The Hunting Party

 The Hunting Party (2019) by Lucy Foley

For ten years, a group of friends from Oxford have been gathering during Christmas break for a reunion at New Year's. A new locale is chosen every year and this year Emma, the most recent addition to the group, has set them up with a a retreat in the remote Scottish wilderness. The hostess, Heather, had told her that they would have the entire lodge to themselves and they could have a nice cozy little get-together. Except one of her co-workers booked an odd little couple from Iceland. That's the first jarring note in the much anticipated party. Next they learn that they need to be careful at night...there are poachers lurking in the woods. Oh...and there's the Highland Ripper wandering about--a nasty home-grown serial killer. But don't worry, Doug the gamekeeper is good at keeping poachers and other riff-raff off the property.

So, the party begins and at first things seem to go well. There's good food, plenty of drink, and lots of jovial reminiscing. But then a historic blizzard hits and the lodge is cut off. And then tensions crop up among the friends--long-buried resentments bubble to the surface. After a heavy night of drinking on Christmas Eve, one of the friends disappears. When the body is found, it's clear that this was no accident. Someone on the lodge property is a murderer. Is it one of the guests? Is it the hostess or the gamekeeper? Or maybe the Highland Ripper has taken another victim. 

This book could have been so good. I really enjoyed Foley's The Guest List and had high hopes for this one. The setting is great. I loved the idea of the snowbound hunting lodge with a murderer on the loose. Alex Michaelides is quoted as saying "Reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best--with an extra dose of acid." I generally take such comparisons to any of the Queens of Crime with a healthy dose of salt, but I had to say that the synopsis did sound appealing and reminiscent of And Then There Were None. Unfortunately, the reminiscing stops as soon as you get a chapter or so into the book. Christie she ain't and ATTWN, this isn't.

When you take the comparison to Christie and add the title "The Hunting Party," I was definitely expecting something more along the lines of ATTWN. I mean, I figured there would be more killings and it would happen during the hunting expedition or maybe one of them would go crazy and start hunting the victims down like he was stalking deer. But no. That's not what we get. What we get is a bunch of people who really don't like each other much (why on earth do they keep taking these mini-vacations together?) and who have odd little reasons why they might do each other an injury. And the mystery within the mystery--not only do we have to figure out whodunnit, but we're supposed to be mystified about whogotdonein--really wasn't much of one. I pretty much knew whose body was out there in the snow the first time we met them. I can't say I liked any of the "friends," but the victim is the hands down winner in the least liked sweepstakes. Foley did a better job of keeping the identity of the killer from me--so all the star points go for that. I started to give three stars, but then I realized that I wasn't even that fond of the book. So: ★★

First line: I see a man coming through the falling snow. From a distance, through the curtain of white, he looks hardly human, like a shadow figure.

Last line: Perhaps it's time to make some new friends.

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Deaths = 2 [one smoke inhalation; one strangled]