BOOK REVIEW - The Search Party by Simon Lelic

                                                                 BOOK DESCRIPTION

16-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing.

Five friends set out into the woods to find her.

But they're not just friends...

THEY'RE SUSPECTS.

You see, this was never a search party.

It's a witch hunt.

And not everyone will make it home alive...

Five friends decided to form a search party and go into the woods,hoping to find their missing friend, Sadie Saunders. Two days later,the emergency services received a frantic phone call for help and when they arrived at the isolated location of the call,they discovered four,cold, wet and distressed teenagers and a dead body,a body that did not belong to the missing girl. Now not only do Detective Inspector Robert Fleet and his partner DS Nicola Collins have a missing person's investigation,they also have a murder to solve. They find themselves in a frantic race against time to find the missing girl, everyone knows that the longer someone is missing, the higher the changes are that they won't be found alive. They are also under pressure from their superior officer to charge and arrest one of the friends despite the lack of evidence due to rumours of police incompetence that are doing the rounds in the village. When Sadie had first gone missing, Fleet had suspected the same person but as time passes,he begins to wonder if his own judgement had been clouded by a tragic event from his past. Fleet is certain that the four remaining teens are not telling the whole truth about what happened during their time in the woods and that they also might know more about Sadie's disappearance that they are admitting.

So where is Sadie? Is she alive or dead? What really happened during the two days that the teens spent in the woods?

This utterly enthralling thriller opens with the teen's frantic phone call to the emergency services and then continues in chapters that alternate between the four friends police interviews and the police investigation. I thought that only two of the five friends had any likeable qualities to their characters and I struggled to understand why they had remained friends for so long. Maybe it was because they were misfits and had discontented homelives and that was the glue that held the group together. There was friction amongst the group even before they went into the woods so the more time they spent in the isolated atmosphere amongst the trees,the more the tension and feelings of paranoia increased especially when it began to appear that someone was following them. I really love reading books that are set in woods and forests, the sinister atmosphere even during the hours of daylight,the indistinguishable shadows amongst the trees, the silence that makes you feel like you are the only person alive. The smallest sound that can sound as loud as the biggest thunder clap. I loved the intensity of the scenes that were set in the woods,the atmosphere,the paranoia,the creepy feeling that the friends were being followed, the sounds that echoed around the trees at night. I thought that DI Fleet was a very likeable character and I loved the camaraderie and banter between him and DS Nicola Collins. There was a back story involving his sister that was mentioned throughout the book but it didn't overshadow the main story.

I really, really loved The Search Party, I loved it so much that I wanted to read the whole book in one sitting but my old eyes had other ideas. It was gripping, intense,had a couple of jaw dropping OMG moments, kept me guessing and frantically turning the pages. The characters were diverse, vivid and realistic. Simon Lelic is a very very talented author and I think this story would make a very enjoyable tv crime mini series. Worth far more than five stars and very very very highly recommended

                                                                          AUTHOR BIO

Simon Lelic is the author of five highly acclaimed thrillers: Rupture (winner of a Betty Trask Award and shortlisted for the John Creasy Debut Dagger), The Facility, The Child Who (longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger), The House and The Liar's Room.

E-book Publication Date: 16th August 2020

Hardback Publication Date:20th August 2020 

Publisher: Penguin/Michael Joseph

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Purchase Link....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Party-Simon-Lelic-ebook/dp/B07SNRDQFT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1IRJNLBI5K4P4&dchild=1&keywords=the+search+party&qid=1597941225&s=books&sprefix=The+search%2Caps%2C178&sr=1-1