Our Take
Lucy Foley built her reputation on the closed circle mystery, and The Hunting Party was the one that put her on the map before The Guest List made her a household name. If you loved the claustrophobic tension and rotating perspectives of that later book, this earlier outing delivers the same structural pleasures: a snowbound setting standing in for an island, a group of friends whose polished exteriors hide real rot, and a slow drip of reveals that keeps you guessing until the final pages. Fans of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None will recognize the bones here, isolated location, dwindling trust, everyone a suspect, but Foley modernizes it with sharp characterization and present day social dynamics. It also sits comfortably alongside In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware, another book that uses a reunion gone wrong to excavate old wounds between friends who no longer know each other as well as they think. What makes The Hunting Party work is that the whodunit question matters less than the why, Foley is genuinely interested in how friendships curdle over a decade, and that emotional groundwork pays off when the truth finally surfaces. A satisfying, atmospheric pick for anyone who wants their thriller served cold, literally.
