Review ~ The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Harper Collins
24 January 2014

My thanks to the publishers and Lovereading.co.uk for my copy of this book

The Hunting Party is a clever murder mystery which takes you deep into a world where anything can happen and where the old adage, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, springs to mind.

Celebrating New Year in the idyllic setting of the Scottish highlands is the stuff of dreams and when a group of university friends meet up, the celebration should be the most memorable aspect of the get together. However, all is not as it seems in this remote highland hideaway and the tension between the characters soon starts to escalate.

Told from several different perspectives, what then follows is a carefully crafted murder mystery which leaves no snowflake unturned in the effort to find out just what is going on and why friendships so carefully crafted, ten years ago, are now starting to disintegrate.

The author writes well and controls the narrative with a fine for detail and an ability to create, with the addition of whirling snows storms, a really atmospheric and compelling story. Time and place come so beautifully alive that you sense the danger, feel the overwhelming chill of cold start to enter into your bones, and watch as the shadows lengthen in the eeriness of the Scottish landscape. There is much to take in, both in terms of characterisation and plot, and the twists and turns of the narrative certainly keep you guessing until the end.

About the Author

Lucy Foley studied English Literature at Durham and UCL universities. She then worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry – during which time she also wrote her debut, The Book of Lost and Found. Lucy now writes full-time, and is busy travelling (for research, naturally!) and working on her next novel.

Twitter @lucyfoleytweets

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I read this book as part of the Lovereading.co.uk readers review panel.

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