Sadly not lived up to my expectations. Didn’t care about any of the characters so that detracted from the tension, as I wasn’t worried about what might happen to them. The use of the drug plot device was weak and quite amateurish in my opinion, and didn’t fit well with the rest of the mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

4 close friends go away for a long overdue bonding weekend, trekking and mountain climbing the Norwegian mountains. A woman's body is found. What has happened on the trip and who has come to a nasty end?
I really enjoyed this, the insight into the women's friendships and loyalties was beautifully articulated and felt very real, with everyone envying someone else and not appreciating their own lives. The dramatic scenery and beautiful landscapes almost became a character in their own right too.
I was gripped to it and really enjoyed the storytelling and pace of the story.

⭐️The Hike by Lucy Clarke⭐️

Four friends embark on their annual holiday together, this time to trek up a mountain in Norway. But when a body is found, and the women’s tight knit history threatens to unravel on the mountainside, it’s not clear whether everyone will be going home.

🏞️ This is my third Lucy Clarke novel and the thing that has stuck out through all of them is how she really makes you feel like you are in her story. I could picture every ascent up the mountain, every picturesque view and shimmering fjord, I felt very rooted in Norway and that really helped me connect with the story and feel a part of it.

👭 I also really love how her books focus on female friendship and the connections between the characters. I felt I knew every one of these four characters and was invested in their story.

⛰️ Plot wise, as always, I was hooked throughout the whole thing. Lucy Clarke is a master of weaving thrillers and creating atmosphere. I loved reading this book and am still looking forward to checking out more of her back catalogue.

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley but since I’m so behind on my arcs, I listened to the audiobook instead on Scribd. It was a really good audiobook and I recommend reading it this way

4.5 stars.
The Hike is a fast-paced nail biter of a thriller that twists and turns much like the setting it takes place in.
Liz feels stuck in her life and has arranged a girls getaway to Norway for her and her three childhood best friends; Joni, Maggie, and Helena. This is a very different annual trip for the women, and not all are looking forward to it. When the women arrive in Norway laden down with their hiking gear, each is anxious for different reasons, no less the fact none of them have ever hiked in their lives. As they set out, they are faced not only with unpredictable weather but a catalogue of errors that occur one after the other. The Blafjell Mountain is a fantastic setting for this book and offers both a stunning and hostile environment. The story is told across multiple POV and contains a clever twist that leaves you reeling. Who can be trusted up there, and will they all make it down alive? I can guarantee you won't be able to put this book down!

Another gripping, atmospheric, suspenseful and emotive read from a fabulous author.

A group of friends take turns to decide their holiday destination. This year, Liz has chosen a hiking holiday in Norway, which her friends have reluctantly agreed to despite wishing they had chosen something more relaxing.

Although they know each other well and have been close friends since school, their professional and home lives have inevitably diverged and become busy in very different ways, creating friction which only increases when they realise just how many secrets they are keeping from each other.

Taciturn locals carry seething resentments surrounding a woman who disappeared a year ago, creating a rumbling unease that the trip is not going to end well. The beautiful but foreboding Norwegian mountain is a haunting character in its own right, and an impending storm adds further urgency to the drama.

A beautifully written and well rounded read 5⭐

I’ve read a few of this authors book and enjoyed them so was excited to read this one. It was a fun enjoyable read but a bit of a slow burn

This was exactly the kind of suspenseful thriller I've come to expect from Lucy Clarke. Perfectly written, the characters were spot on, it was atmospheric and overall a fantastic read! Would definitely recommend!

Lucy Clarke is the Queen of destination thrillers and The Hike is her most recent offering.

The book opens with the foreshadowing of a death on the mountain, so when four friends set off on a hiking holiday you know its probably going to end badly.

I enjoyed reading the story from multiple POVs of the four friends and, Leif, the owner of the lodge where they are staying. Like all good thrillers there are secrets each character is hiding which are slowly revealed as the story progresses. I felt this added to the tension and left open so many possible outcomes.

I loved the setting for this novel and thought the mountain was the perfect menacing backdrop for this story to play out.

As I'm beginning to expect from Lucy Clarke there are a lot of red herrings, twists and turns, so although I try to guess what's happening I'm usually wrong.

A group of lifelong friends take a hiking trip to Norway. Secrets are revealed. They learn about themselves. And the mountain holds its own secrets… I loved this book. Beautifully and descriptively written. And a great twist. Highly recommend

This was another awesome read and I think my favourite from Lucy Clarke to date! It is truly edge-of-your-seat stuff that will keep you up late past your bedtime because it's a book you don't want to put down!

It is Lizz's turn to decide where they are going to go on holiday. She's 33. a Wife, a mother, and a GP but she feels she needs something different, an adventure. To the dismay of her friends Maggie and Helena, instead of a relaxing beach holiday, she decides to pick a 4-day wild hiking and camping trip to Norway. To their surprise, their friend Joni pitches up as well. But through the laughs you get a feeling all is not well.
These four women are all fighting their own demons and let's not even talk about the secrets! Will their lifelong friendship last this hike because it's definitely being tested to the limit. This was a journey that was never about reaching the peak.

Lucy Clarke's effortless style of writing makes reading her books such a delightful experience and I can't wait for the next surprise she's got coming our way!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love Lucy Clarke's books! They are always filled with intensity and drama and this one was no exception. A hiking trip to Norway was something Liz desperately needed but will it turn out the way she hopes? I liked how we had alternating chapters between the 4 main characters who are all on the trip to gain backstory and the relationships between them all as it starts to get a little tense up in the mountain. This is a thrilling read that is fast paced and I really didn't want to put it down!

Four friends are on the trip of a lifetime, hiking in the Norwegian wilderness. But then a woman's body is discovered....and it seems the killer is still around.

Lucy Clarke, our Queen of destination thrillers, is back with another amazing book. I absolutely love how she gets me invested into her vacation travels right from page one. Hiking is not really my forte but even I know that if you are warned against going up a mountain, you heed the warnings. I struggled to go past this in this novel. The women were advised several times to not climb the mountain, yet they went ahead anyway. This is my only gripe. The rest of the book was Lucy's typical edge of the seat excitement and I ended up finishing this book well ahead of the planned buddy read (what's new?!). Another stellar book! Highly recommend.

A group of friends who have known each other since their school days decide to hike in the Norwegian wilderness. However, when they arrive they realise that a young woman has gone missing and one of the group looks very much like the missing woman. As they begin their climb fractures in their relationships begin to appear and as the weather turns they realise that they might not being alone on the mountain.

I really enjoyed the women's relationships within the story; it felt like as they climbed higher so the tense and fractured atmosphere intensified. This was a tense and gripping thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat; 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

I knew from the moment that I started reading this that I was going to love it!

My favourite genre of thriller is the closed room thriller and although this one was set on a Norwegian mountain it had the same sense of claustrophobia that I love.

Anything that has an ambiguous prologue and the main body of the story leads to any character being in that prologue gets my direct attention as I want to know who it was 😱

This had everything I wanted in a thriller; deceit, betrayal, friendship, loyalties and a massive storm ⛈️🌩️

The novel has short, punchy chapters from multiple character POV and adds to the suspense and build up of tension within the group.

I don’t want to give any spoilers about what happens but this was a real edge of your seat (or should I say mountain) experience!

The Hike by Lucy Clarke
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Publication date: 27/04/2023
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Leaving behind their everyday lives, trials and tribulations, four friends go on holidays to hike in the Norwegian mountains. But something doesn’t feel right and after it becomes apparent that a woman disappeared on the mountains a year ago, they certainly feel far from the fun and tranquility they were all hoping for.
This novel had me gripped from beginning to end. It’s twists and turns had me attempting, but failing to guess what was going on. The characters were all unique and I found their back stories, and secrets, interesting to read about. Each character was cleverly woven into the story and felt as equal as each other.
An excellent read and one you should definitely head out to buy now.
Thank you to NetGalley, Lucy Clarke and Harper Collins for this ARC in return for an honest review.
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Lucy Clarke absolutely does it again. Somehow every book she writes keeps me on the edge of my seat with all the wonderful twists and turns that her writing is known for. Simmering with tension and misinformation I had no idea what to expect once I realised my theories were all wrong, even damn time. This is probably my second favourite book of hers, The Castaways remains number one for now!

With twists galore and more red herrings than a fishmonger’s, this latest destination thriller from Lucy Clarke is a nail-biting, butt-clencher of a read. As has become Clarke’s wont, it’s set in an exotic location and structured around multiple POVs with short, snappy chapters. Just the ticket for a rainy afternoon. I whizzed through it like lightning.

Maggie, Joni, Liz and Helena have been friends since school. Despite now leading very different lives, they still meet up every year for a girls’ holiday. This year instead of the beach, they’re heading for a week’s hiking in the Norwegian mountains. It all sounds very romantic, but the women are inexperienced, and this particular route has already claimed victims, one of them very recently.

And sure enough, the story opens with the foreshadowing of a death, a woman’s broken body halfway down a ravine. You then spend the rest of the book trying to second guess which of of the four friends will meet this grizzly end.

Clarke gives little away, though, laying false scents and creating suspicion about several of the secondary characters. From the beginning, there’s a sense of unease about the environment and the people who inhabit it. The Norwegian wilderness is stunning, but it’s also very hostile.

I loved the build-up in tension, as both external factors and splintering group dynamics come into play. Simmering resentments that explode into ugly spats. Secrets and betrayals that tear apart the friends’ loyalties. When faced with a common enemy, though, they have to put their differences aside and pull together for their own survival.

The pace is helped along by brief chapters headed ‘The Search’ that refer back to the prologue and intersperse the rotating POVs of the four women. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors involved here, and for the most part I was the patsy. Throw in a frenzied, heart-stopping denouement, and what more can a reader ask for?

I wonder where Lucy will take us next.

THE PERFECT DAY FOR A HIKE

Leaving behind their everyday lives, four friends hike out into the beautiful Norwegian wild - nothing between them and the mountain peak but forest, sea and sharp blue sky. 

THE PERFECT PLACE TO DISAPPEAR

But there's a darker side to the wilderness. One year ago, a woman went missing here, scarring the mountain with suspicion and unanswered questions. 

Now, the friends are hiking into the heart of the mystery. And waiting on the trail is someone who'd do anything to keep their secrets buried - and to stop the group from walking away alive...

"From deep in the woods, they heard a scream"

I love Lucy Clarke's work, the first book I read of Lucy's was You Let Me In, and I was hooked from then on! I absolutely LOVED The Castaways and last year's One Of The Girls, and this one is no different. There is something about her writing style that grabs your attention and doesn't let go of it until the very end. The book was set out with an unusual before and after set-up (with a twist) which isn't immediately obvious, and the story was also split into alternating chapters from each of the four friends who were hiking. This was expertly done and I honestly enjoyed each of the characters pov's equally. Usually, I find myself favouring one more than others but this wasn't the case this time. I think the reason for this is because the author took the time to really invest in each of their backstories, so you felt you got to know each of them in turn before the story really kicked off. All of the characters are flawed in their own way and going through their own struggles in life but they are all very likeable characters, I think their flaws actually make you like them even more and make them seem more real. As usual, Lucy's character work is amazing. There are some excellent twists and cliffhangers that keep you on your toes throughout the book. You can feel yourself being led in one direction, confident in your 'detecting skills' only to have the proverbial rug pulled from beneath you, setting you foolishly off in another direction. I enjoyed the rugged setting of the forest and mountains (I do love a book set in the wilderness) and the struggles they have to overcome. There is a lot of suspense over various situations that occur during the book and I had the conflicting feelings of wanting to read to figure out the story but also not wanting the book to end - you know you've got a good book when that happens! 

"Bleeding and battered, faces streaked with salt and blood and earth, they clung together. Three where there should have been four"

My thanks to the author and HarperCollins UK for my advance copy to read and review via Netgalley. Due out 27th April 2023.

I found The Hike to be an OK read. The setting and description of it was breathtaking and very atmospheric but I really did not like the four friends as they were so stereotypical and the story never gripped me like I hoped it would.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.