The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

From Goodreads

Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...

For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close? 

My thoughts

I gave this book a 3.5 stars or 7/10. My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well written novel and a break away from the genre that Lucy Foley writes. . I will be watching for more books by this Author, as I feel that she can only get better as time goes on.

This was an interesting premise, similar in some ways to the likes of Agatha Christie in so much as the setting was a hunting lodge in a remote area in the countryside. As a group of friends have hired the house for a few days after Christmas over the New Year period to celebrate New Year together.

As with most groups of friends there are secrets and tensions, this group is no different than any other. When one of the group is found dead, it's not long before the finger of blame is pointing at one of them or the employees of the house, whose job it is to look after the house. Who among them will have carried out the deadly deed?

Lucy Foley has a way of narrating the story from the points of view of the friends and also some of the employees of the house. Each chapter centres around one of the characters time and time again, detailing both the past and present an intricately woven web of experiences and interactions.

This is a slow burner style of story that will grip you from start to finish as the web of connections between the characters evolves.

Well worth reading in my opinion and an Author to keep an eye on.