An annual reunion of friends at a new location with the added beauty and terror of a huge snowstorm that cuts everyone off from the rest of the world is where THE HUNTING PARTY begins and where we meet the characters.

The reunion starts off with a long ride from the train station to the remote lodge with a scary gamekeeper as the driver, the juggling of who gets what cabin, the first-night dinner together, and finding out there is another couple in residence as well as the group of friends.

The group has been friends for a long time, but do they really know each other? Are they jealous of each other? Why do they do this reunion every year? They all seem to have secrets and pasts that the others don’t know about.

The first-night dinner brings many feelings about each other and frightening feelings about the couple from Iceland. They are poorly dressed and seem most interested in the hunting party that has been arranged.

Along with the Lodge guests, we meet mysterious Heather. She seems all organized and put together on the outside, but she has her secrets and something in her past that she wants to forget.

THE HUNTING PARTY lets us get to know the guests very well. Actually a little too well...going into all the detail about their lives past and present got a bit too much, but I guess it was necessary for the reader to get the full impact of the reunion and events.

We are taken from the festivities to Doug, the gamekeeper, finding a body and showing Heather where he found it. When Heather sees the body, she knows it wasn't an accident.

Waiting to find out which one of the friends was the victim and who the killer was kept the tension high. The identity was not made known until the very end. The mystery was a well-kept secret.

Ms. Foley's writing is very descriptive and beautiful. I could see every detail of the landscape and feel the emotions of each character. If you can describe writing as lush, that is how beautiful the sentences flowed and created a picture.

If you enjoy a mystery, antics of characters, learning that the characters really didn't show their true colors, and waiting for the “ball to drop,” THE HUNTING PARTY will be a book you will want to read.

The story line was perfectly carried out and nothing was revealed until the very end. It was an interesting study of personalities. 4/5

This book was given to me as an ARC by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.