The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (2018)
Laura’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
I’ve been wanting to read Lucy Foley for a while so I was excited when it was picked for my book club. It’s a good modern twist on a Christie-esque locked room mystery.
The Analysis:
A group of college friends gather for their annual New Year’s Eve reunion at a secluded resort. Old resentments and dynamics bubble up to the surface as the friends find themselves snowed in after a vicious storm. When a guest goes missing, the resort staff must locate the missing person and determine whether foul play was involved in their disappearance.
“That’s what happens when you’ve known someone for such a long time. You see all their faults, yes, but you know their best qualities.” The friends in the book have long, complicated histories with both good and bad memories that bind them together. Each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, rotating through narrations from staff and guests. There are also two timelines going on, jumping back and forth between the present and days or hours earlier. Author Lucy Foley uses these shifting perspectives to slowly build a profile of each character while revealing bits of information that come together to create a picture of what happened.
Although I didn’t guess all the twists, they weren’t totally satisfying. I enjoyed the way the author built up all the secrets but didn’t like the way they were uncovered. I was expecting an explosive reveal, but once the truth came out, it was dulled by too many hints just before the reveal. I was heavily invested in the story while reading but ended up just slightly disappointed at the end. Still, I’d recommend The Hunting Party to mystery fans and the wintry setting makes it a perfect cold-weather read.
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