Oh for heaven's sake! I was supposed to be writing my own book! Instead I requested this one from NetGalley. Whoops not a word written all day. Thanks so much Lucy Foley! A group of university friends celebrating the New Year in a remote Scottish hunting lodge. Then they are snowed in. Plenty of booze mixed with egos and festering past resentments. What could possibly go wrong? This was a compelling and great read. It kept my attention from start to finish. Who was the killer? Who was the victim? Read it and find out. Fabulous.

Not a book one can put down, until the end. We get all the characters' points of view, meaning that just as you think you know 'who did it' you don't!!

Would recommend to anyone who wants a 'good read'; and it would also be good as a dramatisation.

Fantastic Highland setting, and people are not always what they seem.

loved this.

Properly atmospheric, the chilly, claustrophobic yet open setting cleverly sets the scene for a wonderfully old school murder mystery, with a stellar cast of characters for the reader to get their teeth into and either love or loathe.

Descriptively this is beautifully written the aforementioned setting coming to vivid and gorgeous life, enter into this wild landscape a group of friends whose history and random hidden jealousies rise to the surface, ultimately leading to murder…

Definite hints of Christie, but with a rhyme and rythym all of its own, The Hunting Party is a dream of a read, absorbing, intelligent and full of the vagaries of human nature. Twisty as you like, unexpectedly sometimes, Lucy Foley manages the group dynamic with aplomb, keeping you immersed and involved all the way.

A proper bit of storytelling, eliciting differing emotional reactions and having the benefit of being eminently unpredictable, The Hunting Party is definitely one to watch in 2019.

Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this. The story is cleverly told through the eyes of various characters and as the victim is not revealed til the end I was trying to figure out who was the murderer and who was the victim! I found this intriguing because all the characters had reasons or personality traits which could easily have made them either of the two. A great read.

A group of friends who met and university – and partners – have a tradition of taking a holiday together. Emma, reasonably new to the group, has organised a stay in an out-of-the-way hunting lodge in the Scottish highlands. We learn early on that a body is found but we don’t know who, until much later. Or who was the killer. The book isn’t for people who want fast action. It concentrates on the backgrounds of the people, their present and previous interactions and the backstories of the three people who work at the lodge. For me, it worked because of the pressure-cooker feeling of isolation from the world. There was a heavy snowfall and they were cut off. The characters were not particularly likeable but their backgrounds went some way to explaining this. I enjoyed the read very much and felt I had the bystander’s view of a car crash at times. Really good stuff.

Have I just read a forgotten and lost Agatha Christie classic? OMG that's how I felt during it and after and still now. Boy the atmosphere is carefully constructed and evoked here with style and an eye for detail and nuances that I haven't read in a while.

The setting might be fictional in name but it's evoked with such style it seems so very very real. Adn spookily claustrophobic too. The setting is ideal for the old school mystery which follows - hunting, deers in the park, a group of people staying at a lodge, Scottish fog and ...murder

It's the relationships between these characters which made me rub my hands in glee. At one point I almost went out to buy a glass of something even though I don't drink or shoot a dear which I could never do since watching Bambi. I will just have to settle for wearing tartan.

I said it reminded me of Christie. That's not to say it's similar or not unique - far from it - it just brings back all what I love about an old fashioned good old murder mystery and a sense of writing and style that is beautiful to take your time over.

I was never quite sure where this was going and was kept on my toes throughout, in the gloomy corridors, the ghostly shadows of the trees, the fog and the strange noises at night.

Deliciously deadly and dark. Foley fantastic you might say.

As soon as I saw the blurb I knew I had to read this, had a really different sound to it than the other crime / mystery books out there.

The main story is that a group of university friends take a holiday every year to bring in the new year together. This year Emma, a relative newcomer as she is the girlfriend of one of the uni friends, has organised the retreat in the scottish highlands. We start off the book with her POV and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the POV switched around to focus on other characters as well (though not all). Of course it isn't long before you realise there are a lot of secrets and resentments within the group and then one of the group gets murdered, but who is the culprit?

Although revealed early on, the actual murder actually happens quite far into the book, with the set up to it being a lot more interesting as events happen slowly unwind, mysterious strangers arrive and you can see the internal struggles within the group. It's really a slow burner and I did get a bit impatient waiting for things to start moving.

The characters in the book are not all very likeable but I think this is the point and I really loved having the different POVs, one character in particular who I started off hating by the end and thanks to reading their chapters I really grew to like them. A small negative for me is that some of the group members were not fleshed out at all and didn't really serve much purpose than to make up the numbers, I would have liked to see their POVs as well but understand this would have really lengthened the book!

The twist reveals and the murderer reveal were extremely well done, and kept me guessing right to the end. I was so absorbed with finding out what happened that I had to finish the book in one night and I really wasn't disappointed.

A brilliant read and look forward to reading more from Lucy Foley!

I found this a really good read. It is set in a remote Highland estate with a small number of characters but the flashbacks used to explain the situation are very effective. The characters are true to their personalities and their behaviours are consistent, making the reader feel they know them.
The story begins as a superficial New Year holiday plan and gets darker and darker as the days progress. There is a "whodunit" element which provides the twist as the story reaches the conclusion.
I read it over a couple of days and really enjoyed it. I recommend it!

This was an interesting story that told the tale by moving back and forth over the Millenium weekend. The characters’ personalities became more obvious as the book progressed, leading to a grisly discovery. Fascinating reading and recommended.

This was a bit of a sleeper agent for me. I requested it on a whim and was then completely blown away by this chilling, claustrophobic but utterly engrossing murder mystery. The Hunting Party was like a classic whodunit where the setting is an old country estate and the players are friends and acquaintances, but it went a level deeper than that and explored how the people we think we know change under certain pressures. In that respect it reminded me of the film Shallow Grave – you think you know someone, guess again. We’re used nowadays to crime with more gore, psychological elements delivered at speed and even to knowing who did it at the start but finding out why. This isn’t like those faster paced offerings. This is a gradual unwinding into the heart of human interactions solving a murder mystery the classic way. An excellent read.

I enjoyed this murder mystery very much indeed. A group of nine friends are booked into a luxury highland lodge for New Year, far from any form of civilisation. The narrative is from four different points of view: Doug the gamekeeper, Emma the organiser of the holiday,, the glamorous Miranda and Katie her best friend. As in all groups of friends there are tensions and jealousies and these become ever more apparent as the story develops with bitchy remarks, backstabbing and infidelity. Everyone it seems has their secrets and these have an effect on the group dynamic. Over the course of the holiday, their behaviour deteriorates with drunkenness, violence and drug taking all around. It ends in tears - of course it does - with one group member ending up dead. There are plenty of suspects in this story, not one of them appears to be a well balanced adult. They all, including the staff, have their issues. Unusually the author keeps the identity of the victim hidden until almost the end and this helps to build the tension because as well as many of them having the personality and motives of a murderer, several also seem to be courting violence. There were one or two issues I wasn't sure about, leading to a four star rather than five star review. The Icelandic couple intruding on the group didn't seem to add much and the Old Lodge although atmospheric, similarly didn't benefit the story. It was good enough without these two distractions.. The author does a terrific job in building up the tension throughout. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

4 stars from me

The Hunting Party is a fabulous debut and I had the pleasure of reading it from within a remote cottage in the Welsh countryside (not quite the Scottish highlands in the snow but close enough!).

I enjoyed the playful elements of the story which I agree could easily be likened to an olden days whodunnit but for me the star of the show was the relationships between the friends and the uncomfortable tensions contained within them. Incredibly well observed and well told.

Great debut and I look forward to more by this author.



Synopsis: The Hunting Party is the author’s first crime novel and is described as combining elements of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (HarperCollins) and The Secret History (Penguin) by Donna Tartt.

The novel follows a a tight-knit group of Oxford university alumni as they celebrate New Year’s Eve in the wilderness of the Loch Corrin Estate in Scotland. A HarperFiction spokesperson said: “In these wild, white climes the group reminisce, go deer stalking, and hide friendship-destroying secrets, secrets that set a razor-sharp sequence of events in motion, culminating with a broken body in the snow.”

Lucy Foley's novel, The Hunting Party, is set in a holiday house in a very remote part of Scotland where a group of friends gather to enjoy a New Year break well away from their normal busy London lives. When the weather closes in cracks soon appear in what they all assumed are lifelong friendships. Mutual trust turns to suspicion when tragedy strikes and they find themselves cut off entirely from the outside world. Foley's plot continues to thicken like the ever- falling snow but the twists and turns are never predictable. Enjoy the read as you try to piece together the jigsaw.

A brilliant thriller. The story follows the ill-fated New Year's Eve celebrations of a group of old university friends and how the journey of their lives ended up at this point.
A real page turner and a must read.

Like a modern take on an Agatha Christie plot: a party in a remote location cut off by snow, a group of friends with hidden tensions and stresses, sinister co-guests and troubled staff... all ending in murder. With red herrings galore and a cast of unlikable characters, this is all about the twists and revelations. Compulsively entertaining: 4 deliciously trashy stars!

A very clever story! The suspense was maintained throughout, giving nothing away. The diverse characters remained true to themselves and were all credible. The location was perfect and the slow burn leading up to the New Year’s Eve party ensured the book was not put down until the end. Much enjoyed!

I really liked this book! It was full of tense moments and the story seemed to flow very naturally! The characters were believable and I enjoyed reading it a lot.

The Hunting Party is an absolutely thrilling novel, set in the wild Scottish Highlands. A group of friends are staying at the Lodge for New Year's Eve, their annual group celebration. But beneath the drinking and laughter and reminiscing, a darkness is spreading. One of them ends up dead, and while the heavy snow is blocking anyone from entering, it is also stopping anyone from leaving, including the killer.

I absolutely loved this book. Creating a host of characters so in-depth and enticing is an incredible feat, and each one of these characters were so well-written. We have 5 POVs - Emma, Miranda, and Katie, three of the friends, and Heather and Doug, two of the staff members at the Lodge. All of them have rich histories and motivations, secrets and truths, and Foley has managed to bring all of them to life.

This is a cautionary tale of old friends, of how a shared history can also mean a complete lack of secrets and growth. How many of us have changed over the years, met new people, friends and partners, only for our old friends to come out with a "do you remember when?" tale at the most inopportune moment? No matter how much you want to put the past behind you, there is always someone who can't wait to bring it up again.

The Hunting Party is an absolute triumph, and a genuine pleasure to read.

This debut novel from Lucy Foley is very cleverly constructed; not only is the identity of the murderer withheld until the end, but also that of the victim. This means that, as a reader, you are constantly looking for clues and jumping on every single red herring with enthusiasm! It's fun and engaging and certainly keeps you turning the pages.

The setting, a remote hunting lodge in Scotland cut off by the snow, lends itself to this Agatha Christie-style mystery. With no-one able to arrive or leave, including the police, the victim and murderer have to be one of the guests at the hunting lodge or the few staff members who have chosen to live in this extreme location. The narrative switches between the characters, an effective device that allows for the different secrets to be revealed.

The only thing I struggled with was the fact that nearly all the characters were pretty awful people. Mostly Oxford alumni (they are a group of old university friends), they all seem so smug and pleased with themselves, which doesn't make them appealing. As a reader, it was hard to care about them as potential victims.

However, it's a lively and engaging read and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Friends since University at Oxford a group head off for a New Years Eve break together. Every year they arrange something different for the New Year celebrations and this year its been organised by Emma who is the partner of one of the group. She's booked them all a break at a remote and exclusive hunting lodge. Surrounded by natural beauty and miles from anywhere its the perfect location for everything to go horribly wrong.
Cleverly written the remote and beautiful surroundings are easily depicted and its apparent from the outset that someone was murdered but not who, why and who the perpetrator was.
From the opening pages I was drawn into this book by Lucy Foley. Told alternately by different members of the group it flowed easily, moving between events before and after the murder seamlessly, keeping my interest and intrigue from start to finish.
The closeness of the group was well written as were the characters. As the booze flowed and the snow fell, underlying feelings of resentment came to the surface and it became apparent that the close friends didn't really know each other as well as they thought they did.

A taut and enjoyable thriller told via five points of view.

The story centres on a group of old friends from uni, having a New Years Eve party in the Highlands. The threads of friendship are pretty frayed, and tension builds quickly. Of course, someone ends up dead.

The choice to frame the group as an often unlikeable and very privileged group (Oxford, London, fancy jobs...) could have been risky, but Foley does manage to make the reader empathise with most of them (a couple of the male characters seem irredeemable from the moment they're introduced, which didn't bother me too much as the book centres around the women in the group - unsurprising given the audience for thrillers is mostly women.)

Something I did find troubling was that the only named character who could be easily identified as not being white (Samira, whose daughter is named Priya) is also the only integral female character not to have point of view chapters. This despite us being told again and again that she's a member of this Inner Circle. We're only told about her, not by her, so her role in the group is often overlooked. Maybe this is a smart move by Foley, showing us how the group is unknowingly rejecting her after her becoming a mother, but I'd have liked to have had her perspective. Without it, there's a gap.

Overall this is an enjoyable page turner that weaves different points of view and time frames quite effortlessly, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a decent thriller.

Fantastic book which I read over two days. I was totally absorbed by the story and didn't guess the ending at all. A perfect book to read over the Christmas/New Year period- pity it's August! Highly recommended.

Had me gripped from the beginning! Twists and turns galore and a few red herrings. There was several time throughout the book when I though “right, I know who did what!” Then I would start doubting myself and change my mind but I was right.

I can’t really say much more without giving anything away, but I really enjoyed this!

Not quite 5 star due to some inconsistencies in the story.

4.5 stars

This is the first book I've read by this author and really will not be my last.

I enjoyed the story I love the setting the snowy highlands, the plot everything was so good.

A bunch of friends celebrating the New Year in a remote place in Scotland.
on the stroke of midnight, a body is found. But who done it. This book kept me guessing all the way through. kept me turning the pages So many twists and turns and when I thought I have a clue who I thought was the murder BAM I was so wrong.
Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. I had to keep turning the pages to see what would happen next.

While it is not a novel concept to have a murder that can only have been committed by one of a trapped group (very Agatha Christie country house), it is very well done here again. I loved to hate most of this group of friends who gathered in a remote holiday lodge for New Year's Eve; with their unsuitable clothes and monied backgrounds. Although we know there has been a murder from the beginning, we don't know the victim or the murderer until the very end. It does take a long time for people's backgrounds to emerge, and there are a few enormous revelations, some of which are a bit far fetched, hence only 4 stars. I would definitely look out for another crime book by Lucy Foley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK (publisher) for this ARC of The Hunting Party.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. Having recently started - and abandoned - a similar sounding ARC by a better known author, also about a remote hotel in the Scottish highlands, I was already on a downer when I realised this was a similar vein.

However I was intrigued from the start by this band of Oxford Uni alumni out for their annual get-together, in a remote hunting lodge. None of the group were particularly likeable, as neither were the Staff characters too, but to no loss to my enjoyment of the book. Not every novel needs a heroine.

The fallen victim is not fully revealed for most of the book, as too the killer. But the tension builds nicely as the author switches between before and after, by just a couple of days, before revealing what happened at the end. No major surprises but lots of questions and possibilities kept me guessing all the way. An easy four stars.

*Contains a descriptive passage about deer killing, which may need glossing over for some.

#harpercollinsuk #lucyfoley #thehuntingparty #netgalley

A group of University friends regroup for their annual New Year celebrations in the remote Scottish wilderness. Apart from the group there is only the host, a game keeper, a come and go handy man and two Icelandic guests present.

A body is found after the celebrations and we have not only a who-done-it, but a 'who did die' with the victim and the culprit well hidden until the closing pages

I enjoyed the book and the story which is revealed in first person narratives by several of the characters. A few times, I lost which character's viewpoint I was reading but this didn't matter too much to the narrative since it was rarely different points of view and simply a novel way to move the story forwards.

I could not put this book down.
I live in the Highlands and reading about Inverness and Fort William had me trying to guess the location of this lodge.....
I also identified with the alien feeling that people like me gave during the harsh winters here.
The story if murder and who did it really gripped me.
Well done Ms. Foley.

I shall read your next book. Linda.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I must confess to being a little suspect of this - the setting is a Highland Lodge where a group of university friends go to spend New Year. I have family who were gamekeepers/ran a Lodge in the Highlands, so I was more than a bit wary of an inaccurate setting. Fortunately, my suspicions were unfounded - admittedly most gamekeepers are not ex-Marines with a murky past, but the characters weren't caricatures or stereotypes and I thought the setting felt authentic.

On to the plot. Told from several different points of view and differing time frames, the staff of the estate find the body of a missing guest, which is told in parallel with the arrival of the guests for New Year and the events of the stay. For the majority of the book you have no idea who the dead guest is, it could be several of them and even when a witness is found, the last words of the victim are still ambiguous. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, and the examination of what friendships are, how they change, how we sometimes go back to being the people we used to be when with old friends was also really well done. The characters were all recognisable, with enough flaws and insecurities to help make them sympathetic even when they were being horrible people.

Is it a psychological thriller, a book about friendship, obsession or a crime novel? It's all of those things, I really enjoyed it!

I picked this book up during a lunch break at work and found it difficult to put back down. This is a perfect thriller, with well developed characters, and the plot flows smoothly. Whilst some of the groups secrets are easy to guess, the “whodunnit” element keeps you gripped until the very end

Quite a twisted storyline. I liked the way the story moved between the parties involved throughout the story. Quite intuitive about people.

Loved this. Love the setting, love the interesting cast of characters - initially I was worried I would have trouble keeping track of them but they felt so distinct that this was never a problem in the end. Highly recommend for a thrilling read.

A good mystery keeps you wondering who did it until the last possible moment. A great mystery keeps you guessing who the victim is too; The Hunting Party manages that better than most.

The book follows two timelines, initially three days apart. One before anything untoward happens, and one after. They're woven together carefully, teasing and enticing you to read more. Delivering little hints and clues that open up a number of possibilities. The picture slowly comes into focus, but because of the possibilities, it's only at the last moment that it finally all snaps into place. As much as Foley throws in some misdirection none of it tries too hard to be a red herring. These feints are subtle enough to just make you doubt everything. And that is the glory of this whole story, Foley has crafted something so simple the complexity of it all just trickles along quietly. But, if there's one defining touch it's the way the victim is kept so unknown for so long. It must be about halfway through the book before you even find out whether the body is male or female!

It's a real delight reading a book that is so careful in laying out the story. Every chapter, switching between the various characters, does exactly what it needs to do. There's a purpose to the writing. Even the setting paints a suitably bleak background. One that is full of contrast. It gives the story added texture. It allows the plot to evolve elegantly, freeing it to reveal its twists and turns at just the right moment.

Beautiful and elegant writing that enriches a gloriously dark and bleak story. If you like a mystery this should be a must read!

I have given this book a 5* review. It was an excellent thriller. The characters were well drawn. The depictions of Scotland and the narrative very well written. The book had an excellent plot and kept you guessing “who -dun -it” right till the end. The pacing of the book and the length of the book were just about right.

As I say, I really did enjoy the book, I look forward to the writers next novel.

The only drawback, and I am sure that this is personal taste, is that the novel is told by all the characters, and I feel that it gave the book a fragmented feel to it, jumping from character to character. If this, however, is the writers style, she should stick with it, but I felt it detracted from an otherwise excellent read

This is a very enjoyable 'who done it' with shades of Agatha Christie but in a modern setting. A group of well-to-do university friends, now in their early thirties, have gathered at a remote Scottish highland lodge with just a mysterious housekeeper (Heather) and equally mysterious gamekeeper (Doug), and are intent on celebrating New Years' Eve with a plethora of booze and fine food. They soon become totally isolated due to heavy snowfall - great fun at first but we soon become aware that one of the guests has been murdered.

The book is so cleverly crafted that we do not even know the gender of the body until well over half way through, and we are left guessing as to the identity of the victim until almost the end. All the characters have problems and secrets that they are desperate to keep hidden,. so there is a wide range of possibilities for both victim and perpetrator. The book is decidedly claustrophobic despite being set in the wilds of Scotland, due to the total isolation and sense of menace.

Characterisation is the real strength of this book - I felt I knew and could picture everyone, without actually liking many of the party. Much of the book is a slow reveal of the characters' back stories and their history with each other, revealing many surprises along the way. The descriptions of the landscape, the loch and the buildings are excellent. Highly recommended.

A group of Oxford alumni and their respective partners have kept in touch for years post-graduation, and decide to go on an extravagant New Year trip to a far flung area of Scotland. Settling in a lodge and it’s surrounding cabins for a couple of nights. A lot of alcohol, some drugs and a bit of deer hunting and their idyllic lives, and friendships begin to unravel in their webs of deceit. Who dies, and more importantly, who did it?

I throughly enjoyed this book. It’s been a while since I felt this compelled to read a book this quickly. Once I had gotten a grasp of the characters I was gripped and with each secret I just wanted to know more!

The book is written from varying perspectives: Miranda, Emma & Katie (three of the alumni) and Heather & Doug (two of the lodge’s workers) I am used to reading books with varying chapter perspectives but on this particular book I found it was a little confusing to remember who was who.

I really enjoyed the web and interconnections and I didn’t second guess any of the twists and turns which is a fantastic change. Although the idea is not wholly original, being reminiscent of And Then There Were None and The Secret History, don’t let this put you off. It is executed in a completely original way and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nothing is quite as it seems in this Murder Mystery set in the Highlands of Scotland, where a group of friends are holding a reunion and seeing in the New Year. One of them disappears and is later found murdered!
This atmospheric tale is chillingly told in a way that lures you in and makes you feel as if you are actually part of the nightmare scenario.
Told from the perspective of a few of the guests and staff members, and flitting between the past and present, each of the suspects/victim is ingeniously intertwined until the climactic reveal.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
Thank you to Lucy Foley, Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishers for allowing me an advanced copy of this title in exchange for this review.

How lovely to read a story with such a host of unlikeable characters for a change. A page turner of a book. The suspense builts nicely until we find out the identity of the body and try to guess what happened as the story slowly unveils the truth.

The book is fast paced from the beginning. Each chapter written by different characters, gives insight into their character and added depth to this exciting story.
Set in the snow-bound Highlands of Scotland, the party occupying luxury lodges, enjoying drinks and chatting, catching up with friends, become suspicious when sinister mystery and terror surrounds them.
Well written, the story is gripping and compelling, the author shows how the different characters react when unable to escape from the sinister events happening outside. Pacy from the beginning, the book becomes a whirlwind of gripping drama as it reaches the conclusion.
Recommended, will look out for more books from this author.

As taut and tense a novel as you can get. This truly gripping thriller had me on the edge of my seat and up until the small hours.
Set in the remote depths of the Scottish Highlands on the eve of New Year’s Eve this is the story of a group of friends from Oxford University some ten to twelve years later. Despite the ostensible bonhomie there are dark tensions running through the group. A lot of the characters have secrets they are desperate to keep.

As the relationships begin to unravel, one of the group is murdered. They are miles from anywhere, snowed in, with only the manager of the Lodge where they are staying and the gamekeeper for company. One of this group is a murderer.

This is a cleverly told novel where you don’t discover who the victim is until a good way into the story. The characters are really well drawn and in a few cases delightfully unpleasant. I was kept guessing until the end who the actual murderer was. The excellent descriptions of the brooding mountains, the dark loch and the falling snow all add to the sense of claustrophobia and tension as the narrative progresses. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

The Hunting Party is a captivating page turner. A group of Londoner’s – friends since their time at Oxford University together – head to the Scottish Highlands to see in the New Year. They find themselves in a remote, but luxurious house known as The Lodge, situated close to the bank of the nearby loch. As the holiday gets under way and as the group get ready to ring in 2019, one of them disappears. And soon a body is discovered.

Lucy Foley’s writing transports you to the Scottish Highlands. As city dwellers you immediately get the sense that the group are out of their comfort zone and this makes it the perfect setting for what later develops. You can quite clearly see how vulnerable they are in this location, particularly when the bad weather strikes which essentially cuts them off from the rest of civilisation.

For me the most mysterious person in the book was the ground keeper, Doug, who lives in the grounds of The Lodge. The group of friends will really get you thinking and I was undecided about my feelings towards a few of them as events unfolded. They do get you wondering, how on earth some of them have remained friends. The pace in the novel is excellent. Lucy Foley keeps you guessing as to which of them is going to end up dead and who, if any of them, is responsible. I didn’t have any idea until the final secrets were revealed. I loved how Lucy managed to keep me in the dark right up until the final chapters. Along the way Lucy keeps teasing the reader into thinking that this is the moment that things will start to become clear. This is what kept me gripped.

This book is perfect to read whilst wrapped up in a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day. The Hunting Party is atmospheric, well written and completely absorbing. This is definitely one to add to your reading pile in 2019. Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for sending me an advance review copy of the book to read.

Enjoyed this book, although took a while to get into. The characters were interesting and well thought out and liked how they all turned out. The story line was good and unexpected. Loved the feel of the book, felt I was there in such a deserted place.

A strangely relaxing thriller. The beautifully described scenery almost whisks you off to snowy wilderness and log fires. It's hard to work out who is the villain in this book as there are plenty of disagreeable characters, but that just adds to the storyline. An intriguing tale Well written and well worth reading. Refreshingly different and highly enjoyable. I'd definitely recommend it.

From page one, I wanted to know how it was all going to work out. The setting,at New Year,in an isolated Scottish estate gives the story atmosphere,the intricate plot is absorbing. Every so often a new piece of information about one of the main characters is revealed and throws the reader's assumption about the ending into doubt. The way in which the interaction between the characters is written gives this book an intriguing edge. Part of the ending becomes evident but not all of it. More is going on than you realise!

‘that’s the thing about old friends, isn’t it? Sometimes they don’t even realise that they no longer have anything in common. That maybe they don’t even like each other any more’.
This murder mystery has many of the features of the Golden Age of crime novels: a country estate retreat in an isolated location, and a gathering of old friends trapped by circumstances (snow in this case), each with guilty secrets to hide, whilst knowing the killer is among them.
However, by a nifty variation of the genre's tropes, we are not only made unaware of the perpetrator, but are also kept in the dark as to the identity of the victim - complicating the mystery even more.
Foley keeps us guessing by relating the history of the guests and staff at the Hunting Lodge, each with a personality or background that could make them either victim or killer. It is this nuanced exposition of their relationships that skilfully misdirects the reader’s suspicion until the end and kept me turning the pages of this excellent debut.

Before reading this book, I had hit a bit of a 'reading wall', mainly because I am currently in the process of writing my own thriller, which like The Hunting Party, has various narrators, all with their own subplots and narrative voices. I was stuck. I had no idea how to successfully write a book with more than one narrator. And then I read this. I enjoyed every second of this multi-character study, and I cannot express just how impressed I am at how wonderfully it is written.
Initially, when I realized just how many narrators there were in this novel, I was worried I might get confused, I needn't have been. Each narrator has a strong, unique voice, and unlike some multi-POV novels, all the narrators drive the plot forward. The intimate POVs made it possible to understand how each character saw themselves as well as how they saw each other, and the dissonance and contrast between these two viewpoints was super interesting. I also loved the choice of setting (I spent the past NYE in Scotland and know just how stunning yet isolating the landscape is).
Amazing novel.

If you enjoyed the recent BBC adaptions of Agatha Christie, this is a book for you. It has the same, dark, filmic quality with beautiful but dangerous characters hiding a number of secrets. Brooding, cold, & atmospheric.

A modern-life Agatha Christie with added glamour and grit in equal measure. I adored this book, and raced through it in only a few sittings, finding it near impossible to put down. Foley draws you, and cranks up the tension page by page...you feel as if you are in an ever tightening mechanism, being progressively squeezed as the plot turns and teases. Foley then unwinds the spinning wheel at just the right moment, and when the unravelling comes, it comes thick, and fast, and resulting in a very satisfying climax.

I hope Foley continues in the same vein with future novels, as she has cracked the genre, given it a modern twist, and made it her own. More please!

Thank you to Netgalley, Lucy Foley & Harper Collins for my arc of The Hunting Party.

Ever since they graduated Oxford together, a group of friends have found the time to take a holiday together every new year, and 2017 is no different. Samira and Giles have a baby now; Priya, Julien and Miranda are hiding secrets, Emma is nervous because as Mark's girlfriend she's still fairly new to the group and is the one who arranged this year's trip, Nick and Bo are excited but sick of Mark's homophobic jokes, and Katie is the only Singleton and feeling somewhat left out.

The Lodge is a lonely, if beautiful place, surrounded by forests and mountains, deer to be hunted and complete with a surly gamekeeper with a dangerous past, and a housekeeper running away from hers. Not to mention the creepy Icelandic couple staying in the boiler house.

The story is told from 5 POV's; Emma, Katie, Miranda, Doug (the gamekeeper) and Heather (the housekeeper). The three female guests have a POV in the past leading up to New Year's Day while Doug and Heather are in the future after the murder is committed and occasionally going back to the past to report what they saw of the group with an outside view. The reader finds out almost immediately that there has been a death but in a clever twist, we don't know who it is until very near to the end.

I found the story pulled me in right from the off. It takes a good writer to be able to manage so many different povs, and make them complement the story rather than confusing it, and Lucy Foley pulled this off. It was interesting to see how the different people perceived each other compared to how they thought they were being perceived. The ending was certainly a shock as well. I'd kind of figured out who the victim was, but I was almost at the big reveal before I figured out the murderer. Excellent writing, I'll be looking out for more from this author in the future!

When a group of old Oxford friends get together for their yearly new Year’s Eve bash, one person ends up dead. Rewind two days, and it’s clear there’s a lot of cracks in the group and people don’t like each other as much as they pretend. But who is the killer, and who is the victim?

The Hunting Party was a great debut thriller, and it honestly made me excited for other books Lucy Foley will write as she has great potential for brilliant, gripping books.

I really liked this book, and the intrigue of figuring out the dynamic of the group of people. Honestly, they were all bunch of d***heads but reading their antics was kind of like watching wild animals, it was hard to pull my attention away from the crazy antics.

There were a lot of names thrown out in the beginning chapters of this book and it took me a while to figure out who was who, and I also kept forgetting whose POV I was following (Katie, Emma, Miranda or Heather) as sometimes they sounded a bit similar and one would just run into another and I’d have to flip back to remind myself who I was reading.

Atmospheric and intriguing, this is a whodunnit with a difference as we don’t find out the victim or the guilty party until near the end of the book.

Instead we meet a group of uni friends and their partners as they gather for their annual get together, which, as the years have drifted on, shows how their friendships have also drifted.

Not many likeable characters in this book, but that’s part of the appeal. I enjoyed it and the way it was plotted immensely.