Book Review of ‘The Hunting Party’ by Lucy Foley
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Published: February 2019, WIlliam Morrow Books
Swathi’s Rating: 4/5
Verdict:Drama, lies, secrets, murder and the majestic Scottish Highlands.
So, February has been as super busy month. Short as it was, it also saw the release of some fantastic books this year. Some are much awaited since last year and some books have already reached the Best Selling List! The Hunting Party is one of the most anticipated novel of the year and I am so thrilled to share my thoughts with you all about this incredible book!
Plot:
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?
AmazonSwathi’s Review:
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley came out in Febraury and became an instant hit and a Best Selling Crime Thriller of the year. For those of you who hadn’t yet been introduced to the greatness of this book and it’s plot – read along to know everything about The Hunting Party and why you should read it ASAP!
The story starts with the Gamekeeper Doug and Estate Manager Heather searching for a missing guest and then they find a body instead. Worst of all, the death doesn’t look natural. Which means it’s a MURDER!
When a group of Oxford University friends who call themselves “Inner Circle” continue their tradition of celebrating the New Year together even after 10 years, they decide to spend it in a cabin estate in the remote Scottish Highlands. As much as each of them try to keep it normal as if nothing has changed over the past 10 years, there is a definite tension creeping between them. Lives have changed. Some of them are married and have kids. You can’t pretend for so long, can you?
Lots of booze, weird games, and a midnight shooting excursion into the forest later, one of them is dead and it looks like a murder! You will have to read till the very last to know who is the victim, let alone the killer!!
I have always been a sucker for Crime Thrillers with an atmospheric setting and this one was just WOW! Lucy has used the Scottish Winter has her ultimate weapon to add the much needed thrill into the plot. You put a bunch of people in a remote, isolated, cabin surrounded by nothing but sheets of ice and mountains, and you can see people going mad against each! Such brilliant usage of the location!!
And then there is the POVs. As a reader, I prefer reading a novel as a narration from the characters in the plot, rather than a summary of events in the third person perspective. It’s just a brilliant strategy used by the author to influence the reader to like/hate/believe/suspect one character and do the exact opposite to the other. In this book though, Lucy incorporates not 1 but FIVE POVs of both genders. You can imagine the confusion and thrill while getting accustomed to these characters. I admit I felt a bit disoriented along the first few chapters, but they are short and crispy and the pace kept me hooked.
I had a great time reading this book. It was so entertaining and loved the clever twist!
Drama, lies, secrets, murder – What more can I ask for?!
Thanks to the publisher for my ARE in exchange for my honest opinion.
Author Bio:
Lucy Foley studied English Literature at Durham and UCL universities and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry, before leaving to write full-time. The Hunting Party is her debut crime novel, inspired by a particularly remote spot in Scotland that fired her imagination. Lucy is also the author of three historical novels. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages.
She tweets @lucyfoleytweets
2 Comments
Inge | The Belgian Reviewer
Wonderful review, I really enjoyed this one as well. If you think 5 POV is a lot already, you should definitely read An Unwanted Guest where there are 11 main characters ;-). I didn’t have any problems discerning who was talking though in either story :-).
priya
Hey Inge, soo excited to hear from you!! You were totally right abt this book – it was freaking fantastic!!! Did you just say ELEVEN characters?? I have had an eye on ‘An Unwanted Guest’ for sometime but hearing ur opinion is always tempting! 😉
Will try to get the book ASAP 😀
BTW, what are you reading?