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.

I am giving this book rave reviews before I've even finished reading it (I'm just over halfway through). Atmospheric setting, utterly believable characters, I can't swipe fast enough on my Kindle to read the next page, and I am finding myself imagining it as a film, the book is so good, I can "see" it in my imagination.

Two tiny asides - the word "simulacrum" used twice, really? (I had to look it up first time). And I spotted a typo "two" instead of "too" ...

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.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.

As I presume this was an ARC and not the final copy I have not deducted stars for the poor formatting issues. It did cause a few problems, but the story was enjoyable so I tried to ignore it and I got to the end rather quickly.
The story is about a well educated group of friends who all meet up every New Years Eve. it has become an annual 'must do', even though there are obvious cracks in some of the relationships. This year they head to Scotland to a hunting lodge, which is extremely isolated. Each chapter in the book is narrated from a character, so as a reader you get to understand the different points of view from all sides of the group.
A true murder mystery book in the sense that you know there has been a murder, but it is not until most of the way through you find out who has been murdered, which is weird because that character is still telling the story. The end, for me happens much too quickly and neatly.

The author manages to create a great atmosphere of the whodunit, by using the different voices and the whole lodge and the isolation works well. I have to admit to have struggled trying to identify which character was doing what. even though each chapter was name for the character speaking, some of them were so similar in 'voice' I got confused many time and had to go back to see who was talking.

All in all a good mystery, but maybe it needs a few tweaks to make it a great mystery. I would recommend this book to lovers of mysteries.

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!

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.

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.