I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to. The conclusion was a good twist and made up for some of the preceding chapters.

I'd heard so much about this book that I just had to read it myself, absolutely loved it from start to finish! Highly recommended!

I have read other titles by Simon Lelic and thoroughly enjoyed them, this one however felt slightly off from his normal style. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, it just didn’t pack the same punch as his previous work.


The search party is an interesting concept, an although not classed as a YA thriller, it is primarily told through the eyes of 5 teenagers searching for their missing friend. Occasionally we do read chapters through the eyes of Detective Inspector Fleet and learn more of his own ties to the town. I personally enjoyed reading these chapters the most as they felt more like Lelic’s style that I have come to love in the past.


Overall I did enjoy the storyline and the ending…the murderer if you like…was a blindsight. Maybe I should have seen it coming, but at the time when I was turning the pages, I didn’t see it as a predictable option.


If I go into too much detail in this review, I feel I will end up giving the best bits of the storyline away. What I will say is that my 3 star rating for this title is based on the ending and the sub plot surrounding Detective Inspector Fleet. Had it not of been for these two factors this title would not have rated as high as 3 stars.


I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for the early release copy in exchange for my honest review.


UK Release Date: 20th August 2020


#TheSearchParty | #SimonLelic | #NetGalley | #PenguinBooksUK

16 year old Sadie has been missing for 6 days, when a group of her friends decide to form a search party convinced the police are looking in the wrong place.
The story starts with a 999 call and when the police arrive they discover the teenagers and a body which is not Sadie.
The book jumps from the investigating officer Fleet and the teenagers interviews. I’m not sure if it’s because I was reading an arc but at times it was a little unclear when it switched perspectives and I had to reread several bits to clarify. That aside I found this an interesting read and was eager to solve the case and find Sadie and discover the secrets the teenagers are hiding
I look forward to reading more from this author
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review

Unfortunately for me I couldn’t finish this one. The one sided character conversations are just not for me I am afraid

I’ve been struggling to read and lose myself in a book since lockdown. I started this with low expectations of my own concentration and attention span. Well, I could not put it down. It’s utterly gripping, The skill of the author to reel the reader into the story and refuse to let them go until that very end is incredible. Fantastic. I owe Simon Lelic a thank you for giving me my reading back.

As the possessor of brains, beauty and a lovely, caring character, Sadie Saunders is a golden girl, seemingly with the world at her feet. Adored and favoured by her parents, she is also fêted, admired and sought after by her peers. So why would she go missing? And why might she be dead?

These questions feature heavily in Detective Inspector Rob Fleet’s mind as he returns rather warily to his hometown, the scene of his close relative's disappearance and subsequent death several years ago, and the cause for his own swift departure as a late teenager.

What if these cases are linked? Is he ready to face up to his memories of the past and can he remain professional and impartial in the process? In his search for answers, he encounters and interviews Sadie's friends, who form an impromptu search party of their own, leading to yet another tragic loss of life.

The ever-growing cast of suspects and myriad points of view gradually diminish and become eliminated via many twists and turns, cover-ups and false starts. Eventually, truth will out. Honesty will prevail over prevarication and lies, as the fuller story gets revealed, to everyone's surprise.

In solving the mystery of Sadie's disappearance, DI Fleet also gets to grips with the lurking demons from his past. He is finally able to piece together what really happened to his relative and seek justice for her untimely death. This is a creepy, captivating, twisty and complex thriller that will leave you second-guessing everything up to the unexpected denouement reveal. Grateful thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC.

Six teenagers all hiding secrets. When one of them, Sadie, goes missing pressumed dead, her friends Fash, Abi, Cora, twin brother Luke and boyfriend Mason set up their own search party to find her. Feeling like the police aren't doing enough or looking in the right place they set out into the woods to find the truth.

Detective Fleet has been brought back to his home town to investigate the disappearance of Sadie and has his own demons to face. Is his past clouding his judgement on her case?

What exactly happened in the woods and who is to blame? Is there someone else out there watching them? Will Fleet find Sadie and will she still be alive?

This was a bit of a slow starter until you got used to the characters and the narrative then I was hooked. I found the set out a little confusing but this is probably with it being a Netgalley ARC copy. My first book by this author but will defintely be reading more. Highly recommended.

I assumed that the Search Party by Simon Lelic would be a police procedural to find a missing person but this story proved to be so much more. Although the police were indeed searching for the missing teenager, Sadie, so were her friends, and her brother Luke, quite separately and then there is the search for the truth. Detective Inspector Rob Flett is a bit of an anti-hero for he has a significant back story in this seaside town in which his sister died. He is also estranged from his wife Holly. That he has made more than a few enemies doesn’t exactly help. The story is told from different perspectives and becomes a bit of a tangle for that but the characterisation is good, especially Rob Flett, and the ending was quite unexpected. Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a tale of a group of young people who search for their missing friend. I found it a difficult read from the multi character points of view and this slowed the narrative. I liked the police characters and the atmospheric setting.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing novel....

sadie is missing...
is she alive or dead....
the longer the search goes on the more a dead body is expected....

her friends decide to look for sadie, so they decide to organise their own search party...

but someone ends up dead...

wow have to say that i couldnt put this book down and wanted to find out who had done it and why...
what a complex book with red herrings galore and teenagers being teenagers...

will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors works

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the interview style and the multi POV. It meant I kept changing my mind constantly about what I thought was going on and how it was going to end. Detective Fleet made for a great “underdog” too which I always love in a book. I see that a lot of people have said that they enjoyed this authors other books more so I’m definitely adding them to my wishlist considering how much I liked this one. Would recommend to fans of One Of Us Is Lying.

I was intrigued with this book from the start. The author writes the story using different characters. The early 'chapters' using each characters early police custody tapes was well written. Many twists and turns in the novel when you realise that everyone is lying.

Friend or enemies? Searching for a friend Sadie in the forest, different narratives say many stories.

Perfect who-dunnit in a dark kind of way.

It took me a while to get into the book, but I am glad I stuck with it. The main story is a whodunnit, and I was surprised by who it was in the end. If you start reading this book and feel like giving up, my advice is to persevere. It really picks up at the end.

Enough twists and turns in this story to keep things interesting. An entertaining read - finished in one sitting and enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not usually a fan of different narratives within a book but it worked well within this story. This book gets right into your mind as you frantically try and work out who the culprit is.
This is a creepily atmospheric book that I very much enjoyed. Wonderful ending that caught me by surprise!

The range of different narratives in this story made it somewhat confusing at times, however this was well written and had an interesting plot that held my interest.

With lots of suspense, this book really plays on your fears as much of it takes place in a deep dark wood 😱
I thought the way it was written was very clever - with each of the friends telling their story, intertwined with the Detective piecing together the events - the reader can gradually build up an idea but everyone remains a suspect until the end!
The plot moves at a good pace and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat, then ends with an excellent twist (or two!). This should definitely be on your wish list if you like a good suspense/psychological thriller. I rated it 4⭐️.

16 year old Sadie Saunders is missing and her friends believe that not enough is being done to find her so they set out on a fateful trip into the woods to try and find some answers. However, each of her friends Cora, Abigail, Fash, Mason and her twin brother Luke seem to be hiding secrets of their own.

On the other side of the coin Detective Fleet has his own demons to face when he is tasked with finding the answers to this case whilst having to relive his own nightmare past in the same town.

The Search Party follows a lot of different narratives and each one is filled with suspense and makes you want to read on to find how what happened to Sadie. At times the formatting on the Kindle was difficult to read but I was still drawn into the suspense of this book.

The ending was pretty shocking and I would love to read more with Fleet.