The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Published by Harper Collins

January 2019

In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.

The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider

The victim.

Not an accident – a murder among friends.

A group of university friends spend New Years Eve at a remote lodge in the wilds of Scotland.  They spend every New Year together and this year it is Emma who has arranged the trip.  She is a veritable new-comer to the group, being Mark's girlfriend but she is determined to make an effort and create a memory no one will forget.  Things start badly when they discover that their train ticket seats aren't all together, but surely that's only a minor blip and won't spoil the actual trip itself.  When they arrive at the station they are greeted by Doug the gamekeeper and are prepped with the rules and regulations of being out in the wild, especially as the weather is about to get worse and they could be literally snowed in with no way in or out.  

The group have changed since their uni days, no one remains the same, and it is apparent from the offset that their is tension among them.  One couple have insisted on bringing their baby along, the men are all trying to be 'top dog' and well, something isn't sitting quite right amongst the girls either.  By the end of the trip one member of the party will be dead.  The question is who dies, and who killed them?

Lucy Foley brings up the whole question of friendships, and of whether these are sometimes maintained out of  the feeling of necessity rather than from an actual desire to want to remain friends.  There weren't many really likeable people in this story out of the group of friends, and I did spend most of the book wondering which of those was going to meet a gritty end - I wasn't sorry to learn who it was! Then came the next game - trying to work out who had killed them.  

The Hunting Party is a great atmospheric novel and worked well being set in the middle of nowhere to give it a darker edge.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Cuckoo

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper

Published by Avon

November 2018

There’s a stranger in your house…

When her stepmother dies unexpectedly, Caro returns to her childhood home in Derbyshire. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth in years, but the remote farmhouse offers refuge from a bad relationship, and a chance to start again.

But going through Elizabeth’s belongings unearths memories Caro would rather stay buried. In particular, the story her stepmother would tell her, about two little girls and the terrible thing they do.

As heavy snow traps Caro in the village, where her neighbours stare and whisper, Caro is forced to question why Elizabeth hated her so much, and what she was hiding. But does she really want to uncover the truth?

I'll be honest here, I actually only started reading this book on Monday ready for the blog tour today but do you know what, I flew through this and really enjoyed it.  I will say, and this is not meant negatively at all, but how many books just lately are about women on their own in creepy houses?  Or is just that I keep reading about them because that's my favoured genre?!

Anyway, our central character Caro (never Caroline) learns that her evil stepmother Elizabeth has died tragically - an accidental falling over a banister (as if!) and she and her estranged sister Steph have inherited everything, including the old farmhouse that was once their family home in Derbyshire.  Caro is currently living in a friend's flat in London but with the tenancy up soon this seems to have come at the perfect time.  The house needs sorting out and as she is an artist she can work from Derbyshire as easily as she can from London so she travels up instantly.  Her sister lives in New York so Caro is on her own to deal with Elizabeth's belongings and it isn't long before living in the house once again starts to trigger some peculiar memories.  

The villagers aren't particularly warming towards her, and Caro can't figure out why, but the young and handsome neighbour Craig seems to have taken a shine to her and takes her under his wing.  After recently ending a relationship though, Caro is more than a little wary but as things in the house continue to go bump in the night, and stuff is moved around seemingly on its own, she soon realises she needs someone on her side.

Some of the book reminded me a little of Angela Carter's  The Bloody Chamber as Caro is illustrating a  fairy tale book called The Pear Drum and other dark tales from the Nursery, which the reader may not be surprised to learn her stepmother also had a pear drum with which she used to taunt Caro when she was younger.  There are some snippets of the stories within the book and they are equally as dark as the ones Carter writes about.

Is some of Cuckoo predictable?  Yes, probably.  However it kept me turning the pages throughout and actually I thought it had a pretty good twist of an ending which if you know me, I love.  I can't stand a poor conclusion to a book.  Cuckoo is also only 99p on Amazon Kindle in the UK so surely that makes it worth a read?

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x 

A House of Ghosts

A House of Ghosts by W.C.Ryan

Published by Bonnier Zaffre

October 2018

Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.

At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.

For Blackwater Abbey is haunted in more ways than one . . .

A House of Ghosts is one of those stories that is perfect for curling up in front of the fire with. Set on an island in the midst of winter in 1917, it is atmospheric and creepy (but not too scary).  We first meet Kate Cartwright and Captain Robert Donovan when they are both summoned by the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (by a man known as C) to undertake a mission in espionage at Blackwood Abbey off of the coast of Devon.  Kate is known to the family as her parents are friends of the owner Lord Highmount, and with her (ex)-fiance Rolleson Miller-White, parents and Donovan (who is in role as a valet to Miller-White) head off for the island for a seance session in which Lord Highmount hopes to be able to contact his two sons who have been killed in France.  Kate's parents hope too to have some contact with their son Arthur, who is missing in action.

The weather, as you can imagine, is frightful and soon the islanders are cut off from the mainland.  Alongside those mentioned above, other members of the party include Madame Feda and Count Dimitri Orlov who both claim to be able to see and speak to the dead.  Little do they know that Kate also possesses the ability to see ghosts, and she is soon astounded by how many spirits are still gathered at Blackwater Abbey.  However, are the famed spiritualists all they claim to be?  The party also consists of Doctor Reid and his patient Private Albert Simms who is suffering from the effects of trench warfare.

Some plans have been stolen from the Highmounts who are responsible for manufacturing armaments to send to the front line, and it would appear that there is a person in the house who is prepared to kill to get their revenge, but who is it and can Kate and Donovan find out before their lives too are in danger? I thought this was a nice ghosts story and that it worked well.  It's been billed as a modern day Agatha Christie, and if you love her novels as I do, you won't be too disappointed by reading this I'm sure!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x