"In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
The victim.
Not an accident – a murder among friends."
We had all read the book and all agreed we hadn't really read a book where the victim was revealed at the same time as the murderer. We liked this and found it a definite page turner.
The victim not being revealed so late however meant that everyone had to, theoretically, be capable of wanting to murder everyone else which made for a whole host of not nice characters. We all struggled with the characters in someway. We didn't like them. There were too many. They were too self-centered, too two dimensional. Not liking the characters often means we don't like the book and there is no denying it was definitely a hindrance.
A few of the group also commented on a plot hole or two. When exactly did the snow start falling? Was it falling when Miranda went out running? When they went hunting? Why were the Icelandic couple part of the story. OK, so they were used as red herrings but was the animalistic sex scene really needed? It felt as though the book had descended into hell with drugs, alcohol, sex and violence in abundance. Again, this was considered a hindrance.
Be it that we didn't like the characters or there were too many of them we struggled to recall names when talking about them at the meeting and the finer detail had escaped our memory. Again I find that if we don't remember the book so soon after we have read it, it's not a good sign.
Surprisingly though we all said we would read another book by Lucy Foley so there was definitely something that caught us and pulled us in. The tense plot, the twists were all present and one of us remarked it would make a good poolside book. Even if summer holidays feel a long way off.
I hope the group do go on to read more Foley as I've just finished The Guest List (her follow up) which I really enjoyed. We gave The Hunting Party 6.2 out of 10 and our next book will be I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
The victim.
Not an accident – a murder among friends."
We had all read the book and all agreed we hadn't really read a book where the victim was revealed at the same time as the murderer. We liked this and found it a definite page turner.
The victim not being revealed so late however meant that everyone had to, theoretically, be capable of wanting to murder everyone else which made for a whole host of not nice characters. We all struggled with the characters in someway. We didn't like them. There were too many. They were too self-centered, too two dimensional. Not liking the characters often means we don't like the book and there is no denying it was definitely a hindrance.
A few of the group also commented on a plot hole or two. When exactly did the snow start falling? Was it falling when Miranda went out running? When they went hunting? Why were the Icelandic couple part of the story. OK, so they were used as red herrings but was the animalistic sex scene really needed? It felt as though the book had descended into hell with drugs, alcohol, sex and violence in abundance. Again, this was considered a hindrance.
Be it that we didn't like the characters or there were too many of them we struggled to recall names when talking about them at the meeting and the finer detail had escaped our memory. Again I find that if we don't remember the book so soon after we have read it, it's not a good sign.
Surprisingly though we all said we would read another book by Lucy Foley so there was definitely something that caught us and pulled us in. The tense plot, the twists were all present and one of us remarked it would make a good poolside book. Even if summer holidays feel a long way off.
I hope the group do go on to read more Foley as I've just finished The Guest List (her follow up) which I really enjoyed. We gave The Hunting Party 6.2 out of 10 and our next book will be I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.
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