Sadie Saunders has gone missing, she has been missing g for 6 days and her close friends decide to go looking for her in the woods as they think the police are looking in the wrong place.

The police are called out to the woods where they discover the teenagers and a body that is not Sadie. What has happened to the distraught teenagers?

I was hooked by this book and stayed up late, desperate to find out how this great story ends, turning the pages not knowing how it would end!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

This was a real jigsaw puzzle. Lots of twists and turns, lies and omissions. Kept me totally absorbed , following the clues and trying to work it out. Who to believe and who was protecting whom. Very comprehensive conclusion.

The story focusses on five 16 year olds: Abi, Cora, Mason, Fash and Luke, who are all coming to terms with the disappearance of the sixth member of their group – Sadie, who also happens to be Luke’s twin sister.
We start six days after Sadie goes missing suddenly from her bedroom, with very little trace, and the police are no closer to finding her. Convinced they powers that be are looking in the wrong place, the friends take it upon themselves to look for Sadie. What starts out as an innocent search party quickly becomes something far more sinister, and you’re left not knowing who you can trust, or what you can be sure you know.
This is the first book I’ve read by Simon Lelic, and can confidently say it’s not going to the last. I assumed I’d find it difficult to really connect with any of the characters, given their ages; however, the style in which this was written really worked. Told from individual character perspectives, in the style of one-sided conversations with the police, I felt suitably removed to just watch the story unfold.
The only downside of this approach was when the narrative focused more on the police investigation, and the personal life of Fleet. It was a quick jump to a different style, which at times felt confusing and took a while to adjust to.
Generally speaking I found this to be quite a gripping story, well written and pacey. If you want a good whodunnit, with a decent amount of tension and suspense, then this will definitely tick all of your boxes. My only gripe is possibly that the last few chapters felt a little flat, compared to what had gone before, so it was anti-climatic in some ways. That said, it was a good read, and I would happily recommend it to those who enjoy the genre.

A sixteen year old girl is missing in the woods and the search is on to find her.
The story is told from the Detective Inspector's perspective but also from the five close friends, who decide to instigate their own search for her. Some of whom have their own agenda.
A little bit hard to get into at the beginning but a good psychological thriller, twists and turns right up until the end.

A novel that crept me out in more ways than one. The woods, the remote location, the weird behaviour of teenagers. Then the search for the missing girl the frantic phone call at the start of the novel. Arrggh! ha it was all well done but I did need a proper sit down by the end.

Sadie is 16 and has been missing for six days. The police are looking for her in the harbour and river but her friends decide to go and look for her in the woods. Why? What do they know? And what can go wrong?
The story is told from several people's perspectives including the police and the youngsters.
Just who is telling the truth and who is hiding what? There's a lot of intrigue here and the threads that link characters past and present are soon knotted so you don't know who knows what.
The sense of time and place just builds and builds to a great level and add in that sense of foreboding and that dark current of something very wrong indeed and you have yourself a good thriller.

You might never want to walk in the woods again with your friends though!

Although I found this a little slow at the beginning, once it had gathered pace I was gripped. I was unable to put this down and had to keep going, with no idea what way the story was going to go. Right to the very end I was kept guessing and loved that it was not at all predictable.

This is a detective story told from the position of the senior officer and also told as flash back by the young people involved. This made following the story difficult at first as my download omitted the headers telling when the police officer section restarted. having recognised this - it became easier to follow.
I felt that the story was a little slow to start but I enjoyed the second half and it was interesting to discover the the personal issues around the character of the lead policeman.
The story keeps the identity of the body hidden until the final few chapters which made me keen to read on and discover more details.

Recommended.

This is an intriguing book with several threads cleverly intertwined. Sadie has gone missing and a group of her teenage friends go to the woods to try to find her. Each has a different reason for being there and each suspects one of the others is involved in her disappearance and possibly murder. The author demonstrates a remarkable insight into teenage behaviour,worries and relationships. The book is largely 'dictated ' by each teenager in turn and that works very well as a way of building up the tension and revealing the unexpected conclusion. This book is a considerable achievement and is likely to have many enthusiastic readers. It deserves them.

Teenager Sadie Saunders has been missing for a week and while the police search has found her bag near the river little else has been discovered.
Her friends set off to search for her, including her boyfriend and her brother, hoping they will do better. Some are more keen than others on taking part and some certainly go better equipped.
From the outset the search seems to take a sinister turn. Possible sightings of someone watching them, mobile phones taken and water bottles emptied. One of them has brought a knife and one of them will not return from the search.
The story follows both the teenage search party and the investigators, with the subsequent police interviews told with the narrative only from the teenagers. I found this an intriguing style; a modern style of writing.
I liked the character of Detective Fleet and the plot twists with the group of teenagers. I didn’t guess what was going to happen and the ending was good. I did find some of the switching between narratives confusing though and for that reason have given this 4 stars.
I would certainly read more by this author.
Thank you to Netgally for a chance to review this novel.

4-5 stars rounded up.

This is another really good read from Simon Lelic. Sadie Saunders, 16, has been been missing for six days. Her friends Abigail Marshall, Cora Briggs, Fareed Hussein (known as Fash), Mason Payne and Sadie’s brother Luke are convinced the police are looking for her in the wrong place. They are currently using divers and searching the river towards the estuary in this harbour, seaside resort. The friends believe she is in the woods and so form a search party and slope off without their parents knowledge. What can possibly go wrong? Quite a lot actually. The police investigation is led by DI Rob(in) Fleet and DS Nicola Collins with Superintendent Burton urging them to find Sadie and /or charge someone especially as pressure is growing in the community and the press. The story is told from several perspectives including Rob Fleet and the search party youngsters.

There’s a lot to like in this really intriguing novel. It seems impossible to work out who amongst the search party is telling the truth as they all tell so many lies. The front runner for the crime, if indeed there is a crime, is one of the search party but Rob has grave doubts as so much just doesn’t add up. The plot is good, it keeps you asking questions, it’s well written and full of twists. There’s plenty of creepy atmosphere as much of the search takes place in the deep woods outside the town and there’s a lot of suspense created here, added to which several very mysterious events occur. There’s interesting dynamics between the teenagers too as they blame each other when things go wrong or get very scary and a lack of trust grows between them. The characters are really good especially DI Rob Fleet. . He’s very dogged, intuitive and intelligent and is unafraid to differ from his boss and stand his ground much to Burton’s wrath. Rob has a past in the town which plays an important role in the drama and this adds an extra dimension. There’s sadness between him and his wife Holly which also makes Rob seem very human. The finale is very exciting and I didn’t see that one coming as I think I made too many assumptions along the way! I like how Rob makes peace with himself at the end too.

Overall, a really good crime, suspense thriller with all the requisite twists and turns in the plotting that fans of the genre so enjoy! Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the Arc.

I love kids/teens go into the woods and something bad happens stories. They're my weakness and i've read quite a few. This however is going to stand out thanks to the brilliant twists. Sadie is missing and you'd think that would be the main mystery in this story but you get double trouble as five of Sadie's friends go off into the woods to try and find her. I was gripped by Lelic's writing and lost count of the amount of times i changed my opinion as to what had happened. Brilliant story!

A read in one sitting psychological thriller that was pitch perfect for me - I love a good group dynamic, a whole bunch of secrets and a well written twistier than twisty plot all of which Simon Lelic serves up here brilliantly. 

I genuinely wasn't sure what the resolution would be this was an excellent piece of plotting in that regard given there were finite possibilities given the set up. Very good indeed. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fuller review near publication.

Sadie Saunders has been missing for a week, so while the police search continues, her friends decide to set off for the woods to look for her themselves.
But the search quickly turns into something more sinister and as one of the friends turns up dead, it quickly transpires that each of them has secrets to hide.

The story follows Fleet, the lead investigator, and is intertwined with the police interviews of Sadies' friends.
I enjoyed this book. It was intriguing and captivating.
The story keeps you wondering who the killer was and I admit that I didn't guess correctly.
On the downside, I found it confusing to follow so many characters and their interactions with each other.
It was an entertaining read with a good twist, but I was struggling with the rating. In the end, I concluded that the story wasn't one that kept me on the edge of my seat and therefore I couldn't justify giving it 4 stars.
However, I do recommend it, especially to anyone who likes the whodunnit type of stories.
I have previously read The House and enjoyed it, so will definitely reach for other books from this author.

A missing girl. Five friends. Who will survive…

Sadie Saunders has been missing for a week, everybody thinks she has been murdered, and the suspicion falls on her boyfriend Mason.

Together with Mason, Sadie's brother and best friends vow to find out the truth and form a search party in the woods where Sadie was last seen.

Two days later the police receive a frantic call for help, one of the group has not survived and it is left to Detective Inspector Robert Fleet and his partner DS Nicola Collins to piece together the information to try and uncover the truth about what happened in the woods and to finally discover what led to Sadie’s disappearance.

I loved the Search Party by Simon Lelic. I found the style of writing very unusual – the police interviews with the group of friends only showed their side of the conversation leaving it up to the reader to fill in the other side. This took a while to get used to but eventually I found that it gave the story a modern ‘reality show’ feel. It was almost as if they were diary entries rather than interviews, and I thought this would work well as a TV series.

As I was reading I decided that I had worked out what had happened several times, and each time – as more information came out – I realised that I was wrong. There were so many twists and turns, the difficulty was trying to decide who was lying, what they were hiding from the police (and their friends), and why. As the story had lots of characters and different backstories, I could see it going in a few different directions and even though by the end I had worked out who was involved, I hadn’t guessed the exact circumstances or the final outcome.

I read the whole book over two days as the tension kept building throughout the story and I got to the point where I couldn’t leave it without finding out what was going to happen in the end. I didn’t find the story especially creepy but it definitely gripped my attention, had a great atmosphere and some interesting characters - I would highly recommend it.

For some reason I found it hard to get into this book. In The Search Party a 15 year old girl, Sadie is missing in the woods and her friends are looking for her, hence the search party. Written in points of view style, Sadie's friends all have something to say and obviously not the truth, when a dead body, not Sadie, turns up. The police do their utmost to get to the truth as the teens have been in the woods for 2 days looking for Sadie. DI Fleet and DS Collins have their hands full. I have read previous books of Simon Lelic and enjoyed them.

I have read 'The Liar's Room' and 'The House' by this author and really enjoyed them but unfortunately this one didn't quite have the same feeling for me. Maybe I could't relate to the 16 year old characters.
The more I read the more I started to enjoy it but not quite enough to score higher.
The story is about a search party set up by the friends of missing 16-year-old Sadie Saunders. Her five friends set out in the woods to find Sadie, all are friends and they are also suspects. And not everyone will make it home alive.

I would like to thank both Net Galley and Penguin UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Search Party is my first book by this author and it certainly will not be the last.
A 16 year old girl goes missing and five friends go to find her but quickly become suspects and all very reluctant to speak with the police.
I found The Search Party gripping and intense which had my guessing at every turn with a very clever twist.

I’m in the minority here as I can see from other reviews, but this book was not good for me. I love Simon Lelic books and was so excited to get my hands on an ARC of this... but I didn’t enjoy it.

I found the writing style totally off. I couldn’t grasp that the narrations were supposed to be 16 year old kids telling the police what happened. First of, no one would talk to the police they say they did, especially not teenagers. And another, no one would talk like that anyway. It’s like when you read a book full of diary entries and the character has written like 50 pages of detail and dialogue about their day and you just think... no. No one writes in that much detail. For me it was the same with these interviews. No one talks in this much detail ever. Especially not under such pressure.

I also found the plot and the twists to be really predictable. Not in a way that I felt proud of myself for guessing but literally like how could you not see that coming??

I’m so sorry, I will totally read more from this author as he’s written some awesome thrillers... but this one was not for me.

Enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Really liked the story being told in two ways, including the police interviews with the teenagers from the search party. A clever twist.

A 16 year old girl is missing and five friends go to the woods to find her... five friends who become suspects. A compelling story with interesting characters, it will keep you guessing to the end. Recommended!