This was a pretty average, middle of the road thriller for me. There was nothing bad about it but there wasn't nothing that special either

This is a psychological thriller which focuses on a group of teens who go on a search party looking for thier friend who has gone missing but something goes horribly wrong.

I thought this book was just okay. It wasn't that remarkable or anything special.

But it was interesting enough to want me to read to the end.

I didn't see the ending coming, so I have to give the book credit for that but it didn't really shock me or surprise me.

I thought the writing was okay. I liked the fact that we got mutiple perspectives including a detective solving the case.

I didn't connect with the characters really. I didn't really care for them.

I do think though this would make a good Netflix series

Overall, a pretty average book, that was perfectly acceptable but nothing amazing

Loved this book couldn't put it down. It has so many twists in it I didn't see what the ending was going to be. A girl has gone missing, the police are searching but haven't found her, then her friends decide to do the same thing. They go into the woods but someone is watching their every move or so they think! They keep seeing shadows or hearing noises so are very jumpy. Fleet- the detective in charge has a connection with the town, and people think he's back to make amends.
Well worth reading this and will be looking for more by the same author. Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this and give my honest opinion.

An emergency call for assistance. Four teenagers lost , one fatality, a search party struggling to locate them in atrocious weather conditions. A missing girl intrinsic to the confusion and lies concocted by the group to cover up the true circumstances of events. World weary and hugely experienced policeman Fleet and his trusted sidekick Nicky struggle to clarify what is truth and lies within each interview and statement against a background of pressure from their superior to solve or close the case to minimise mounting investigative costs. Time is running out and Fleet refuses to accept the easy answer. Instinct and experience drives him forward in his efforts to solve the mystery and locate the missing girl. Memories of a past tragedy only serve to heighten his determination against all odds to give this case a good outcome. Complex, confusing and ultimately a satisfying conclusion to an unusual and intricate storyline.

SIMON LELIC – THE SEARCH PARTY

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sadie. A missing girl. Presumed murdered. Her friends from school, the Search Party, tramping through spooky night-time woods, looking for the truth. Fleet, the policeman in charge of the investigation, wrestling with personal demons.

Summarised, it sounds more exciting than I actually found it. Most of the book is told from the different points of view of Sadie’s five or six friends, over and over, telling the same story, each segment revealing a little more of the truth as each one sees it, interspersed with Fleet’s personal life and fights with his antagonistic boss.

Often, especially if I paused in my reading, I forget who was telling their side of the story, they were all so similar, and I had to look back. Perhaps, unfairly, because of everything going on in the real world, I found this middle section monotonous. But the climax is truly gripping and well written, and the denouement is affecting. Overall I enjoyed it.

I did enjoy this book but I kind of felt sorry for it because however much I tried to forget about what is going on in. the world at the moment it was hard not to, sorry! The story was different to the norm I. have read recently but like others I got a bit confused remembering all the characters stories but once I didI was racing through.. I liked the character of Fleet and would like to have him in future books to discover where he could go next. Overall a good read but I can’t help thinking I just read it at the wrong time With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a slightly random book: great premise - five friends searching for their missing friend in the woods - and cover, but the writing style felt like a slog, especially in the first half. It was written in a bizarre police transcript style that was a bit painful to read and I found it hard to remember which teenager was which. Especially between the girls.
The ending felt like the author had been tricking readers etc. I liked the police character a lot though.
Thanks to NetGalley for the Review copy, all opinions are my own

This cleverly constructed novel plunges you into the midst of the story from the opening pages and then through a series of one-sided interviews reveals what went before. Six days ago, teenager Sadie Saunders went missing. The police and everyone in the small community where she lives, thinks that she is dead. They also think that they know who killed her. But her five friends are not sure, and together Abi, Cora, Mason, Fash and Luke, who is Sadie’s twin brother, sneak out into the woods where Sadie's personal items were found. It starts out as a search party, but as events unfold it becomes something more sinister.

The device of using the individual one-sided conversations with the police to reveal what happened on the search party takes a little while to get used to, but once you become familiar with the speech patterns of each of the interviewees it works quite well and gives the story momentum. The teenagers are not a particularly likeable bunch, but then neither are the parents or the senior ranks of the police.

I thought that the structure of the novel was quite clever and that Lelic uses it well to generate a good level of suspense and uncertainty about what is happening.

I have some reservations, but overall I enjoyed it and I particularly liked the characters of the flawed and damaged Flood and his capable offsider DS Nicola Collins and would like to read about them again.
See my full review at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/f...

Really good read. 5 friends form a search party to find their missing friend, but each one has secrets and ulterior motives.

There were many twists and turns to the story as it was told from each friends perspective during their police interviews. You get all the pieces which slot together nicely at the end. I felt the story wavered a little just before the end, but the rest of the story was good enough for it not to matter.

The entire town thinks Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. Sadie's five best friends vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and set off for the woods where Sadie was last seen.

But what starts as a search quickly turns into something more sinister. Each of them has a secret, and they all know more about Sadie's past than they are willing to admit.

It was never really a search party.

It was a witch hunt.

And not everyone is going to make it home.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I am a complete sucker for thrillers where we are given a group of people and a suspense tension of 'either one of them is the killer or one of them will die next'. You know exaaaaactly what kind of books I am talking about!

The Search Party delivers this kind of narrative EXQUISITELY - then it added a little bit of teenage angst, a twist or two, and a pinch of tortured detective, and VOILA:

A truly amazing thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat!

Although I did enjoy the book I felt it was a bit drawn out. The plot was at times complicated especially remembering who was who. The end was a good twist.

The description of this book seemed right up my street. I did enjoy it - I did wonder during the first few chapters if it was going to be a young adult book, but there were lots of twists and turns and it kept my interest. Would recommend.
#NetGalley#TheSearchParty

I really enjoyed this book and the format in which it was written! The characters were all very well crafted and the dynamics worked! There was suspense throughout with almost 2 separate cases intrinsically linked!

Very gripping read, with an easy reading style!! Would recommend!

Sadie has gone missing and her friends form a search party, convinced the police are looking in the wrong place. Rob Fleet, the detective brought in to lead the search, is convinced the friends are hiding something. Then someone is dead. Was Fleet right?
A really fast paced read that you need to make sure you can devote time to: you won’t be able to put it down.
The story has multiple narratives with Fleet’s side being told in 3rd person narrative whilst the teenagers relate their story through 1st person one sided interviews. However, all the voices are distinctive and easy to follow. It becomes clear quite quickly that everyone in this novel has some demons they are dealing with and many are not telling the truth about events. Whilst this has the potential to become confusing Lelic handles the plot expertly, resulting in a simple, easy to follow plot with a genuinely surprising twist.
I hadn’t read any books by Simon Leticia before but I will definitely go back and read his previous novels. If you haven’t come across this author before, The Search Party is a great place to start.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netfalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A girl Sadie goes missing , after the police are involved, and fail to find her , 5 of her friends organise a search party to find her but are any of these friends hiding anything ?A further tragedy unfolds as they search .A good story with a number of twists but unfortunately at times , when the teenage friends were giving their accounts of what happened it read like Young Adult genre style of writing which detracted from the overall sense of the book .

I received an ARC of this book from net galley. I requested it, having thoroughly enjoyed The Liar's Room. I am a bit more ambivalent about this one. Sadies is missing, the police and community are searching the river and woods to try and find her. 5 Of her friends and family, all aged around 16, decide to form their own search party in the woods but are they alone and do they all return. The narrative is the recounting of what happened from the eyes of the people in the search party. These narratives are almost monologues heard by the police as they investigate what happens. For me it had similarities to One of Us Is Lying but with less clarity. There were times when there seemed to be gaps at others leaps in the police's problem solving that just didn't make sense.

I liked the MC Police inspector - Fleet but dislike the prototypical superintendent who wants to just get the investigation done irrespective of whether it is the right person they catch.

A cracking piece of escapism. Read it through to the wee small hours and am looking forward to handselling it. Loved the twists and red herrings.

Brilliant. This book takes different POV and different timelines and brings them all together into a suspense filled, tense thriller. The group of friends that strike out to find their missing friends soon descend into a whirlpool of distrust as fear and paranoia sets in and runs rampant throughout. Supposed friends start to look at each other with fearful eyes. Who is telling the truth, who if any of them killed Sadie. Can the detective in charge D I Rob Fleet who has his own Buried secret get to the bottom of the disappearance . Will justice prevail or will the fear and distrust within the group get the better of all involved. A dark, gritty book which will keep you hooked into devouring it in one session. Will keep you in suspense as to the culprit , a culprit and ending that will just be jaw dropping in its revelation.

An interesting theme for a book which started well but became a bit long winded in parts, mainly when the teenage friends were working their way through the woods looking for Sadie or evidence of what may have happened to her. I did find it dragged a bit in places but the character of Rob was excellent and added further interest to the story. Not really a page turner for me.

This book had me gripped from the beginning. Started and finished in one afternoon.

Sadie is missing and DI Rob Fleet is on the case to find her. From the outset, you’re never sure who to trust as there are so many gaps in each of the characters stories! Sadie’s friends Mason, Cora, Fash and Abi all seem to say things that just don’t entirely add up and have reasons which could implicate each of them in her disappearance. However, none of them are that solid.

As Simon Lelic progresses the story and the reader finds out more about the night of Sadie’s disappearance, it becomes more difficult to put the book down. However, the assumptions about each character’s involvement keep building.

The end was not one I expected after the twists and turns throughout but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC!

Loved the premise for this thriller!

Sadie Saunders has been missing for a week. Everyone thinks she's dead - and that they know who killed her. But her 5 best friends still aren't sure so they go out together into the woods to find out the truth, some with intentions more honourable than others!

This is kind of a locked room mystery, but a "locked-woods" mystery. You know it had to be one of the friends, but who was it? It was a quick, racy plot that kept you going all the way to the end. Fun and quite a light-read.

The one thing that kind of jarred for me was the age of the characters. It did actually feel more YA than adult, but there were parts that seems more adult than YA. Maybe Lelic has created a new genre?.

I think this would make a perfect beach thriller!