The Hunting Party

This book was a disappointment for me, unfortunately. After reading and loving The Guest List, I was excited to read this one by the same author. The premise is quite similar, so I was hoping for another thrilling read. However, it just doesn't deliver.

The story follows a group of friends who always get together for New Years. This year, Emma, a newer member of the group, has planned their trip to a remote lodge in the snowy Scottish Highlands. As the holiday progresses, old grudges come to the surface and things get tense. When one person from the group goes missing, the people running the lodge begin a frantic search during a snowstorm. When a body is found, no one knows who can be trusted anymore.

The characters in this book are quite annoying, which makes it hard for the reader to get invested in their outcomes. The group of friends are mostly vain and privileged. Their “problems” seem petty. The “victim” is extremely unlikable, which makes it hard to care much about finding the murderer. Even though the narrator does not reveal who the victim is through much of the story, it is easy to predict which one it is. The groundskeepers are a bit more likable, but they do not contribute much to the story. The side plot connected to them in the end seems a bit unnecessary also.

The plot is not as suspenseful as I would have liked it to be. The behavior of the characters is pretty predictable, and I had pretty much figured out who the murderer would be early on in the storyline.

Overall, this one just falls short for me. I found it to be predictable, and it just did not hold my interest the way her other book did.