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BOOK REVIEW
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A blast from the past with a book review for something I read at the start of the year, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. I had read The Guest List by the same author in 2023 and really enjoyed it. I am a sucker for a locked-room mystery (there's plenty to choose from too, both in books. TV, and cinema).
I also loved the vibrant yellow cover, it was really eye-catching when I was scrolling through Kindle Unlimited to find something to read.
Not the deepest reason to read a book, but the covers tend to tip the scales for me, what can I say? I am a marketer's dream! Bright colours and a snappy title, I'm yours!
BLURB
NEW YEAR, OLD FRIENDS.
IT'S A PARTY TO DIE FOR...
New Year, the Loch Corin 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 outside
The victim.
Not an accident - a murder among friends.
MY REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🔥🔥
As locked room mysteries go, this isn't a terrible take. There are some great twists and I was suspicious of everyone, despite there being in multiple points of view. That being said, it is incredibly similar to The Guest List in terms of plot, structure, and style (of course it is the same author, so that does make sense to a degree, but the similarities were a little too much for my personal preference). Maybe if I had waited longer than a few months from reading one to the other, it may not have irked me to the same degree, but the fact is I didn't, and it did!
The setting is gorgeous. I may be biased being from Scotland but there is something truly stunning (and haunting!) about the hills and lochs around this neck of the woods. Foley sets the scene well, describing the landscape and making its isolation and beauty completely apparent.
There are two intertwining timelines. One from the friends' arrival at the lodge and one after a body is found, the timelines eventually coming together for the big reveal...whodunnit?
Firstly I'd like to say that these people are not friends. I just couldn't get my head around the idea of a group of people, who clearly hate each other, intentionally spending a weekend together cooped up in the middle of nowhere. No matter how demanding the "mean girl" is, or how sorry they feel for the organiser. But anyway, they did agree to spend the weekend together for New Year, in a lodge in the middle of nowhere, in a snowstorm, with no mobile signal... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn
Despite the cliches and my sarcasm, I really do love the locked room mystery trope, it's one of my favourites.
Everyone has their own secrets, which makes everyone a suspect. That being said, similar to me wondering why they were even hanging out since they were so different and didn't get on, I honestly didn't find any of them particularly likable. This can often be a pitfall of these locked room mysteries, as the author wants everyone to be a suspect. In doing that, however, there's a missed opportunity in having a bunch of flawed yet likeable characters, and causing utter devastation when it's revealed which one of them is the "bad guy".
I had whittled down the identity of the body, but the big reveal was a mystery to me right until the bitter end. I had my suspicions but there were so many other little red herrings and false starts that I couldn't be sure. The reveal was satisfying, though would have been very difficult to figure out in full, as the major "clues" were withheld from the story until the very end. I see this as a slightly sneaky way of getting a big twist into the story, and enjoy it more when the clues are there but well hidden, disguised, or so casually inserted that they appear meaningless. It is a great way of making sure readers don't figure it out too far in advance and ruin the surprise though!
The pacing was on point, using the dual timelines and multiple points of view to really control the pace and up the ante.
It may not sound like it, but I did enjoy the story. I often use thrillers as filler (Oh yes, a rhyme!!) between slightly heavier books, and this served its purpose perfectly. It certainly wasn't lifechanging but I think that some of my critiques are based on my slightly jaded point of view given how familiar the entire book felt to The Guest List, which I loved. I imagine that perhaps my reviews would be the opposite way around if I had read them in the opposite order :)
For the locked-room lovers out there, this is a classic example to pick up. It's a quick read so great for a wee holiday thriller, something to read when travelling, or as a quick weekend read.
If you've read this book, let me know in the comments how you felt about it. Do you have any locked-room recommendations?
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