Expected publication: 12 February 2018
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
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?
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?
My musings:
Marketed as a psychological suspense novel in the tradition
of Agatha Christie and Ruth Ware (two of my favourite writers), the Hunting
Party was one of those books that virtually called out to me: “Read me! Read
me!” I love nothing better than an atmospheric setting, so the remote landscape
of the Scottish Highlands seemed just perfect for a great read to snuggle under
the covers with.
The premise is indeed very Agatha-Christie-ish: seven thirty-something
friends who have kept in touch since university joyfully embark on their annual
New Year’s get-together, this time to a remote mountain lodge in the Scottish
Highlands. They all envisage a few days of good company, delicious food,
alcohol, a bit of deer hunting and cosy evenings by the fire. But of course,
best laid plans and all that, the inclement winter weather soon makes all
roads, rail and air access impossible, and they are finding themselves trapped
together in close confines, which seems to make tempers flare and brings old
secrets to the surface. Someone will not make it out alive ....
Who doesn’t like a book about a bunch of dysfunctional
friends with deep dark secrets that are accidentally spilled like a bottle of
wine accidentally knocked onto the carpet, staining everything blood red? From
the very beginning, as the friends set out on their train journey into the
remote wilderness, I was spellbound by their slow but inevitable unravelling.
The story plays out in several POVs, as seen through the eyes of Miranda and
Katie, three besties from their Oxford days, Emma, who is a relatively new
addition to the group, and caretakers Heather and Doug, who are in charge of
the mountain lodge the group are staying in. Two timelines focus on the days
immediately before the death of one of the guests, with the “now” playing out
in real time as the body is being discovered by the caretakers. But who dies?
And is there a killer in their midst? The dynamics between the friends were
intriguing, especially seeing how each and every one of them had something to
hide. To be honest, by about half way into the book I found them all thoroughly
unlikeable! I may not be a social butterfly, but my initial envy at their
enduring friendship spanning a decade or so was soon replaced with relief at
not having to endure a similar weekend getaway.
Whilst I really enjoyed the remote setting and the
undercurrent of mounting tension between the friends, I did not feel as
emotionally involved in the story as I had hoped. Perhaps this was because all
characters were just simply so unlikeable, or maybe because I am a decade older
and rolling my eyes in exasperation witnessing their petty power struggles,
infidelities, money problems and 21-century city-dweller angst in general. At
times I felt like and anthropologist studying a weird tribe, which had a strange
sort of appeal nevertheless. Being a closed-circle kind of mystery, this story
relies a lot on character interaction and foreshadowing, which the dual
timelines achieve by letting us know early on that one guest will die. Dual
timelines in mysteries can be tricky, as the author needs to whet the reader’s
appetite to find out more but at the same time not give too much away that
would spoil the mystery. All in all, this worked out pretty well, except that I
thought the “now” timeline could have been expanded a bit more with a greater
sense of menace and threat using the isolated environment and fear of the
remaining guests.
Summary:
All in all this was a fun “closed circle” type of mystery
that would make a quick, entertaining read around the fire or snuggled up warmly
in bed. The Scottish Highlands setting evoked a cold, wintry landscape, perfect
for the impending Northern hemisphere winter. Even though it did not quite
achieve the same sense of danger and suspense for me as Ware’s and Christie’s
writing, I anticipate that a lot of readers will enjoy this whodunit and
recommend it to people who love a character driven mystery featuring a group of
dysfunctional people.
Thank
you to Edelweiss and the William Morrow for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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