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The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Meeting date: July 23, 2019 ;
Star rating: 2.3/5 stars

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirty-something friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Comments from attendees:
  • This group is chasing the nostalgia from the "good old days".
  • The character perspectives tend to blend together
  • Emma wanted to be closer. Her isolation would force that in a way.
  • The stalker did not register as an important plot point for some.
  • Emma wanted acceptance as a friend, or did she want to be someone else?
  • More insight on Miranda's past could have been helpful to understand why she is the way she is. Group speculated either a tragic backstory or Miranda is just naturally terrible.
  • Katie might have seen Julien as her chance to feel powerful about something.
  • Heather and Doug's characters were unnecessary.
  • Many picked Julien as the murderer.
  • The foreshadowing in the book was caught by very few.
Lowest rating: 0
Highest rating: 4
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