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...
THE CHALK MAN meets THE HUNTING PARTY in this gripping story; witness four suspects as, alongside DI Fleet, you attempt to discover the truth about what happened to Sadie...
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(@PenguinUKBooks, 20 August 2020, 352 pages, hardback, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 29 August)
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I've read other books by the author so had high expectations for this book. The premise is not particularly original and I've come across a similar premise before. What makes this different is the quality of the writing and the way the book is structure. Lelic uses one of my favourite structures with every chapter narrated by a different character including DI Fleet who's investigating Sadie's disappearance and her friends who go to find her. The chapters from the friends used first person POV and the other chapters are in the third person. This structure drip-feeds information as you read, leaving you with lots of questions that take their time to be answered. What did happen to Sadie? What really happened in the woods? The Search Party is a fantastic example of misdirection and unreliable narration. I was never sure who was telling the truth or who was talking BS. The structure used compelled me to read on to get the next crumb tossed my way by the author. I had no idea what the truth was and was delighted to learn all my guesses were wrong.