The Search Party

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 show more 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. show less

In my opinion, the book 'The Search Party' started a bit slow, but I'm glad that I didn't give up on it. Once the dark and twisted story got going, the pacing was perfect.

The mystery of who did it takes place in various settings over the course of a single weekend. The elevated emotions and increased tensions make the timeframe feel much longer. The multiple perspectives give readers a convincing portrayal of the different characters. This glamping weekend among old college friends and their families is anything but fun, as a child goes missing, massive secrets are uncovered, and tempers escalate, all in the midst of a massive storm. The pace is frantic as we are propelled towards the astonishing conclusion.

I've been missing out on a show more great author!

Thanks to the author and publisher for this complimentary ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, all opinions are my own and are left voluntarily.

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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 show more 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. show less

The Short of It:

So many secrets!!

The Rest of It:

A spellbinding locked-room mystery about a glamping trip gone horribly wrong when a powerful storm leaves the participants stranded and forced to confront long-held secrets and a shocking disappearance. ~ from the publisher

Right from the start, you are in for a wild ride! Max and Annie develop a glamping resort in the wilds of Cornwall. To test everything out, they invite a few of their college friends and their families to experience glamping (glamour camping) with great food, luxury tents and the like. But it’s been awhile since everyone has been together and some are now married with kids!

All of the couples are very different, as are the kids. Some young adults, teens and a few show more elementary aged kids. Kip, Max and Annie’s adopted son, is at the center of the tension as he’s very sensitive to things and will shut down when stressed or involved in a confrontation of any kind. Some of the parents don’t understand why Kip is given such a wide berth by his parents. Much of what he does, and his reaction to things set him apart from the other kids and make him an easy target.

Then, something goes horribly wrong. A storm moves in, a child goes missing and as the couples are held captive by the weather and the stress of a missing child, all the secrets pour out. Tempers flare. Hard feelings come out. Much more than a thin tent, luxury or not, can contain.

This was a super fun read with lots of twists and turns. The couples take turns being deplorable so loyalties jump around quite a bit. You really don’t know what’s next!

Highly recommend. show less

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 show more 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. show less

THE SEARCH PARTY had an intriguing premise, and the atmospheric Cornwall setting drew me in. A group of college friends with families in tow reunite on a glamping excursion on the Cornish coast. When the children go missing during a storm, tensions run high and secrets are revealed.

This was a good solid mystery, though a few things kept me from loving it. The story was drama-heavy and lighter on suspense. There were too many characters to keep track of as well, and at least one of the families could have been left out. Even so, I thought most of the main characters were well-crafted, some likable and some not so much. The pacing could be sluggish, but I did quite enjoy the ending. Definitely more of a family drama than thriller.

Thank show more you to the publisher and Edelweiss for a digital review copy. Thoughts are my own. show less

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 show more 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.
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