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.

This is my first time reading the author. I really loved The Hunting Party. I thought the setting was great. What better place for a murder than a remote lodge in the wilderness of the Highlands? The setting is perfectly rendered, remote, beautiful and just a tad unsettling especially as the friends are mostly alone except for the Lodge’s staff and two other guests. The atmosphere gets even more isolated when the weather takes a bad turn. The Hunting Party has great atmosphere. I was gripped from the first page. The chapters alternate between the viewpoints of the friends. This structure works really well. You get to know the characters very well and also get different perspectives on what’s happening. I had no idea who the killer was and when this is revealed in the last few shocking chapters I was taken completely by surprise.

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.

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!

The Hunting Party is an odd little tale that uses quite a few story devices to drive the plot forward. We have three to four first person perspectives, a third person perspective and a time line that jumps forward and back. We also have plenty of twists and turns and red herrings along the way to keep the reader on their toes.

Although it feels like the author threw a lot of different styles into the novel, this doesn’t always work and at times it feels a bit too much and not as clever as when you first start reading. The three to four first person narratives don’t really vary and each character really doesn’t have their voice. If you take away the chapter headings you would probably not be able to differentiate the tone or voice of the characters. Saying this, the author ensured that she keep all her characters firmly placed within their own stereotypes which they always stay the course.

The jumping back and forth works but sometimes the red herrings are not as clever as the novel thinks it is. As we are dealing with stereotypes, this also means that they act according to type which means that any surprise plot twists are not that surprising.

The author can tell a story and felt that if she dealt more in third person, the twists and red herring would have been more of a surprise. This is a well written novel and there is a lot to offer to the reader. The story never once falters or loses the attention. It is an interesting story and shows how time can change from friends at uni to finding yourself in the new world away from the warmth of friendship, surviving in the cold harsh world. This is where the novel really finds it footing.

Overall, The Hunting Party is an interesting read but feel that with that with more of a less extravagant story telling mechanic it could have flourished more than the overall vibe of the book. The book is worth a crack open as it does have a very good premise and although the pay off maybe worked out for the most adept reader, it still holds some surprises.

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.

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.

What an amazing book! And new author to follow.

All that eeriness and build up. Especially as various characters supposedly spot something somewhere...or was it really there, or only in their imagination. It couldn't really, could it?

And then that looming snowstorm, that we know it's coming as the story is told in time lapse. Soon the body will be snowed in, and nobody gets in or out (not even the police), and you're forced sitting there in the same Lodge with the possible killer!

Lucy Foley is doing an excellent job throwing the possible blame around between various characters. Mind you, you don't even know who's dead for most of the book.

Told from three guest perspectives and two hosts, the story tangles and twists like a stubborn candle that flickers but refuses to give out its last breath.

In my opinion, the best parts were in their Oxford pasts, and not in the current tension.

The ending felt a teeny tiny bit rushed and a few red flags provided earlier weren't really addressed, like maybe that mysterious note written, left behind, and supposedly lost somewhere in that Estate. And the thing about the two Icelanders (fantastic characters, by the way. Reading this book coincided with my husband's offering to visit Iceland...you can only guess, my reaction lol)

My favorite was Miranda, but really it should've been Emma.

I think we all know at least one Miranda either from childhood playgroup, school or even office. The overbearing and controlling everyone's-my-project princess who's forever the thinnest, shiniest and smartest know-it-all. The seductress and Miss Perfection. The one that looks better in that leather pencil skirt, and wearing your lipstick. Well, she ended up having a surprising plot twist, believe me. Nothing was perfect under all that glamour.

The second favorite was Emma. The lovely, forever kept-together academic girl. The one who's supposedly calm and poised never gets upset or irritated. She's not as pretty, but she's trying hard with her make-up, copying Miranda somewhat even. And she's a great chef and works like a glue between all the friends who go way back and shouldn't need her to break up their fights. Right?

Well...as the end approaches, out comes Emma's well-kept story, making her a much more interesting character than you, and everyone else in that Estate, ever thought. Stay tuned! Wait until you see what she's really been hiding. Try and guess, but you might still miss it!

These aren't the only main players in this murder plot. Not at all. Just my personal favorites. Much like other reviewers have pointed out, the growing romantic tension between Doug and Heather is equally tow curling, unraveling the ghosts they've been quietly hiding in those secluded cabin closets. After all, why would two young and good-looking people want to live out alone in all that wilderness?!

Hmmm...the plot thickens. The tension grows.

Bet you're checking off the days until the publishing date!

Thank you HarperCollins so much for the chance to read this Arc in exchange for my honest review.

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.

I enjoyed this one - although the big reveal wasn't entirely unexpected...I do like a remote setting, and potential menace at every turn. Would recommend.