User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
The Hunting Party features many elements that I gravitate towards in my Mystery-Thrillers.
There's a group of frenemies, a remote location in the Scottish Highlands, a blizzard and some murder. You're speaking my language, Lucy Foley. I'm here for it!
When it's Emma's turn to plan the annual 'Friends Getaway' for New Year's Eve holiday, she is looking to impress.
Emma, by dating Mark, has become included in the group, but has never truly felt welcomed.
The rest of the crew, Samira, Miranda, Katie, Mark, Giles and Julien, have been friends since their days at Oxford.
Thusly, they have a well-established, though complex, history.
Since University, they have continued to stay in touch, with the annual New Year's Eve getaway as their most cherished social event of the year.
Emma desperately wants to be accepted and this is her chance, by hosting the best holiday weekend they've ever had. She goes all out, booking a swanky, private hunting lodge in the remote mountains of Scotland.
Anxious for their holiday, the train ride and first night start off with a bang!
Everyone is in high spirits, the champagne is flowing freely and although there are a few tense moments, all goes fairly well.
But as the days drag on and the friends find themselves snowed in at the lodge, tempers flare, resentments resurface and unrequited feelings come to light.
I
loved this book. It was fun from start to finish. I enjoyed the format, the dynamic among the friends, the mystery and the reveals.
I understand this book may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy atmospheric, 'locked-room' mysteries, you should definitely check it out!
This felt like
The Lying Game meets
Murder on the Orient Express with modern, taboo twists. This seems like an odd mash-up, I know, but it's true!
The format follows multiple narratives, and even dual timelines, but I never had any issues following along.
I think Foley did a great job of weaving it all together.
It was tense, compelling and I could not put it down!
Thank you so much to the publisher, William Morrow, for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.
I truly appreciate the opportunity and look forward to reading more from Foley in the future. I will definitely pick up anything else she writes!
Rating: really liked it
Seven friends meet up to ring in the New Year together at a remote wilderness lodge. Two days later, one of them is dead. Told in alternating perspectives from three of the friends, as well as in alternating timelines, one leading up to the fateful event and one in the immediate aftermath, it begs the questions: What happened? Who was killed and why?
And here is essentially the first issue with
The Hunting Party: we don't know who the victim is. Even in the aftermath narrative, the identity of the victim is obfuscated. We don't even know their gender until quite late in the book. And withholding this information takes all the fun out of it. It's no longer a mystery to be solved so much as a contrived tale, manipulated such that as much of the information is withheld as possible.
Reading this book gave me anticipation fatigue. There was a complete dearth of action and information. Sure, anticipation adds suspense and fun, but only for a little while. After that, I need something more: clues, reveals, investigation progress, anything. Otherwise, my brain starts to feel fried out from all that imminent expectation. It becomes overloaded and then turns to exhaustion.
In the meantime, we are treated to eye-rolling drama from the most unlikable group of friends I have ever come across. How these people, who are so snide and awkward around each other, are supposedly friends for decades really belies plausibility. They treat each other with disdain and open hostility. Who needs enemies when you have friends like that?
And the book is full of descriptions of the remote wilderness, with its snow and trees and mountains and silence. There was a point in the middle of the book, when nothing but petty drama and bleak terrain filled the pages, that I was so bored it was hard to make myself keep reading.
Eventually the book did come together, and the last bit was enjoyable. But I wish it was a more even reading experience throughout. I can't help but feel this was a bit of a missed opportunity, that such a promising premise and entertaining story had been written in such a way as to take the excitement and fun out of the majority of the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:The Guest List
The Paris Apartment
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Rating: really liked it
This is a hugely enjoyable modern version of a classic golden age crime novel, a psychological thriller with the Christie like tropes of a country house, only here we have a remote and desolate exclusive hunting lodge situated next to a loch in the bleak and forbidding wintry landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. There is a group of thirty something longstanding close friends from Oxford University, who for the last decade have always gathered together over the New Year period. It begins with New Year's Day 2019, when gamekeeper, Doug and lodge manager, Heather, discover a missing guest on the estate, it is inescapably clear that it is no accident and that a murder has been committed. Heavy and blustery snowstorms have cut the area off, and the police are unable to respond. Without revealing who the victim is until near the end, the narrative goes back and forth over the days since the group arrive, revealing that below the surface of the jollity and apparent closeness of the friends, lurk dark murky secrets, questions about the supposed friendships between them, and exposure of the deep fissures that lay hidden from view.
Emma, a relative newbie to the group, and girlfriend of Mark, has organised the hunting lodge for the gathering in her desperate efforts to fit in and be accepted into this long established group of privileged and entitled individuals. The beautiful, attention grabbing, and popular Miranda, with her good looking husband, Julien, are the enviable golden couple. Samira and Giles are the couple with a 6 month daughter, Priya, that curtails their previous ability to be the total party animals they used to be. Nick is gay, and has been in a long term relationship with his partner, American Bo, a man that has recovered from a history of drug addition. The reserved Katie, a high powered London lawyer, is the single one, with a history of being the closest friend of the glamorous Miranda since schooldays, but her career has meant that recently they have seen little of each other. Amidst the partying, binge drinking and drugs, secrets begin to emerge, lives unravel and the killer's identity slowly comes to be revealed.
Lucy Foley writes a chilling atmospheric crime mystery, laden with an air of menace, set in the most beautiful of locations, but which carrys its own dangers with freezing conditions and snow blizzards. As well as the Oxford group, there is the unexpected addition of two Icelanders at the lodge, Ingvar and Gudrun. Heather has past trauma that triggered the move to work in the most loneliest of places, and Doug, an ex-marine, still suffers from PTSD, leading him to seek the isolation of the estate as he cannot bear to be amongst other people. Foley provides us with a diverse cast of characters as suspects trapped on the estate, with many in the Oxford group not being particularly likeable human beings. This is a fabulously entertaining and riveting murder mystery that I am sure will appeal to many crime aficionados! Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
What a lot of silly old nonsense.
Too many unnecessary characters, and the red herrings were far too red to blend in with the normal herrings. There was also too much talk of first-world problems, and the characters were all so unpleasant that, actually, by the time the victim and murderer were revealed, I cared not a jot about their fate.
Silly book.
Silly, silly book.
Rating: really liked it
isolated lodge.
check.variety of characters.
check.dead body.
check. this has everything you could want from a classic whodunnit and i would have loved this more if only it werent EXACTLY like LFs other novel,
‘the guest list.’ and i mean exactly - same format, same type of characters, same set-up and plot, same atmosphere. the only differences are the location, reason for gathering, and murder motive.
so this felt very much like a recycled story and made the mystery less fun. i also found the pacing to be quite slow. the story only takes place over the course of three days, but nothing happens. its very much character focused, which is fine, but i feel like i already read about these characters before.
however, i will say that with the changing POVs, i do think listening to this as an audiobook could be more fun, so i may give that a try sometime in the future to see if it changes my opinion.
↠ 3.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer On finishing this novel I have no idea how this lot called themselves friends to begin with.
I had mixed feelings about The Hunting Party as while I liked the idea for the story it was very drawn out and the characters all seemed to blend together. I was constantly questioning the character's actions and the situations they got themselves into on the holiday.I did like the setting of this novel, an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands, the perfect getaway for a group of thirty something friends looking for escapism during the New years holiday break. This was a tradition that the friends kept for the past ten years and this years location seemed idyllic until the unthinkable happens.
This book starts out pretty strong and I was attracted to this one as the premiese sounded so entertaining and suspensful. While I enjoy well rounded dislikable characters in a novel this lot had no redeeming features whatsoever and I really couldn't have cared less about how any one of them fared out by the story's conclusion. I was actually hoping that Nessy (the loch Ness Monster) might make an appearance in the loch and gobble them all up) actually that might have been more believable. The story goes through bits of their college days and friendships but I struggled staying invested in their boring lives. This is the type of novel that plods along and you begin to wonder if it will ever end. I didn't find it suspensful and although there were a couple of twists and turns along the way I think they came a little late in the story to redeem the book.
While I finished the Novel and found it to be an ok read I could not get past how a bunch of characters could be so dislikable or how much they seemed to dislike or resent each other and still end up on holiday together at Christmas time.
An ok read but a little too drawn out for me.
Rating: really liked it
I've read this story approximately 1,000 times before, yet I still enjoyed it! There's something about the Agatha Christie-esque classic murder mystery that just ministers to my soul.
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Pleased to announce that this is the #ScaredSuspenseBookClub pick for March!
We are offering one finished hard copy in a giveaway on the account; this is open internationally! To follow along for discussions, updates, and to enter the giveaway, please follow @scaredsuspensebookclub on Instagram. <3
Rating: really liked it
A New Year's Reunion In The Remote Scottish Wilderness . . .
•The beautiful one
•The golden couple
•The volatile one
•The new parents
•The quiet one
•The city boy
•The outsider
One of these friends is a murderer. And one won't make it out alive.
JOIN THE PARTY NOW.
(That was on the back of the ARC and it sums it up nicely) *I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway.
These people are supposed to be friends but I think they all lost that along the way. I didn't like a particular person in the group, although there were a couple that were okay. It seemed most of them had different secrets. <--- what else is new
I liked the idea of being on a getaway to Scotland but not with a bunch of nuts, but real friends. And of course, no hunting involved.
These crazies get snowed in and one dies..... who did it? I know but I'm not telling! =)
The story goes back and forth from a few days when they get there to January after the murder. They were supposed to be having New Year's together. What a way to ring in the new year!!
I thought the book was okay and the location helped. I'm sure plenty of people will love it though.
Happy Reading!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Rating: really liked it
This was just okay. After absolutely loving The Guest List earlier this year I was determined to seek out more books from this author. Turns out this book is actually very similar to The Guest List, just not as fun. It follows a giant group of people in an isolated area and it's a classic slow burn whodunit mystery, as we try to figure out who was murdered. This book follows many different POV's and it follows a group of old friends who are going to this isolated cabin at celebrate New Years Eve.
This book was decent and the ending did have a few surprises that I didn't see coming, but I think it was mostly predictable and kind of too slow for my taste. I wasn't super interested in any of these characters back story and I feel like this book went into too much unnecessary detail about each of the characters past and their friendships and I just didn't care that much? Maybe it's because I read The Guest List first but
I just didn't have as much fun with this one. I found it to be a bit more tedious and predictable. I listened to the audiobook a bit and read the book physically and I would highly recommend the audiobook because it's a full cast of narrators and there are some really cool accents in the audiobook!
Rating: really liked it
This is my first read of the new year,
and it’s a one-star.
Shit.
I hated all of the characters (with the exception of Doug, the gamekeeper, and Heather, the lodge keeper).
The guests, however, were of a different sort.
Privileged, pretty, successful, whiny thirty-somethings.
It made for a truly unenjoyable reading experience.
I wasn’t a fan of the character’s POVs (and by extension: the writing itself). Each character sounded like they were reading from a script, or like they were talking to me directly, trying to convince me of something—as though they’ve been tasked with describing their lives and their “friends” to an audience/reader—it felt totally inorganic and took me out of the story entirely. And I’ve said it before, so I’ll say it again: multiple POVs, when done right, are a worthy addition to any whodunnit/mystery novel. For example: the recent In the Dark by Loreth Anne White utilized multiple character points of view to great effect. But here, each POV felt forced—like the author herself is telling us who these characters are in their inner dialogues, instead of the characters themselves. Does that make sense? It doesn’t feel like it’s the characters describing each other, most of it literally being: “she’s the wild one” “he’s the offensive one” “she’s the quiet one...and here’s why that is”.
*I’ve confirmed that the characters are speaking directly to the us. 176 pages in, one of the characters says, “...in case you were wondering” and then “You’re just going to have to take my word for it.” Like,
what?!?!? We’re given no indication that “you” is anyone other than us, the reader. Why why why was it written like this??
I absolutely hated it!!!And for the entirety of the book, it’s only 5 POVs out of the full 11+ characters (and that’s not even including the Icelandic couple and Iain). I just find that dumb, really. Either it should’ve been all of them (which would’ve made sense, but have been too many), or two (Heather or Doug’s for the present, and one of the guests for the days before). That’s it. I don’t know why the author chose solely Katie, Emma, and Miranda. As for Doug and Heather... I swear, every single one of their chapters had the lines, “But I don’t really know him/her at all”. Like, I get it, you both have dark, haunted pasts that remain a mystery to everyone. It didn’t heighten the overlaying mystery at all... it was just f*cking annoying! Most of the other characters are just...
there (Nick & Bo, Samira & Giles, Mark, Julien... and the freakin’ baby I just completely forgot about). They had no real characterizations whatsoever outside of more convoluted motives (except the baby, of course). I just saw no purpose in having them even there at all.
Something else that became excruciatingly tedious:
Everyone reminiscing about the past... which I understand is the point of their whole trip, but if they’d been making these same trips every year for a decade, you’d think they’d stop being like, “Ooooh, remember when...” or “Don’t you recall that time...” or “Just like when we used to...” every goddamn page. It was an annoying way to dump all this expository background info on these characters by having them repeatedly wax nostalgic. It got old, fast.
From the beginning, we know that someone’s dead. And throughout the novel, we get a ridiculous list of potential suspects that are mentioned or alluded to (ex: unlawful poachers and a weird train station agent). Then, 71 pages into the story, someone is (maybe, possibly) lurking around in the woods, and right after it’s revealed (more like unnecessarily thrown-in) that a (view spoiler)
[serial killer (hide spoiler)] is roaming the highlands nearby. I thought these additions did a disservice to the story for two reasons: 1. They’re such blatant, clunky red herrings, and 2. It’s unrealistic the guests wouldn’t have heard about the second one. And THEN, not 30 pages later (view spoiler)
[it’s brought up that Miranda also had/has a stalker (hide spoiler)]. And THEN AGAIN (view spoiler)
[the story of Mark violently attacking the youth at the racetrack and getting away with it (hide spoiler)], providing yet another potential motive/suspect. I found all these red herrings and misdirection completely unconvincing.
Could it be:
1. The shady station guard?
2. Evil poachers?
3. A disgruntled local?
4. The creepy Icelandic couple?
5. (view spoiler)[The Highland Ripper? (hide spoiler)]
6. (view spoiler)[Miranda’s longtime stalker? (hide spoiler)]
7. (view spoiler)[The teen Mark sent to the hospital years before, come to seek revenge? (Mark was never caught). (hide spoiler)]
8. Plenty more that aren’t worth mentioning...
Look, it’s all well and good to have a large suspect pool... but NOT when it’s inherently obvious that the real culprit is (view spoiler)[one among the group of friends (hide spoiler)]. Red herrings are fun, but the above list are just so obvious it’s dumb.
If I’m being honest, 220 pages into this nearly 400 page book, and I started hard-skimming. I wanted it to be over so badly, it was almost unbearable. Then, we get to the end, and it’s so terribly pedestrian. It wasn’t clever, or twisted, or surprising. The only interesting thing that happened was (view spoiler)
[Iain, the Icelanders, and “the boss’” drug ring (hide spoiler)]. That’s it. I think the author wanted to believe this was more clever than it actually was, but, sadly—and much to my resounding disappointment—it wasn’t.
Rating: really liked it
fulfilling my 2020 goal to read (at least) one book each month that i bought in hardcover and put off reading long enough that it is now in paperback.i had huge, sky-high expectations for this one.
gimmie a locked room mystery in an unusual setting, gimmie a gathering of friends who have seeeecrets and one gets murdered, gimmie fast-paced, slow-reveal nonlinear psych suspense with the shifting POVs of unreliable narrators who're all low-level shitty and any one of 'em could be the killer, gimmie tana french's name as a comp, gimmie red herrings and complications and an added wrinkle of not telling me which one of 'em is the victim and give. me. that. cover:
or, even better, the UK cover:
this GAVE me all of that, to some degree, and when i finished i should have been dancing in
the streets my apartment, responsibly socially distant, but apparently i'm a greedy little monkey, because that whole candy bowl assortment of Things I Love Individually was not enough to make me love the book as a whole.
it's
fine. it is a satisfying one-day read, a diversion that holds your attention while you're reading it and and then you finish and reach for the next book on the stack as this one slips from your mind immediately and that's okay.
it's the first mystery novel from an author with a few literary-romances under her belt, and for a first-in-genre, it's solid, but maybe a bit ambitious. all the pieces are there, but too many go unplayed—mostly in the character department.
good things first—the atmosphere is great: you have a remote hunting lodge in the scottish highlands rented out by a group of longtime friends and variously-toxic people for their annual new year's eve get-together; a retreat whose creepy see-me center is a communal eating/gathering structure made primarily of glass*, surrounded by a number of slightly more private individual cabins and there's guns and alcohol and grudges and no wifi and that's all
before a massive blizzard cuts off what limited access there was to the outside world. THIS IS THE PERFECT SETTING FOR MURRRRRDERRRRR.
the problem is too many characters, developed unevenly. you got nine friends, one six-month-old baby, a wild-card stranger-couple also renting a cabin on the property, and two staff members; a gamekeeper and a manager. only five of these are given POV-status, which is plenty, but it does mean that the victim/killer pool is smaller than appears, because it's not much fun if a blurry person kills or gets killed. it lessens the suspense, makes some of the turns easy to spot, although there are still some delicious surprises scattered along the way.
chalk it up to a genre-specific learning curve.
has my tepid reaction to this one made me any less excited to read foley's next mystery, which is basically the same exact situation: thirteen people with seeeeeecrets attending a destination wedding in a remote location with limited contact to the outside world and then...MUURRRRRDEERRR??
not at all. gimmie now, please! !
* ruth ware's secrets-and-dead-body The Turn of the Key, published about half a year after this one ALSO takes place in a landscape-incongruous, mostly-glass house in the scottish highlands, which is a weird coincidence.
come to my blog!
Rating: really liked it
When you realize you don’t really care who died in a whodunit and being stuck in the characters’ heads is worse than being snowbound in the wilderness with a killer, then it’s time to give it up. I really wanted to like this one, but I’m hanging up the antlers and we are parting ways early.
Rating: really liked it
FOUR STARS for the story FIVE STARS for the audio production!!Don't you hate it when a murder ruins a perfectly fun vacation?
The Hunting Party is a modern version of the ancient "locked room" mystery trope. Written beautifully in a haunting atmospheric style, we have a group of long-time friends meeting up at a secluded wilderness resort to celebrate the new year. One minute they're cracking the champagne bottles open and the next thing you know---one of the friends is dead. But who? and whodunit? EVERYONE is a suspect. Let the mystery solving begin!
To be honest, this is NOT a thriller, but it IS a solidly creepy mystery with a fantastic reveal. Very similar to Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood, this story is a little more accessible to an American reader in terms of identifying with the characters. That said, the plot moves at a glacial pace and you cannot rush it. Just curl up with a cocktail and soak up the journey.
I highly recommend the audio version! The book is narrated by several different actors -including the phenomenal Imogen Church. AAAAHHHHHHHH those gorgeous British and Scottish accents are to die for!!
Rating: really liked it
Let's say you are invited along on an outing with a bunch of friends you have known for a good portion of your life. It's for a stay in an secluded, exclusive lodge that only accepts a very limited guest list throughout the year. The problem is it is so secluded that you could get stuck there if the weather deems it so. OMG no. Hell no! NO!
The Hunting Party is more party then hunting, thank goodness. As an animal lover I was a little concerned with the title. Rest assured, there is only a very small portion of the book regarding that. This group of rowdy friends are more interested in partying and socializing which was fine by me.
The weather took a turn for the worst and this group was stranded at the lodge. This would have sent me into panic mode, no way in and no way out. So when a dead body turns up, who did it? It forces you as the reader to look into all the dynamics and relationships of the group of friends. We are allowed a look into their past and this builds to the mystery of whom may have turned to violence in the group. There is also only three workers at the lodge so that narrows it down as they are also suspects. There is also the small detail of the serial killer that has been loose in the area. Seriously? These people went and stayed there? Oh and there was no lock on the door on at least one of the bedrooms.
Very early on we learn that there is a dead body and the book revolves around touching on all the characters pasts and personalities. It is a very who dunnit type of murder mystery that will leave you searching for answers until the end. This book was very atmospheric and a slow burn that kept building up until the truth was revealed. I read this with a group of my Traveling Sisters as a group read. Please check out what their thoughts are at Two Sisters Lost in a Coulee.
Thank you so much to Edelweiss, William Morrow and Lucy Foley for this ARC.
Rating: really liked it
A bunch of unlikeable characters drive this mystery/suspense tale. Its a "snowed-in prison."
After enjoying The Guest List, I decided to pick this one up at the bookstore. In many ways, it mirrors it, both books feature .... a remote, atmospheric location, lots of "couple drama" and a bunch of unlikeable characters (which doesn't always work for me, but worked in this case).
I really do enjoy this author's character development and writing style. Some may feel like she over does the character development and background which does slow the pace. I also think she could have left out much of the background that involved side stories from the past and picked up the pace. There is a bit too much "partying" going on....
There are lots of suspicious characters. I loved the story structure with the locked room mystery.
I've seen less than stellar reviews from many of my GR friends, but for me this one was an enjoyable mystery with that classic who dunnit feel.
