Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I enjoyed it and will look out for more by the same author. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

This is worth all the hype its been receiving (and continues to do so). I loved the setting, the pacing and eagerly turned the pages waiting for the twists to be revealed.

It’s been a long time since I read a book in one day.!
There’s just something about a completely remote location with a bunch of “friends” for New Year’s Eve that made for a great set up for a mystery. Add in some staff who have secrets of their own.. and the identity of the victim not being revealed until the final pages.. and it becomes quite the page turner!
Recommended for mystery fans that just want something easy to read that still keeps you guessing.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thrilling story, great plot and characters that keep you guessing right til the end. Great for fans of this genre.

I would rate this 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I was incredibly excited to read this book as it sounded right up my alley - a thriller in an isolated area with a limited cast of characters - and while I enjoyed this book it didn't quite live up to its potential.

While the story was enjoyable I didn't think the perspective shifts were well done and I found the story to be fairly predictable.

Overall an enjoyable thriller.

A classic murder mystery – who dunnit!

This book centres around a group of 30 something friends that get together for NYE celebrations at an isolated hunting lodge. We start the book off with a dead body, we don’t know who it is… as the book continues along, we learn about all these people at the lodge as we try to work out who is the murderer and who it is that’s dead.
This is a slow burn and it took me a while to get through the book, it does start to pick up so don’t lose hope, and we find out exactly what happened. I enjoyed the writing; the characters were very unlikable. I’m keen to see what Lucy brings out next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Australia for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thankyou to NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers Australia and the author, Lucy Foley, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Hunting Party in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I was excited at the prospect of reviewing this book and I really enjoyed reading it. I was hooked from the start.
The storyline was well thought out and written with well developed and intriguing characters. There were certainly plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. Was worth sitting up into the early hours to finish reading it. 3.5 stars.
Worth a read.

Any book which is recommended to people who like Ruth Ware is probably going to be right up my alley, I think this is better than the Ruth Ware novels I've read but it does have a similar feel. I loved the concept and I think it was pulled off incredibly well.

A bunch of people who have been friends since university have a New Year holiday every year, they take turns at organising it and this time it is Emma who has done the job. She has chosen an extremely remote hunting lodge for them to spend New Year in the Scottish highlands. They are a volatile group of people, some get along better than others but a tradition is a tradition and they all turn up for these holidays. It is a classic scenario, remoteness in a lovely wild place, all kinds of disparate people trapped there in a snowstorm, no way in or out, no way to contact the outside world or get help when one of them turns up dead in the middle of the night. It could have been written by a modern day Agatha Christie. Along with the guests you have a young woman, running away from her previous life and a dour man who is riddled with his own secrets. These two run the lodge and the only other person on the scene is a handyman who doesn't live on site. So, who was killed and why and who did it!

This book is clever, chapters from various points of view leave you unsettled as secrets are revealed but which look different from other people's perspectives. Of course, there are secrets between the couples, stories which have never been told and things which are buried deep in the past, the tension is so well played. It is really hard to pick who is going to die and even harder to figure out who committed the crime. Information is metered out cleverly and gradually.

This book has a great deal to recommend it, the vocabulary is fantastic. I love the short chapters which keep you pushing forward to find out what will come next. This is a fantastic book. Highly recommended to those who like their thrillers full to the brim with tension.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to this excellent read. I've gone out and bought a copy for our library, I know lots of people will love it.

I have seen this book everywhere on social media, and naturally I was interested.
But once I got into it, I found it a little bit lacking in the suspense column.
Well written and great characters though,

I will admit to not previously knowing anything about Lucy Foley. It seems though she is quite a well known author but apparently The Hunting Party is her first foray into the mystery/thriller genre. Hopefully it won’t be her last.

A group of old Oxford friends reunite each New Year’s for a holiday. This year, they’ve settled on a hunting lodge in Scotland. Heavy snow sees them isolated, with no vehicles able to get in or out of the lodge and mobile coverage sporadic. Instead of settling in and enjoying their time away from the hustle and bustle of their jobs and everyday life, the group starts to bicker amongst themselves, bring up old (and new) grievances, and generally bully each other. The tension rises as secrets and threats are openly (and not so openly) thrown around. And by New Year’s, the horror of their reunion holiday reaches its peak when someone goes missing and soon afterwards is found dead, obviously murdered.

Foley opens the story with the discovery of the body. Cleverly, the actual identity of this guest is concealed until the climactic ending of the book, where Foley reveals who it is along with the killer’s identity. I really enjoyed this more original idea. It kept me guessing right through. Just when I thought I had the identities of the victim and the killer worked out, Foley would give me another scene from a different character’s point of view and my opinion would waver. It was quite fun trying to work out who-was-dead as well as who-dunnit. 

There certainly wasn’t a lack of candidates! It seemed as though every character haboured a secret or two and could be potentially the killer or victim. Even the lodge staff were suspicious -- working at the lodge to hide away from their former lives. (Still, I desperately hoped neither Heather nor Doug would be killed or the killer.)

I liked how Foley peeled back the layers of the main characters. In the beginning there were some characters I hoped would be the dead person. Indeed I was thinking that a lot of reviewers might rate the book lower simply because the members of the party were too self-absorbed, arrogant and entitled. However, in the end, especially when the truth is fully revealed, I felt guilty for my nasty thoughts. Somehow Foley forced me to feel sympathy for even the least likeable characters. 

The lodge in the snow is wonderfully atmospheric and claustrophobic. The ‘trapped in with a murderer’ trope will never get old and Foley utilises the idea nicely.  She definitely got my heart pounding on a couple of occasions! 

Foley's style and descriptions were great.  I could picture everything so clearly in my mind. Even though it was 40 degrees in the shade when I was reading this in Queensland, I still reached for a blanket when reading about the cold. I felt like I was there - part of the landscape, observing the secret lives of the characters. 

At time it was almost as if I was watching a movie -- Peter’s Friends cum The Big Chill meshed with The Shining and Fargo. So it didn’t surprise me when Foley mentioned a movie deal in her author’s notes. I would definitely pay money to see this mystery on the big screen.

In the interim, I would recommend reading the book. 5 out of 5