I was excited when I got the opportunity to read this book. I’ve enjoyed thrillers for years, and it’s been quite a while since I last read a book in the genre, so I was looking forward to reading this story. I also liked the idea of friends working together in a desperate situation, and when I had the chance, I eagerly dove into this story.

Unfortunately, soon after getting into the story, I realized this book was not for me. As a Christian, I did not appreciate the language used in the story. I can deal with some language, but there was also a scene that contained more description of a couple’s intimacy than I was comfortable with. Because of that, I had to make the difficult decision to DNF this book.

Based on the first 25% of the book, I expect this would be a great read for most who don’t mind what I mentioned above. It’s an engaging story, and even though there’s a wide raft of characters here, I didn’t have any trouble figuring out who was who—that was well done! I also loved the atmosphere of the story (I felt like I was there!), and I also found the style of story-telling (with frequent switches between past and present) easy to follow and gripping. I would have loved to finish this read, because I suspect it would be a deep read with a satisfying ending, but unfortunately, that’s not an option for me.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it. ( )

Oh.my.gosh. Hannah Richell's new novel, The Search Party makes for absolutely riveting reading! I truly could not put it down.

Why? The premise for starters. A group of old friends and their children gather at a glamping site that one of the couples is starting. At first glance, all is well with the friends. But a closer look shows up the cracks in all of the relationships. Richell's characters are a mixed bunch. It was easy to pick favorites - and just as easy to identify the one I despised.

One person in the group goes missing. And so goes begins the search party.

But what hooked me is how the story is told. Richell uses one of my favorite methods - then and now. In this case it's before the 'event' and afterwards, as the police try to figure out what happened. There are many points of view. But who can we trust? The book brings to mind a 'locked room' mystery. I had my suspicions, but I was happily wrong! I appreciate being able to name the whodunit.

Richell is so very clever at how she manipulates the reader's perceptions. The pronoun they is used - making it impossible to know if it's a male or female character. As readers, we have information that the police don't. Will they deduce the perpetrator before it's too late? I'll let you discover this one yourself. An easy five stars and absolutely recommended. ( )

The Search Party is an atmospheric, destination thriller that was decent. A group of friends get together to check out a new glamping venture that is being started by one of the friends, and soon resentments, secrets, and tensions start to boil to the surface. I always enjoy ''locked-room" types of thrillers and while in this one they all get stranded on a a bluff during a wild storm, it still has the same affect. You've got the missing person, the storm, the atmosphere, the secrets, the tension, the possible murder, being shut off from the outside world, and the investigation, all the elements of a good suspense novel.

The location itself was the best part of this book as I loved the atmosphere of the wilderness and the 'glamping'. And I really enjoyed how so many elements of the landscape were revealed slowly to the reader in order to avoid giving away necessary plot points; and it would have been very easy to figure things out if the author had used more description. But you learned about the layout of the bluff along with the characters, something I thought was quite good. This actually added to the atmosphere of the book as I never really knew what was going to be revealed about the land next.

Unfortunately, the author didn't continue this type of writing with the characters although she did try. When you try too hard to make a character seem guilty or possibly dark, I don't think it necessarily works and in this one, it actually led me right to who it actually was quite early in the game. It's not that I didn't enjoy the twists and turns the author employed, but I was able to see right through them. I think it would have been better if other people had been targeted as well as it would have maybe made me think differently, especially when a certain comment was made with regards to Dominic. Now I am not giving anything away by revealing this, or who made the comment, but when that happened, I knew who it was.

One of the reasons I didn't give it a higher star rating had to do with certain treatment towards a younger character in this book. I get that the author was using the tactic to cause doubt in the reader, but the fact no one was more outraged over what happened bothered me. And why would you keep secrets about an adoption, especially in the circumstances in which Kip was raised? Weak plot point in my estimation and rubbed me the wrong way. For a group of friends who are supposed to be so close, it just didn't make sense.

Verdict
The Search Party started off quite strongly, and the author is very skilled as a writer. I did like how the atmosphere of the setting was used to drive the story, but wish it was used a lot more than it was as it would have added more depth to the tension and secrets running through the group. While the characters were interesting, they were definitely not original, and the use of one of them to propel the story bothered me a great deal. Overall, the ending was satisfactory as all the loose ends were tied up, but I did think it was easy to figure out who the villain was in this story. I do recommend this book to anyone who likes these 'locked-room' type of thrillers. ( )

The Search Party by Hannah Richell is a highly recommended mystery. This locked-room thriller is part mystery and part procedural that gets better with each chapter.

A group of old friends are going to a glamping site for a reunion weekend. Max and Annie Kingsley with their twelve-year-old son Kip have left London and are setting up a glamping site/business named Wildernest in Cornwall. They have invited their old university friends, Dominic Davies (with his wife Tanya), Kira de Silva (with partner Frank), Jim Miller, and Suze Miller along with everyone's children join them for the long May Day weekend. Their last reunion was tense, but everyone is hopeful this will be better until tensions arise the first night when a misunderstanding between children causes Dominic to lose his temper and he holds on to his anger. The weekend heads downhill from this.

The Search Party opens with a map of the area and a list of characters. The characters are all quite distinctive as individuals, so it is easy to differentiate between them. An ominous foreboding atmosphere is set at the opening of the novel where a young woman is planning to jump off a cliff. The locked room aspect sets in immediately because when guests arrive they learn that there is no phone reception. Then later a storm rolls in, cutting power and access off. The procedural elements are found in the narrative, which allows the story to unfold between current questioning by police and past recounts of what happened during the weekend.

Because the answers to all your questions are slowly revealed during police questioning of each character and the story of what happened is told incrementally through the viewpoint of each character, the pace is slow until later in the narrative. The charged, tense atmosphere, however, begins early on. Knowing that something awful is going to happen (Someone is unconscious in the hospital) and waiting to pick up clues and hints as they are slowly revealed about the events from the weekend is part of the enjoyment. However, as I was reading I did question why these friends from 20 years ago still have such a strong bond when they really don't all seem to like each other that much.

Richell uses the locked-room plot device to a good effect and The Search Party is enjoyable. Disclosure: My complimentary review copy was courtesy of Atria Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/01/the-search-party.html ( )

In the short prolog, the girl stands at the edge of the cliff and is encourage to jump. She sees no other way to escape from it all. So she jumps.

It was supposed to be a great weekend with three families whose friendships have lasted twenty years. Max and Annie opened a campsite in wild Cornwall. They invited their friends, but no one expected that the weekend would end tragically.

I was fully invested in the complex plot, which kept changing my predictions. I didn’t know who the victim was until halfway through the book, but then when it was revealed, another incident occurred and I was back to ground zero with my scenarios and speculations.

The timeline switched seamlessly between the day of the accident and the day of the police interrogation. During that time many secrets were revealed and the story became even more mysterious and complicated.

This was definitely a quick and enjoyable read, with lots of twists and turns. ( )