Lies are lurking all around the investigation into the disappearance of a teenager. Her friends are at the epicentre of the truth but they are holding out on each other and the police. The evidence doesn’t quite add up for DI Fleet but despite being hampered by the locals and his superiors, he’s determined to find Sadie.

This was a very easy novel to get wrapped up in as the pacing was perfect. The change in point of view lured me further into the mystery and kept me truly absorbed in the deception of the search party. There were a few surprises along the way that I enjoyed and overall, I found it an enthralling read.

This was my first book by this author & I'm still not sure what to make of it. Don't get me wrong I love a good psychological thriller, but this just didn't hold my attention like it should have. I found myself struggling with the first half of the book & I'll admit I almost gave up...but the second half I couldn't put it down & didn't stop till I'd finished. I will be trying more works by this author. Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Brilliant plot twister, when Sadie disappears all of her school friends are suspects and when someone dies while they're out there looking for her, things get even more tense.

Fantastic murder mystery which kept me on the edge of my seat right up until the last page

Wow! What a roller coaster of a book. I couldn’t put this one down. Drawn into a forest with a bunch of friends who are searching for a missing friend. Is she dead or has she run away? They all appear to have reasons to both love and hate this friend and anyone of them could have been the cause of her disappearance.
It was just so easy to read and I found it so enthralling, that I now have no fingernails! If you only read one book this month, let it be this one. You will not be disappointed.

A gripping YA whodunnit that kept me guessing until the end. I loved Simon Lelic's books about the Haven and this one doesn't disappoint either. Definitely worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an unbiased review.
I have read previous publications by this author which I have thoroughly enjoyed.
If I'm being honest then this is not my favourite of his publications.
A real who done it and maybe it's just my feeling but I never really thought that the story got going.
Background is a group of teenagers searching for one of their friends who has gone missing in the woods.
Don't regret having read it, but for me it's a three star publication.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is not my usual genre, therefore am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Brilliant! I loved the premise - a group of teenagers going out to look for their missing friend and discovering the truth about her disappearance. Each of them falls under suspicion and it soon turns out they all have something to hide. I liked the narratives and believed in the characters. I thought I knew where it was heading but the twist at the end took me by surprise which is always a bonus.

This was a great read , dark and a great study of teenagers and life . Hopes and fears and emotions all tied in . Darkly atmospheric at times this made me hold my breath with anticipation.

Simon Lelic delivers a deliciously dark, taut and unnerving novel in The Search Party. You won’t want to put it down until you know what exactly has happened to Sadie and what her friends have done...

After Sadie Saunders goes missing, Detective Inspector Rob Fleet and his team are sent in to investigate. They question Sadie’s group of friends, who then decide to form their own search party and head off into the local woods to try and find out the truth. However, everything may not be as it seems...

The Search Party is a gripping thriller that has more twists and turns than the river at the heart of its landscape! I was immediately drawn into the plot and all of the primary characters, particularly due to the style of storytelling that Lelic has adopted. There are chapters dedicated to Fleet and the investigation that are told in a traditional style, but each of the children’s stories from the search party are told in first person as if they are recordings from their police interviews. I found this style really engaging and I felt I got to know each of them well. Of course there were plenty of red herrings and misdirection, but each character’s unique voice was really well presented and these chapters built the tension and slowly revealed the plot in a terrific way.

DI Fleet is a great character too and his backstory fleshes out proceedings nicely. I really connected with him and enjoyed discovering about his past and his link to the town. The subtle echoes of his sister’s tragedy in the current case sent me on another possible path when trying to figure out what was going on, so the chapters dedicated to Fleet worked well to keep suspense going and theories developing.

This novel is very well written, clever and - not surprisingly - I did not see the big reveal at the end coming. The final chapters of the novel are fraught with tension and the narrative comes to an exhilarating crescendo. As well as the action and suspense, there’s a very human and affecting story at the heart of this mystery that remains with the reader after turning the final page.

This is a stellar thriller and I highly recommend it!

I couldn’t put this book down once I started as I wanted to know what had happened to Sadie and who was responsible! This kept me guessing until the very end and the ending did not disappoint!

The Search pulls you in from the start!!! I could t stop reading until I found out what had happened to Sadie and why. Even when I though I’d guessed, I was wrong. You really felt for Luke, Mason, Abi, Cora & Fash but also didn’t trust any of them that they were telling the truth. Fleet is a detective you want to find the murderer and sort out his personal life. I can’t recommend this book more!!!!!!

I didn't like the writing style- flicking from first person to third with no clear separation. The plot was not gripping enough and I could not identify with the members of the search party.

A teenage girl has gone missing during a hot humid summer. She’s presumed dead, because the police have searched and found nothing except a hoodie with blood on it, but her body hasn’t been found.
Her friends decide to mount a search party in the woods, which is where they imagine she will have gone. This is a huge area, hundreds of thousands of acres of winding paths and thickets of trees. It’s almost impossible to know where you are, let alone find someone who doesn’t want to be discovered.
When we meet the group of friends at the beginning of the book, we know that someone in the group has died and that the search party went very wrong indeed. It’s Detective Inspector Rob Fleet’s job to find out what happened to Sadie, the missing girl, and what actually happened in the woods during the search party.
The book flicks between interviews with the group of friends. Sadie’s boyfriend Mason is the prime suspect, but no-one’s really saying anything. Interspersed with the interviews is the back story of Fleet. He’s typical detective in many ways – he’s troubled with a difficult past which has led to a broken marriage. He’s living in a state of flux and he has a superior who wants to shut down the investigation because it’s taking up too many resources. Fleet’s past is also having an impact on this case. He’s from this down-at-heel seaside town and at points his memories threaten to overwhelm him.
Fleet and his sergeant Nicki are well realised characters who seem determined to find out the truth without jumping to conclusions like the rest of the town. The teenage search party is also well-developed throughout the book as their accounts move from incoherent shock at the beginning of the novel through to a gradual reveal of what happened in the woods. Although the town is shown as being a no-hope dead-end to some extent, there’s still a sense of hope amongst some of the characters towards the end and a feeling that a brighter future awaits.

What a gripping book! A total page turner. Normally I take a good few weeks to get through a thriller, this took me only a few days - proves it was not-put-down-able! Haha. Great whodunnit premise and praise for Simon Lelic, a first read of one of his novels. I hope the character Fleet comes back!

An interesting narrative told from the perspectives of a group of 16 year old friends and the investigating officer following the disappearance of Sadie. A pact plot that kept me interested from start to finish. Thank you netgalley!

A teenager called Sadie goes missing in a small town. A group of her friends go searching for her, while the police are also searching.
Detective Inspector Fleet is involved in the search helped by Nicky – Detective Sergeant Nicola Collins. DI Fleet and DS Collins work well as a team but DI Fleet has issues with Roger Burton the Superintendent.
This was a mystery. It was about detectives, relationships, families, friendships and secrets.
I liked the way Fleet interacted with Nicky and his family. Each of the five friends of Sadie has secrets and issues between themselves and their families. Who can they trust?

This is my first read of Simon Lelic and I enjoyed the story.

Sadie has disappeared. She is a teenager from a small town. Her friends are interviewed as the storyline progresses and it seems unclear what has happened. I struggled, at the beginning, to follow the storyline as the narrative skipped from each of the friends.

All those interviewed have a secret. As the story unfolded I became more engrossed and into the outcome

DI Fleet, a complex character with many issues to deal with was a revelations and the novel promised so much but i felt lacked an intensity although that could well have been my dislike of most of the ‘search party’.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK and Simon Lelic for my ARC in return for my honest review. Recommended.

It was an interesting premise, but I had to DRN the book, it was always dragging and was too slow, at the end I've read half the book and the ending and I didn't see that coming but I feel cheated because at least half of the story makes you believe something that is later a lie.

Different, scary and clever.
Teenager Sadie goes missing and 5 of her friends go searching for her.
The question is are they real friends or not?
This was a book I didn’t want to stop reading. Several times I thought I had worked out who the suspects were, what had happened and what was going to happen only to find that I was wrong.
The writer dealt well with teenagers, their worries, jealousies and their world.
The writing right up to the ending was fantastic, gripping and unexpected.