Sadie, a small town teenager has disappeared, the police haven't found her alive or otherwise. The chief wants an arrest to save face and they have the perfect person to pin it on. All the dots seem to add up perfectly. Except they don't.

A group of friends set out to find what happened to their friend. They don't know if they will find her alive or dead, but they have to do something right? One by one accusations come out. 5 teenagers, hungry, thirsty, alone in the woods, each one sees something or hears something in the shadows. When all tensions are high, tragedy strikes.

These teenagers were found after said tragedy and are taken into interview to find out what happened, how and why, and what about Sadie?

The book is filled with these interviews, the stories, the lies, the backstabbing that happens in a teenage life all come to the surface and in the end, will we finally get to know what happened to Sadie?

I really enjoyed the read, once The Search officially comes out, I will be recommending it to my book club.

I thought it was very well written and kept me mostly engaged. And the twists were...well, kept me guessing and I almost always predict the who did what to whom, not this time! When you think you know, you don't.

I was annoyed with one thing and it actually had me putting the book down a few times. The writing is good, the pace is good. It was when going from interview reenactment to the here and now. There was no pause, no separation. A few times I had to reread a paragraph to find out where I was up to. One sentence was the teens doing something then the next the detective doing something else. It really annoyed me and to be honest, almost made me stop reading, especially the first time. I didn't even realise they were in interview I was just confused what was going on.

A good story with a nice twist towards the end, I certainly didn't see it coming! Did get confusing at times as to who was talking.

Loved this book - would 100% recommend and am looking forward to reading what this author writes next!

I usually like books from multiple perspectives but this one felt a bit messy. The characters didn't have clear enough voices for me so one blended into another and I didn't care enough who got in trouble. I found the trope of 'big boss wants results right now even if they're wrong' a bit too cliched. It wasn't very believable. But the forest scenes were good - quite Blair-Witch-y.

I enjoyed this book. It's a gripping story, and cleverly-written n the way that we hear several different viewpoints from different characters. I didn't feel the voices of the young people were very different, but perhaps that was deliberate. A great read, and a really unexpected ending.

ixteen-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing, last seen six days ago, and no stone is being left unturned in the attempt to find her. The local community thinks that she’s dead, and they’ve decided just who’s to blame – her troubled boyfriend, Mason.

Sadie’s clique of friends, including Mason, think that the search is focussing in the wrong area, so set out to find her themselves. They know the local area in a way that the adults never could, and they know Sadie better than anyone. For Mason, it’s doubly important that he finds her, not only because he loves her, but to prove that he’s not a killer.

When the police are informed of the unofficial search party, it adds to their problems: they need to find the missing teenager, dead or alive, and now they need to find the group of five who’ve gone after her. When one of the kids turns up dead, Sadie still missing, an increasingly hostile community, and with pressure from above to solve these cases quickly – even if it means putting an innocent child in prison – the police are left to untangle a web of half-truths and lies.

The Search Party is a taut thriller which ably depicts the restriction of childhood in small town England. Most of the characters are well developed, and nobody is above suspicion. Sadie’s small group of friends contain common teen tropes – the princess, the mother’s boy, the mean girl, the bad boy, etc – but it’s not done in a clumsy fashion, and the tropes don’t detract from the story. Neither does the secondary narrative, regarding the lead police officer’s return to the hometown that he abandoned at the age of 17 after a family tragedy which has haunted him ever since.

Lelic leads the reader down more than a few blind alleys before the end, and the denouement provides all the answers needed. A satisfying read.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book! Was gripped from the beginning, lots of twists and enjoyed the way it was told from lots of different characters perspective, would 100% recommend

I really enjoyed this easy but interesting crime thriller. The author perfectly capture the speech patterns of teenagers - not always easy to read, but it's how they speak! As usual we have a world weary police officer who solves the case., but he is interesting and multi-layered. A good book with a really interesting unusual plot.

This atmospheric writing of this book will have you feeling as though you are the sixth member of the search party.
You will feel the tension and menace of being entwined in the friendship group.
A nail biting, baited breath, edge of the seat kind of tale

Perfect YA fiction, reminiscent of the point horror books I used to read as a teenager.

Told from different characters points of view to build a bigger picture until you work out the full story. The Search Party is an engaging book.

This was a pretty average, middle of the road thriller for me. There was nothing bad about it but there wasn't nothing that special either

This is a psychological thriller which focuses on a group of teens who go on a search party looking for thier friend who has gone missing but something goes horribly wrong.

I thought this book was just okay. It wasn't that remarkable or anything special.

But it was interesting enough to want me to read to the end.

I didn't see the ending coming, so I have to give the book credit for that but it didn't really shock me or surprise me.

I thought the writing was okay. I liked the fact that we got mutiple perspectives including a detective solving the case.

I didn't connect with the characters really. I didn't really care for them.

I do think though this would make a good Netflix series

Overall, a pretty average book, that was perfectly acceptable but nothing amazing

Loved this book couldn't put it down. It has so many twists in it I didn't see what the ending was going to be. A girl has gone missing, the police are searching but haven't found her, then her friends decide to do the same thing. They go into the woods but someone is watching their every move or so they think! They keep seeing shadows or hearing noises so are very jumpy. Fleet- the detective in charge has a connection with the town, and people think he's back to make amends.
Well worth reading this and will be looking for more by the same author. Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this and give my honest opinion.

An emergency call for assistance. Four teenagers lost , one fatality, a search party struggling to locate them in atrocious weather conditions. A missing girl intrinsic to the confusion and lies concocted by the group to cover up the true circumstances of events. World weary and hugely experienced policeman Fleet and his trusted sidekick Nicky struggle to clarify what is truth and lies within each interview and statement against a background of pressure from their superior to solve or close the case to minimise mounting investigative costs. Time is running out and Fleet refuses to accept the easy answer. Instinct and experience drives him forward in his efforts to solve the mystery and locate the missing girl. Memories of a past tragedy only serve to heighten his determination against all odds to give this case a good outcome. Complex, confusing and ultimately a satisfying conclusion to an unusual and intricate storyline.

SIMON LELIC – THE SEARCH PARTY

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sadie. A missing girl. Presumed murdered. Her friends from school, the Search Party, tramping through spooky night-time woods, looking for the truth. Fleet, the policeman in charge of the investigation, wrestling with personal demons.

Summarised, it sounds more exciting than I actually found it. Most of the book is told from the different points of view of Sadie’s five or six friends, over and over, telling the same story, each segment revealing a little more of the truth as each one sees it, interspersed with Fleet’s personal life and fights with his antagonistic boss.

Often, especially if I paused in my reading, I forget who was telling their side of the story, they were all so similar, and I had to look back. Perhaps, unfairly, because of everything going on in the real world, I found this middle section monotonous. But the climax is truly gripping and well written, and the denouement is affecting. Overall I enjoyed it.

I did enjoy this book but I kind of felt sorry for it because however much I tried to forget about what is going on in. the world at the moment it was hard not to, sorry! The story was different to the norm I. have read recently but like others I got a bit confused remembering all the characters stories but once I didI was racing through.. I liked the character of Fleet and would like to have him in future books to discover where he could go next. Overall a good read but I can’t help thinking I just read it at the wrong time With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a slightly random book: great premise - five friends searching for their missing friend in the woods - and cover, but the writing style felt like a slog, especially in the first half. It was written in a bizarre police transcript style that was a bit painful to read and I found it hard to remember which teenager was which. Especially between the girls.
The ending felt like the author had been tricking readers etc. I liked the police character a lot though.
Thanks to NetGalley for the Review copy, all opinions are my own

This cleverly constructed novel plunges you into the midst of the story from the opening pages and then through a series of one-sided interviews reveals what went before. Six days ago, teenager Sadie Saunders went missing. The police and everyone in the small community where she lives, thinks that she is dead. They also think that they know who killed her. But her five friends are not sure, and together Abi, Cora, Mason, Fash and Luke, who is Sadie’s twin brother, sneak out into the woods where Sadie's personal items were found. It starts out as a search party, but as events unfold it becomes something more sinister.

The device of using the individual one-sided conversations with the police to reveal what happened on the search party takes a little while to get used to, but once you become familiar with the speech patterns of each of the interviewees it works quite well and gives the story momentum. The teenagers are not a particularly likeable bunch, but then neither are the parents or the senior ranks of the police.

I thought that the structure of the novel was quite clever and that Lelic uses it well to generate a good level of suspense and uncertainty about what is happening.

I have some reservations, but overall I enjoyed it and I particularly liked the characters of the flawed and damaged Flood and his capable offsider DS Nicola Collins and would like to read about them again.
See my full review at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/f...

Really good read. 5 friends form a search party to find their missing friend, but each one has secrets and ulterior motives.

There were many twists and turns to the story as it was told from each friends perspective during their police interviews. You get all the pieces which slot together nicely at the end. I felt the story wavered a little just before the end, but the rest of the story was good enough for it not to matter.

The entire town thinks Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. Sadie's five best friends vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and set off for the woods where Sadie was last seen.

But what starts as a search quickly turns into something more sinister. Each of them has a secret, and they all know more about Sadie's past than they are willing to admit.

It was never really a search party.

It was a witch hunt.

And not everyone is going to make it home.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I am a complete sucker for thrillers where we are given a group of people and a suspense tension of 'either one of them is the killer or one of them will die next'. You know exaaaaactly what kind of books I am talking about!

The Search Party delivers this kind of narrative EXQUISITELY - then it added a little bit of teenage angst, a twist or two, and a pinch of tortured detective, and VOILA:

A truly amazing thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat!

Although I did enjoy the book I felt it was a bit drawn out. The plot was at times complicated especially remembering who was who. The end was a good twist.