I'll be the first to admit that I don't normally pick up murder mystery novels. I'm too scared to watch horror films (why would anyone willingly add more gore to their lives?), and I'm more of a biography nut myself. The occasional Poiret and Christie TV holiday special I'll indulge in, but I'll normally tie myself in knots trying to figure out the whodunnit.

However, having read novelist Lucy Foley's highly enjoyable, The Invitation, back in 2016, which is set along the Italian Riviera, I was compelled to pick up her newest novel, The Hunting Party. Her self-professed first murder mystery, the story is based around the premise of college friends reuniting on a remote, snowy Scottish Highland, but ancient history between them turns deadly.

"I was staying in a cottage on a remote, snowy estate in the Scottish Highlands and thought it would be a great spot to get a group of friends up to see in the New Year," Foley told me when I asked what inspired the book from summer days to snowy murder. "Then, when I learned that there was a possibility of my actually being snowed in on the estate and not being able to leave, I thought it would be a perfect setting for a murder mystery, and the two ideas converged in a rather evil way. I spent the next few days trudging around the estate, plotting out the book.” 

Highly absorbing and a fun read, I'm recommending Foley's gripping book, which is full of characters you kind of know, but wouldn't actually want to spend a weekend getaway with. 

Click here to lose yourself in The Hunting Party.

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