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Author (Platform): Lucy Foley (Kindle)
Publisher (Release): HarperCollins (2018)
Length: 401 pages
Genres: Adult; Thriller; Drama; Suspense; Whodunit
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
contains scenes related to sex, drugs, and violence
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: must read
👍 Pros 👍
Vicious dissections of the relationships between old friends
Because it’s full of secrets
Satisfying and solid motives that keep suspense pure
👎 Cons 👎
A tad bloated
Can be a little repetitive with its introspections
👀 Synopsis 👀
NEW YEAR. OLD FRIENDS.
IT’S A PARTY TO DIE FOR…
New Year, the Loch Corrin Estate: in a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather.
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
The victim.
Not an accident – a murder among friends.
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
The Hunting Party lets a cacophony of characters collide in a deliciously dark drama full of salacious secrets and brutal barbs…and all between friends. Set in the Scottish Highlands during the New Year, our murky cast of old pals become trapped in an idyllic little lodge due to a snow storm. To make matters worse, one goes missing before being found dead in less than accidental circumstances. The tension, the underlying ripple of history and secrets, all of it is brought to blood-red light against a winter-white backdrop thanks to author Lucy Foley’s tantalising skill.
🧩 Plots 🧩
How well can you truly know someone? How well can you truly know yourself?
The Hunting Party is an atmospherically thick dissection of the human experience, the highs, the lows, and the impact both have on us and the people around us. Everyone is the hero of their story, mostly, but Foley perfectly captures just how messy we really are, and the lengths we’ll go to in locking away the darkest parts of ourselves, even from ourselves. We’re never really one fully realised person, we’re shades of gritty grey, each one a facade we don depending on where and who we’re with. The Hunting Party is a mirror bathed in horrifying light, laying us bare.
How well do you truly know yourself?
We follow a selection of the cast through a primarily first-person, present-tense narrative with some flash forwards teasing what the future has in store. For the majority of the story we know neither who the victim is nor who’s responsible for their death, but Foley keeps us occupied, sprinkling in colourful personalities and rich histories. These developing relationships do a grand job of building multiple motives, using compromising situations to keep the reader guessing for nearly 60-80% of the novel.
Some areas feel a bit stretched, there’s quite a lot of introspection, sometimes repetitive introspection, from the characters that the pace can come dangerously close to stopping. Thankfully, the suspense never wanes, getting the flow over the minimal bumps before moving confidently forward.
How do you find a killer when you don’t know the victim?
The finale is a satisfying explosion of all the interpersonal conflict The Hunting Party expertly builds. Red herrings are slyly explained while the twists stand tall on strong foundations, pulling Foley’s winks and nods and sprinklings of clues into a tight knot to close the story.
The Epilogue is a bit quick, covering most of what happens after, but I would’ve liked a bit more of the fallout and repercussions, especially considering how deeply we come to know these characters.
‘…atmospherically thick dissection of the human experience…’
🎭 Characters 🎭
The Hunting Party has about a dozen major characters and it is a lot. Foley smartly doesn’t overload the reader with descriptions from the jump, despite how strong I can imagine the compulsion to would be. Instead, she takes it slow, letting the characters personalities define them, and when semi-firm, lets some identifiable physical traits finish their form. It can be overwhelming to begin with but the structure supports it, refining those characters down to five primary viewpoints we see the story through.
Friend or Foe?
Love and hate are powerful emotions that Foley brings to blistering life. The backhanded compliments, the manipulations, the facades, the deafening silences, all drive this character drama forward with purpose, exploring the versions of each character as they enter different situations. When they’re in a position of power, when they’re not, or when they’re scared, betrayed. The Hunting Party is a kaleidoscope of the individual, a fascinating look at the fractured nature of one’s own identity.
‘…a fascinating look at the fractured nature of one’s own identity.’
💭 Final Thoughts 💭
The Hunting Party is a deliciously dark drama that combines a variety of voices to tell an intense murder mystery in an isolated resort in the Scottish Highlands. Lucy Foley digs deep into the human psyche to tell a blistering tale of old friends and all the faces they hide behind as they clash in a dizzyingly relatable explosion of selfishness that lays the truth bare…if they’re lucky (or unlucky?) enough to live through the past’s consequences. A predominant first-person, present-tense narrative keeps things personal while Foley’s talent for building characters using their personalities ensures that no two voices ever sound the same.
Overall, The Hunting Party does an incredible job of coalescing all the delicious crumbs Lucy Foley sprinkles into a blisteringly hot loaf of drama, betrayal, and murder.
