and his offsider DS Nicola Collins who really held my attention.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Search Party is a great read for those who enjoy police based thrillers. It is exciting and twisty, dark and scary, thrilling and tense. It also has characters who aren’t likeable but I didn’t feel this detracted from my enjoyment. It is written from several different characters perspectives.

It deals with teenagers, crime, and their life in a fairly run down seaside town. There is also a side sorry with the lead policeman which isn’t fully explored. Hence I feel there may be a bit of a police crime series to follow on.

A gritty read, and recommended. The last section in particular was very enthralling!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for this honest review.

In this Detective thriller Lelic alternates between telling the story from the third person account of Detective Inspector Fleet and the first person accounts of the group of main characters involved in the crime. This does offer an alternative style to the more usual approach, that I am sure many readers will appreciate, but I have to admit it took me a while to adjust.
Despite the chapter headings I tended to forget which child was speaking and, annoyingly, had to keep looking back. I also found the first person word-for-word accounts a little lengthy and was tempted to skip-read them, hence losing the fluidity of the story.
However, despite my failure to quite get to grips with Lelic’s approach, the seed of mystery was strong enough to keep me wondering as to what exactly did happen.
Although I feel this hovers between a 3 and 4 star rating for me, I think there will be many readers who will enjoy this.

Thank you to Viking (Penguin Random House Books) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A panicked phone call to the police, a group of teenage friends found in the woods and one dead body that is not missing, presumed dead, Sadie Sanders. Under mounting pressure to make an arrest Sadie's volatile boyfriend Mason is looking like the best candidate, and the rest of her circle of friends are suspected of knowing more than they are letting on.

Told from the perspective of each of the friends, and the detective leading the investigation, what follows is a story of secrets and teenage dynamics in a somewhat claustrophobic small town. The group of friends decide to go on a search party themselves in the nearby woods, which are no longer the friendly place of teenage trysts, childhood adventures and peaceful contemplation, but with the onset of torrential rain take on an ominous and threatening presence, heightened by the arguments between the group and the revelation of past indiscretions. It seems that they each have reason to be a suspect in Sadie's disappearance, and someone is determined to discover the truth. Whether that is one of the group, or someone following them is unclear, and the tension rises as the teenagers become more exhausted and more paranoid as they realise they are lost and without adequate supplies. Abandoning their search, they struggle to escape the woods, and tragedy strikes. The aftermath is confusing but apparently provides sufficient clues to allow the detective to piece together not only what happened on the night, but what has happened to Sadie.

It's a good read, but I didn't feel that the threads really pulled together neatly enough to feel that the conclusion was satisfying, nor did I really get behind any of the characters, their motives or their desires.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I'd heard great things about this author before starting this one but sadly this book just didn't live up to what I expected I would be getting with The Search Party.
For some reason this felt more like a teen or YA novel instead of what it is being marketed as.
It was quite difficult discerning who was who when the narratives are initially switched from one teen to another, which made it harder to get into than I anticipated.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the interview sections as these didn't add anything to the story. If anything, they detracted from the story
The pacing was slower than I would have liked and for that reason it feels like a bit of a slog to pick up again to read..
I would, however, be interested in reading more from this author. As, as I said earlier, many have really rated his other books.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, a really good crime, suspense thriller, with lots of secrets and a well written twisty plot. You don't see the ending coming, which is really good and takes you by surprise. Well worth a read.

A good storyline but I felt that the book dragged in places which made it hard for me to stay interested.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Review
Sadie, Luke’s twin sister goes missing. Five teenagers form a Search Party to find her but only four return. When I read that the book was written by a ‘Stephen King-like’ author, I was very excited to start reading it.

The book is written from a multiple narrative and at a police interview which I thought I’d find an interesting concept. However, I struggled with this and although it’s not a young adult book, I felt it would be better aimed at that market. In particular the teen speak, the one-sided aspect and I felt the wording itself was really clumsy.

Further, I found it very confusing when it suddenly came to DI Fleet’s (the Detective leading the case) change in storyline as the paragraph would literally flow straight through to him and I found myself confused so much if the time.

I re-read 25% of this book twice to try to like it and understand it. But sadly I could not finish it as I found it was not for me.

Based on what I have read so far, I rate it 2 stars 🌟🌟

Thanks
Thank you to publishers Penguin Books UK for an ARC in exchange for an independent review.

Sadie Saunders is missing and the police are searching the woods and river near the small town where the teenager went missing. They find her bag and jacket by the river, covered in blood.
Sadie’s friends, Abi, Cora, Fash, Mason and her brother Luke are convinced the police is looking in the wrong place and therefore form their own search party. Soon enough things go wrong and the distrust between the friends grows as they wonder what really happened to Sadie and who is responsible?

I really liked the style of the book. It was very dark and atmospheric. The narrative is told from different perspectives: the DI [Rob Fleet) tells the story of the investigation and the search for Sadie while the characters of Fash, Abi, Cora, Mason and Luke tell the story of how their search party came about and what they discover in the forest. The different perspective keeps you guessing until the end and the reveal is something I never thought possible. A very entertaining read and certainly a good story.

Sadie Saunders has gone missing. There's been no trace of her in a week now, and with the police investigation leading nowhere, her five best friends have decided to take matters into their own hands and launch their own search party. But when the police are called after they're lost in the woods for two days, only to find four teenagers and a dead body, it's clear that the group are keeping back more than they're letting on about Sadie's disappearance.

Five teenagers go into the woods to look for their missing friend. There's Luke, Sadie's twin brother, Mason, her boyfriend, Abi, the 'jealous' best friend. Then there's Cora, Mason's ex-girlfriend who hasn't quite gotten over him yet, and Fash, who may see Sadie as more than just a friend. To have six teenagers in one book and throw them all at the reader at once, it can be difficult to tell them apart and keep track of their individualities. However, with The Search Party, I found this to be no bother.

The book is essentially split into two main point of views. There's third person of Fleet, the detective returned to his home town to investigate Sadie's disappearance which bears a striking resemblance to an experience that happened when he himself was a teenager. And then there's the police interviews. But I love the way these chapters are told - solely through the voice of the interviewees. Each character who is questioned by the police has their own voice, their own way of speaking, and each is so distinct. But I found it so unusual that we get to see these interviews and yet only one side of it. It's obvious at times what questions the police are asking, and there's interactions and conversation between the teenagers and the police, but the only words you see on the page are from the teenagers and I thought that was such a striking way of putting their voices forward.

I also really enjoyed how the timeline is split up. We start on day six, with DI Fleet coming across the search party in woods - the four teenagers and the body - and his storyline carries on from there. And while the interview segments also carry on from that point, it's through these accounts that we get to know what happened in the previous days after Sadie went missing, up until Fleet takes over the majority of the story. It's a great way of playing with the timeline and bringing in flashbacks without confusing the chronology of the story.

In terms of the main plot, I had no idea where it was going until it actually went there at the very end. Looking back, I can now see clues and bits of evidence that point to the answer which I totally missed at the time, or thought were irrelevant. Lelic did an amazing job of hiding the answer in plain sight but there was so many options and so many mini mysteries that it was easy to get caught up in the storyline and not see the wood for the trees.

To be posted to blog/socials nearer pub date

Sadie is missing, The search Party is out looking for her. So are her friends, Do they know where she is? Did they have something to do with her disappearance?
Loved the character of Flett & am definitely interested in him but I had a disconnect with the teenagers in the book. I felt I had to read this book fast as I wanted to know, Where is Sadie!!

I really enjoyed the story and the authors way of writing . Entertaining and twisted , everything I love In a book !!I would like to read more by this author !!

When Sadie Saunders goes missing, five friends decide to launch their own search party to find her. But only four friends return alive.

DI Rob Fleet leads the investigation, trying to unravel the accounts of Sadie's friends - but who is telling the truth?

All of them are friends, all of them are suspects, and everyone of them has a different story to tell.

Reading this story led me to make far too many assumptions, and just when I thought I knew where the story was going, it would take a sharp turn. Overall, this book was an intriguing read, with all the obligatory twists and turns to make for a good (but not quite great) suspense novel.

3.5 ⭐

Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is an intriguing thriller based around the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Sadie, followed by the decision of her friends to form their own search party soon afterwards, disappearing into the woods with tragic consequences. The story is told partly from the point of view of the detective working on the case, and partly by the teenage search party in the form of their interviews. I found the parts where the teenagers tell their stories most compelling, as the reader tries to piece together what had happened. The detective had a complicated back story that I didn't engage with in the same way, but the plot was strong and twisty, keeping you guessing.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of The Search Party.

This is a compelling but chilling tale narrated not only through the eyes of Fleet, the detective in charge of the search for Sadie but also the teenagers who formed the said search party. Sounds complicated but it really isn't although there were a couple of instances where it seemed a little clumsily done.

This method successfully gave good insight into all the characters involved and as the reader I came to care about all of them, the suspects, as the teens became, and also Rob Fleet.

There were many unexpected twists and turns and I was completely surprised by the conclusion.

A very readable book with an unusual format that I'd definitely recommend.