Review: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Hunting Party

by Lucy Foley

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 336

Format: book

Buy the Book: Harper

Goodreads:  All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?

Kritters Thoughts:  Have you ever read a book at just the right time?  That was the case for me with this book.  I curled up with this book on a cold winter weekend and as the characters traipsed through piles of snow, I could feel it.  A group of friends get together once a year and take a trip over the New Years holiday.  This year one of the last to join the group, Emma planned it and took them up to the Scottish Highlands to a remote lodge where they will be the only group and will have the place to themselves.  

This is a book with a big cast of characters, so I would warn that you may want a piece of notebook paper to help you keep all the couples straight and maybe something to distinguish one from another.  I liked having notes to refer to as the chapters switched perspective and I could remind myself who was with whom and how they related to the rest of the group.

This is one of those thrillers where you know a bit of the what the beginning, but you have no clue of the who and it jumps in time just a bit, so you get clues in the present and in the past.  The culprit was a surprise but a pleasant one at that.  There were a few times where I thought the author was trying to throw us with some other culprits, but I caught her!  

I liked this mystery, it seemed different from the genre and I appreciated something a little different than the norm.  I am intrigued to try a book from Lucy Foley's backlist and see if I like it as much as this one.  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.