Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Hunting Party

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

108 reviews

runbeck's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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lexithelion's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Out of Lucy Foley's 3 murder mysteries, this is definitely my least favourite. However, that is not to say that this is a bad book, because it's not. This book is a great first mystery that combines the difficult inter-workings of friendships and an establishing plot-line that puts all the characters in an abstract and very solitary situation. The book does not drag and the story is incredibly easy to follow; props to Lucy Foley for being able to write a 0% confusing mystery novel that jumps back-and-forth in time and also utilizes multi-perspective chapters. I will say that this book seemed quite fast and the ending was incredibly abrupt which is a pattern I've noticed in Foley's literature.

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niallgoulding1's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Meh. OK as a holiday read. Ticks all the standard boxes with an interesting setting and a new red herring every chapter. Rattles along at a quick pace.

But in my opinion, while murder mysteries always require some suspension of disbelief, this one was too aggressively dumb not to earn an eyeroll. The killer's ending doesn't make any sense if you spent even 30 seconds researching how the justice system works. The mentally ill = villain trope felt icky and a relic from the past. Also, the writer keeps the identity of the victim a secret until the very end of the novel - I kept expecting that there was a reason for this but the victim was the most obvious, clichéd option so I don't see the point. The answer to the mystery didn't feel earned and wasn't clever.

Not sure I'd recommend.

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