Sadie Saunders is missing and the police are searching the woods and river near the small town where the teenager went missing. They find her bag and jacket by the river, covered in blood.
Sadie’s friends, Abi, Cora, Fash, Mason and her brother Luke are convinced the police is looking in the wrong place and therefore form their own search party. Soon enough things go wrong and the distrust between the friends grows as they wonder what really happened to Sadie and who is responsible?

I really liked the style of the book. It was very dark and atmospheric. The narrative is told from different perspectives: the DI [Rob Fleet) tells the story of the investigation and the search for Sadie while the characters of Fash, Abi, Cora, Mason and Luke tell the story of how their search party came about and what they discover in the forest. The different perspective keeps you guessing until the end and the reveal is something I never thought possible. A very entertaining read and certainly a good story.

Sadie Saunders has gone missing. There's been no trace of her in a week now, and with the police investigation leading nowhere, her five best friends have decided to take matters into their own hands and launch their own search party. But when the police are called after they're lost in the woods for two days, only to find four teenagers and a dead body, it's clear that the group are keeping back more than they're letting on about Sadie's disappearance.

Five teenagers go into the woods to look for their missing friend. There's Luke, Sadie's twin brother, Mason, her boyfriend, Abi, the 'jealous' best friend. Then there's Cora, Mason's ex-girlfriend who hasn't quite gotten over him yet, and Fash, who may see Sadie as more than just a friend. To have six teenagers in one book and throw them all at the reader at once, it can be difficult to tell them apart and keep track of their individualities. However, with The Search Party, I found this to be no bother.

The book is essentially split into two main point of views. There's third person of Fleet, the detective returned to his home town to investigate Sadie's disappearance which bears a striking resemblance to an experience that happened when he himself was a teenager. And then there's the police interviews. But I love the way these chapters are told - solely through the voice of the interviewees. Each character who is questioned by the police has their own voice, their own way of speaking, and each is so distinct. But I found it so unusual that we get to see these interviews and yet only one side of it. It's obvious at times what questions the police are asking, and there's interactions and conversation between the teenagers and the police, but the only words you see on the page are from the teenagers and I thought that was such a striking way of putting their voices forward.

I also really enjoyed how the timeline is split up. We start on day six, with DI Fleet coming across the search party in woods - the four teenagers and the body - and his storyline carries on from there. And while the interview segments also carry on from that point, it's through these accounts that we get to know what happened in the previous days after Sadie went missing, up until Fleet takes over the majority of the story. It's a great way of playing with the timeline and bringing in flashbacks without confusing the chronology of the story.

In terms of the main plot, I had no idea where it was going until it actually went there at the very end. Looking back, I can now see clues and bits of evidence that point to the answer which I totally missed at the time, or thought were irrelevant. Lelic did an amazing job of hiding the answer in plain sight but there was so many options and so many mini mysteries that it was easy to get caught up in the storyline and not see the wood for the trees.

To be posted to blog/socials nearer pub date

A new author for me and I’m a fan.
I found this to be a brilliant descriptive read and a great modern novel

Sadie is missing, The search Party is out looking for her. So are her friends, Do they know where she is? Did they have something to do with her disappearance?
Loved the character of Flett & am definitely interested in him but I had a disconnect with the teenagers in the book. I felt I had to read this book fast as I wanted to know, Where is Sadie!!

I really enjoyed the story and the authors way of writing . Entertaining and twisted , everything I love In a book !!I would like to read more by this author !!

When Sadie Saunders goes missing, five friends decide to launch their own search party to find her. But only four friends return alive.

DI Rob Fleet leads the investigation, trying to unravel the accounts of Sadie's friends - but who is telling the truth?

All of them are friends, all of them are suspects, and everyone of them has a different story to tell.

Reading this story led me to make far too many assumptions, and just when I thought I knew where the story was going, it would take a sharp turn. Overall, this book was an intriguing read, with all the obligatory twists and turns to make for a good (but not quite great) suspense novel.

3.5 ⭐

Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is an intriguing thriller based around the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Sadie, followed by the decision of her friends to form their own search party soon afterwards, disappearing into the woods with tragic consequences. The story is told partly from the point of view of the detective working on the case, and partly by the teenage search party in the form of their interviews. I found the parts where the teenagers tell their stories most compelling, as the reader tries to piece together what had happened. The detective had a complicated back story that I didn't engage with in the same way, but the plot was strong and twisty, keeping you guessing.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of The Search Party.

This is a compelling but chilling tale narrated not only through the eyes of Fleet, the detective in charge of the search for Sadie but also the teenagers who formed the said search party. Sounds complicated but it really isn't although there were a couple of instances where it seemed a little clumsily done.

This method successfully gave good insight into all the characters involved and as the reader I came to care about all of them, the suspects, as the teens became, and also Rob Fleet.

There were many unexpected twists and turns and I was completely surprised by the conclusion.

A very readable book with an unusual format that I'd definitely recommend.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very readable thriller/mystery, it’s well-paced and it has a very “just one more chapter” quality. I lost a couple of hours sleep wanting to find out more and that is always a good sign.

Although clumsy at times I enjoyed how the author integrated the characters recounting the events in the woods with the present day story of Fleet trying to solve the mystery. It was easy to identify the parts where teenagers were recounting the events, as the writing style shifts becoming abit rambling and uneven. Some may find this annoying however I found it quite clever, as this is how teenagers talk.

Enjoyable with a satisfying conclusion.

Told in multiple perspectives, The Search Party is about a group of friends who went out looking for their missing friend, only for the ordeal to end up with one dead party. The story is told through the voices of the people involved in the search party, as well as the Detective Inspector in charge of the case, who was also battling his own personal demons by being back in the town.

This was a page turner. Because each chapter had a different narrator, the perspective shifts, and each of them characterizes their companion similarly that you're able to pin a certain personality on the character involved. I think that this is a good book to recommend for someone who wants to dive into the mystery-thriller genre. The book was straightforward and leans to the genre formula but does it in a way that it keeps you reading to know what happens next.

I usually like this author, but I found this book to be rambling and confusing. I read till the end, where there was a great twist, but by then, I really wasn't bothered. With a good edit, this would be a much tighter read.

I want to start by saying I have loved all of Simon Lelics other books and I hate leaving bad reviews but this just wasn’t for me. I wasn’t gripped at all I didn’t enjoy the writing style and felt it affected the flow of the story and made it stilted. I got to 60% in and skim read the rest and the ending was as I had suspected. I will read from Simon as I have enjoyed everything else but this one definitely wasn’t for me. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Penguin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A teenaged girl has disappeared from a south coast seaside town. Her bag has been found and her jacket was discovered on the banks of the river, with blood on the hood. Rob Fleet and his team are convinced she's been murdered, but so far have failed to find a body. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the girl's twin brother and 4 friends decide to search the woods. The story of what happened is told via witness statements to the police, and it becomes clear that secrets are being kept, and that the search ended with someone dying. This is a real page turner, which I thoroughly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

I am a great fan of Stephen King and can understand the comparison between him and Lelic. This was a fascinating and compelling read. I was hooked from the beginning and was both moved and scared in equal measure. I was surprised at the ending but what a roller coaster of a ride.

The story started really well and I was looking forward to reading it however I felt that though the plot and characters were great, the story started dragging at places and it just needed to get there a bit faster. The story line was really good though.

This was the perfect amounts of creepy and compelling. It made me shiver at so many points when the kids were in the woods. WOODS + KIDS + DARK = disaster. I enjoyed the whodunnit element and the different ‘clues’ that were revealed as the book went on. I liked that right until the end I still couldn’t piece it together. Well paced, terrifying and dark, The Search Party is a great thriller.

One for young adults , who would love this. Good characterisation and some nice prose. Told from different perspectives it’s a good read

Really enjoyed this book. Often there is a disappointment in terms of being able to easily predict what's going to happen within this genre....not so here. Found it very hard to put down and it did not leave me wanting.

I did like the writing style of this book. I enjoyed reading from each characters perspective, both from the ‘suspects’ and the detective. It provided a good look at how things are always seen slightly differently from each person. Although this book wasn’t apparently specifically for young adults, I kept checking that that wasn’t the case. It seems perfect for young adults who enjoy mysteries and thrillers. Being an oldie, I didn’t really relate to the characters, and found their teenage histrionics annoying. It did keep me guessing almost to the end though. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

I felt the need to stop and reflect before writing this review. Some books have an instant effect on you either good or bad and a review is easy to write but some take a bit more reflection which isn’t a bad thing. For a crime thriller I think this book is more character driven and thoughtful than many books in this genre, The story slowly cleverly evolves through the interviews of a group of friends who form a search party to look for their missing friend and the lead detective as he tries to track down the missing girl. It deals with the complicated relationships between friends and families, the unseen jealousies and envy that can be destructive. This book is really well written, and I like the premise of the book, which is written from a slightly different perspective. I liked the lead detective character and would definitely be happy to follow his journey in future books.