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In the Dark, Dark Woods

The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley

So, I am really glad that I didn't buy this. I had been wanting to read it for ages, since it was released, but I didn't want to pay full price for it. I duly put the ebook on hold with my library and settled in for the 12 week wait. When it finally came up, I started it basically right away.

 

It's a fast read - I finished it in about 3 hours, and it kept me interested the whole time. However - and it's a big, huge however - it really did not live up to the hype. It was billed as a Christie-esque country house murder set in a Scottish hunting lodge. It was a country house murder set over New Year's Eve i n a Scottish hunting lodge - that was accurate.

 

Other than that, it just wasn't great. One of the great failings of modern fiction (in my opinion) is that the authors are trying so hard to be edgy that they consistently create characters who are so shitty that, IRL, they wouldn't have a single friend. This was no exception to that rule. Every single character in this book is an affluent, urban, young Londoner who is self-absorbed and completely unlikable.

 

Does anyone here live in London? Are there no people living in London who aren't total oxygen wastes? Because, based on the fiction I read about Londoners, I'm pretty convinced that all of them suck.

 

Anyway, I digress. This was told in alternating first person POVs. If you don't like characters, it's pretty unpleasant to be in their heads. The mystery was meh.

 

It's not an awful book. But the rave reviews made me scratch my heads and the rereadability is non-existent. I happily returned it to the library.

 

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