Emma plans the group trip to an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands on New Year Eve. A group of her friends from Oxford will meet to welcome in the New Year together. They arrive on the 30th of December. Emma and Mark, Miranda and Julien, Nick and Bo, Samira and Giles, their six-month-old baby, Priya. And Katie.
Doug is the gamekeeper for their group. He has a criminal record, but he never mentioned explicitly about his past.
On the 2nd of January, one of the guests is missing. Doug and Heather search for the missing guest for the past 24 hours. It's hard to get a rescue team from the outside due to the heavy snowfall. Then when Doug found the body, he suspects it's not an accidental death.
The entire story switches between days before the New Year and the current state. So, Katie is like Miranda's project, but at the same time, without Miranda's knowledge, she is Emma's project as well. A lot of plot twists towards the end. The story is quite intriguing, but the pace is too slow for me. I feel bad that I'm not surprised at all when the victim is revealed at the end. Judging by the victim's attitude, definitely, it's just a matter of time that her life will be cut short. In fact, I was hoping that my guess is correct before the revelation of the victim.
SPOILER WARNING!
- Katie is Miranda's best friend, and Julien is Miranda's husband. Both had an affair which Miranda later found out towards the end of the story. Feeling cheated by her best friend and her husband, she plans to take revenge on Julien by revealing his crime of inside trading.
- After Miranda found out the affair, she goes to Emma and finds out that Emma has been keeping all her lost items all these years.
- Emma has a multiple personality order. She has been obsessed with Miranda since the first day she met Miranda.Emma accidentally kills Miranda after Miranda told her that she will never be her friend and she is a psychopath.
Rating: ★★★
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.