by Hannah Richell
Release Date: January 16, 2024
2024 Atria Books
Ebook ARC Edition; 352 Pages
ISBN: 978-1668036068
ASIN: B0C7RPDKZR
Audiobook: B0C7YZKPGS
Genre: Fiction / Suspense
Source: Review copy from publisher
3.5 / 5 Stars
Summary
Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat
race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the
wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they
invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed
reunion. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the
children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to
light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in
the group disappears.
My Thoughts
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.
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