This book has a great premise and it starts out intriguingly! A group of teenagers are found after being lost in the forest when they went looking for their missing friend. Unfortunately, not the whole group made it out alive. Detective Inspector Fleet returns to his hometown, tasked with finding out what happened. We get his point of view along with the interview snippets with the teenagers. Things are made complicated by the fact that Fleet has a dark past in his hometown, and people are treating him suspiciously.

Unfortunately, I thought the middle of the book dragged and didn't hold my attention. The characters are unreliable narrators, and there is a lot of teenage drama involved. We get a "reveal" towards the end but I felt it didn't work because the reader was never given the full information to piece the clues in the first place. While ultimately still liked the book, I was disappointed that it didn't bring anything new to the genre. I would recommend this to those who are new to crime fiction and those who loves a slow-building mystery in a small town.

This is the first book I've read by Simon Lelic - though I've had a quick look at his back catalogue, and it does look quite intriguing.

When sixteen-year-old Sadie Saunders goes missing and the police don't seem to be making much headway in finding her, her group of friends decide to take matters - rather incompetently - into their own hands. The five teenagers - Abi, Cora, Fash, Sadie's boyfriend Mason and Sadie's twin brother Luke - head into the woods in search of Sadie... or to find out what's happened to her. But is it possible that one of them already knows? And what really happens to the group during those days out in the woods?

The police investigation is related by DI Rob Fleet, interspersed with what are supposedly extracts from police interviews with the young people - although we never hear the police side of these interviews, and hence they're in the form of monologues as each gives their account, in their own words, of what happened.

The voices of the teenagers didn't entirely convince me, and are also a bit too similar - I kept having to go back to check who was speaking, However through these voices, the story gradually unfolds.

The Search Party was a good read, and the twist at the end was very well done and a complete surprise. DI Fleet is a likeable character, who has a painful history with the town. The scenes in the woods are atmospheric, and if the story never completely grabbed me, that's probably more to do with the mood I was in than anything else. I'm interested to seek out some of Lelic's other work.

Three years ago I read The House by Simon Lelic and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to reading The Search Party. I’m delighted to say that I think it is even better.

16-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing and five of her friends set out into the woods to find her. At the same time the police’s investigation, led by Detective Robin Fleet and Detective Sergeant Nicola Collins, is underway. The narrative alternates between the two groups. Sadie is a clever girl, popular with her school friends and loved by her parents, who favour her over her twin brother Luke and their younger brother, Dylan.

The opening lines propelled me straight into the story as one of Sadie’s friends, lost in the woods her makes an incoherent phone call to the emergency services. The caller doesn’t know their location other than it is ‘somewhere in the woods‘ near an abandoned building. And from that point on I was gripped, compelled to follow this complex novel, full of red herrings and multiple twists and turns. It is tense from start to finish, ending in an exhausting and terrifying chase that had me on the edge of my seat!

I really like Fleet, and the way he stands up to his boss, Superintendent Burton, whose main concern is the cost of the investigation. Burton puts pressure on him to arrest Mason, assuming he has killed Sadie even though her body has not been found. Mason is part of the search party, but Fleet’s instincts tell him Mason is innocent. Fleet is known for his ability to find missing persons and sticks to his gut feelings.

My only criticism is that at times the teenagers’ rambling discussions about what could have happened to Sadie and their disagreements went on too long for my liking. But that is just a minor point. They are all keeping secrets and in their interviews with the police they all lie and withhold vital facts and they are suspicious of each other, not knowing who they can trust. And I couldn’t decide what had happened to Sadie – had she run away, committed suicide or was she murdered and if so who was the murderer. They are all suspects, including Sadie’s parents. It was only just before the end of the book that I realised just what had happened.

My thanks to NetGalley and Viking, the publishers for a review copy.

This was a really good read nd I throughly enjoyed it. It was a fast paced book and I finished it very quickly. The characters were very interesting and I loved the twists and turns during the story.
My thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

With a gripping premise like this I defy anyone not to pick up The Search Party by Simon Lelic.

The story is split between the point of view of the investigating Detective Fleet, who has a mysterious past, and the teenagers as they give their accounts at the police station of what happened in the woods.

Personally, I preferred the sections from Fleet's point of view as I found them more gripping. The teenagers accounts felt a bit like a continuous stream of thought describing everything that happened, but the author did capture a sense of youth in his writing as they described the events. I'd have liked it to be written as a conversation between the detective and each of the friends.

It took a while for me to really become engrossed in this story but once I was about halfway through I couldn't put the book down as I wanted to know what happened. An interesting story with a great twist. I give this 3 out of 5.

Absolute truth here...I wasn't intending to read this, as I saw 'typical murder mystery' written all over it...but I did read, and am grateful I did! This is filled with suspense, written very cleverly, and was a great read! Many thanks to the Publisher and NetGalkey for allowing me access to an advanced copy!

16 year old Sadie goes missing. The police investigation led by DI Robin Fleet is hampered by the awful Superintendent Burton who is more interested in media and politics than getting to the truth. Meanwhile Sadie’s friends decide to form a search party to look for her. Or so it seems. Something terrible happened while they were out in the woods and someone else has died.

The story is told from various points of view as each of the teenagers gives their version of events to the police. As you would expect, everyone takes a different perspective, and this builds up the tension and twists as the reader tries to work out who to believe. The likeable DI Fleet is also grappling with his past, as well as wanting to do the right thing despite his boss’s stance.

The Search Party is a gripping page-turner and highly recommended.

Sadie Saunders is a sixteen year old who has gone missing in the woods.Her friends decide that the police are not looking in the right place so they decide to go and search for her themselves.
This story is told between Detective Inspector Fleet and Series friends . They are her friends but also suspects.
Not all will come home
Thanks NetGalley.

Cleverly plotted thriller, centres on the disappearance of teenage Sadie Saunders and the subsequent search carried out by five of her friends.
So why did she go missing and is she still alive.

Gripping from the start to its clever denouement this is very well written and consistently exciting. Recommended.

here is no doubt that Simon Lelic, easily falling into my top ten authors, can write incredibly fast paced and engaging thrillers. The Search Party is heart pounding, it is engrossing and importantly it has a multifaceted cast of characters that, although hateful throughout, are just fun to read about. There are a few issues that I have with this book however that are completely subjective, namely that I felt that the back story with Fleet really didn't add anything to the story (and has a slightly disappointing conclusion for me) and I am still trying to get my head around the ending. I think it is very clever, and I was completely blindsided at the end - I just......I don't know how to word it. I dont think it sits quite right with the rest of the story. It may be that I re read this book to see if I agree with the knowledge I have now - but yeah....I can't quite say why I am not quite happy with the ending (sorry)

However, this doesnt stop the fact that this is an engaging, fun, well written story and I shall look forward to further Lelic stories in the future.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book

‘The Search Party’ is the latest book by Simon Lelic.

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.

I really enjoyed ‘The Search Party’ a fast paced whodunnit since from the narrative of the detective investigator investigating a young girl’s disappearance as well as her 5 closest friends, who are all suspects in the case.

The story revolves around the 5 friends going out on their own search party in the woods for their friend and then them telling their perspective to the police being interviewed. It’s during these moments, that you really see the different personalities come to light and shows the friction between the friends. The five friends are Mason; Sadie’s boyfriend, Luke; Sadie’s twin brother, Cora, Abi and Fash. It’s during this time whilst searching the tensions rise, opinions are voiced and the friends turn on each other especially when their phones are stolen and they feel that they are unable to trust each other.

The detective in charge, DI Fleet is under a lot of pressure to solve the mystery, as the search for Sadie is turning out to be one of the biggest and most expensive searches of all time. Even though, all fingers are being pointed at Mason, but he doesn’t believe it’s as clear cut as that and is determined to find the culprit. Fleet comes with his own baggage, having returned to his hometown for the first time in 17 years after the death of his sister and is working through a separation with his wife.

The book is a gripping and tense story and for me, read like a Young Adult novel. The troubled group of teenage friends all going through the hardship of losing a friend whilst battling with peer pressure, abuse and the pressure of social media. The multiple narratives gave an interesting slant to the story, with perspectives from Fleet including police procedures and the tension between the teenagers kept the reader on edge, as all of the supposed friends had issues with Sadie.

Atmospheric from the first page, ‘The Search Party’ is a well written and cleverly crafted thriller. With unreliable characters and everyone with a motive, this book is a compelling story with an ending that will take your breath away.

You can buy ‘The Search Party’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

When teenager Sadie goes missing & after five days the police seem no closer to finding her. Her friends are sure they are looking in the wrong place so her boyfriend, her twin, along with another boy & two of her girlfriends head to the woods where they have spent a lot of their childhood. However- unsurprisingly- this does not go well. Told from the perspective of the investigating detective & the teenagers the reader tries to work out what has happened to Sadie & to one of the search party.

The best parts of this were the sections told by DI Fleet. The teenagers except Fash were pretty irritating. The end was a god twist but for me this book left me fairly cold. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting m read & review this book.

This is my first Simon Lelic book and I wasn’t disappointed.

A great plot with well thought out characters. A gradual rise in tension that makes the reader want more, real edge of the seat stuff.

A cracker of a book that culminates in a twist that I didn’t see coming.

A proper page turning mystery which I loved.

Highly recommended, 5 stars.

Live at the link below on 8th September

If you’ve not read anything by Simon Lelic, then you’re really missing a trick. I think The Search Party is the third book of his that I’ve read and, as with the others, this book is really excellent.

Straight off the bat, there is a mysterious and dramatic prologue with someone calling for help – is this the missing girl? It starts to build a level of tension that never really lets up, even in the passages where no ‘action’ is taking place. I put action in inverted commas as there is always something simmering under the surface in the most mundane of scenes, so definitely pay attention to everything!

Robin Fleet was an interesting character as a jaded police detective (my favourite kind) who seems ripe for a series of books of his own. His connection to the location is slowly revealed as the book goes along, and it becomes clear that there are ghosts here that he needs to lay to rest.

The search party themselves are not all they seem. half-truths and old resentments bubble to the surface as they go further into the woods in search of Sadie, but who exactly is in control of the situation, and are their motives as pure as they seem? Their interactions with each other are written really well and they don’t fall into the trap of sounding like an adult writing what they think a teenager speaks like!

I liked the format of the book, where you hear directly from the members of the search party – we really don’t know who to believe, and then they contradict each other as they are interviewed. It’s a clever way of referring to the days in the woods while keeping you fully invested – I feel like a narrator would pull you too far outside the story.

As I said, the tension absolutely sizzles in this book, until everything is laid bare and Simon Lelic is really clever in conclusion he provides – you might guess if you pay really close attention, but you’d have to be Poirot!

Another fantastic book from this author – you can be certain if you pick up one of his books that it will be very much worth your time.

I love it when a book surprises you with something that you just don’t see coming...
In The Search Party we have, essentially, a mystery to solve. But, as one of the detectives in the book says, there’s more than one thing going on and Simon Lelic definitely keeps us guessing on more than one occasion.
What we know at the start is that a young girl, Sadie, has gone missing. Many people in the town assume her boyfriend killed her while others think she’s run away. The police have found her bag near the local river but no sign of a body. The pressure is on. Bizarrely, Sadie’s friends decided to head out into the local woodland to search for Sadie and it would seem another of their group has been killed. It seems someone has something to hide, and Detective Fleet - who has his own history with the town - is under pressure to work out what happened.
Cutting between the stories from the teenagers involved as they’re talking to the police and the view of Detective Fleet, this is really cleverly constructed. We slowly piece together some of the mysteries surrounding the missing girl and subsequent events. We have a character in Fleet that we can’t help but empathise with, and a resolution that nobody would have desired but which shows certain characters in a very different light to the one we’ve seen them in.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for brightening up my day with this read.

The Search Party opens with an anonymous call to emergency services, giving the reader an instant jolt and launches them straight into the mystery.

Emergency services find a dead body and a group of shivering teenagers, lost in the woods. DI Robin Fleet and DS Nicky Collins wade through the evidence and a spiderweb of lies. The teen survivors were all members of a search party to find Sadie Saunders who has now been missing for 6 days.

The story is told in various interviews given to Fleet, which is effective in dripping the information through to the reader. The format reminded me of the Netflix show, Elite, which I also loved!

Each of the narrators is as unreliable as the next, allowing us to see the story from each of their warped viewpoints. Sadie’s friends Abi, Cora, Mason, Fash and her brother Luke all have their own reasons to be suspects. Jealousy, betrayal, infatuation, cheating and sibling rivalry.

The relationships between the teens are complex and relatable. Their real personalities and feelings are revealed slowly under the grilling of Fleet and Collins.

Fleet has a troubled past, which affects both his personal and professional life. He is also a likeable character and the reader empathises with him at several points, while wondering if he is letting his history influence his decision making.

There are many story strands and twists, keeping us invested all the way along. I found myself racing to the end to find out exactly what happened in the woods with the teenagers.

The Search Party is tightly plotted and the multiple POVs are managed really well. To summarise, this is an entertaining and thrilling mystery, full of a huge host of lively characters.

Sixteen – year – old Sadie Saunders has been missing for six days. Sadie, the beautiful and talented girl, A student, apple in the eyes of her parents, while her twin Luke has to take care of their younger brother Dylan. Before she disappeared, some ugly rumours and photos of Sadie have been circulating in the social media, with the intent of ruining her reputation. The search is led by Detective Inspector Robin Fleet and DS Nicola Collins while Superintendent Burton is demanding quick results: either find Sadie or charge someone with murder.
Not believing in police’s good intentions of finding Sadie, her friends decide to gather their own search party. The group consists of Luke, Abi, Cora, Fareed and Sadie’s boyfriend, Mayson. They venture into the woods where they believe they can find her. Nobody knows what’s expecting them in the woods, and for sure they don’t suppose that one of them is going to be fatally stabbed. Fleet is now even under more pressure, he now must solve both cases but will he manage to stay unbiased or will he bow to pressure and take the easy way out? Especially as everybody seems to have secrets, blaming each other.

The teenagers are a colourful group of very different personalities and background. They all have their own problems that they try to hide but all the time they say one word too much, blaming each other and pointing their fingers at each other. Everything rests on Luke’s shoulders as his parents absolutely are not interested in him and young Dylan, focusing only on Sadie – could it be that he’s jealous of his sister? Mason is Sadie’s boyfriend, living with his abusive, alcoholic father, having a violent temper himself. He has been spotted fighting with Sadie shortly before she went missing. Cora, Sadie’s friend, has a secret crush on Mason. Abi, always considering herself unattractive, covets Sadie’s good looks. And Fareed, with an over – protective mother, Mason’s friend, also has a secret about Sadie. Every single one of them has a motive to eliminate the beloved Sadie, right? They were all realistically written and they all had some layers to them and the dynamics between them were truly interesting.
DI Rob Fleet was a very interesting, probably the most interesting character in this story. He had a backbone and felt like a person who really has something to tell. I liked that he wasn’t afraid to stand his ground and that he had intuition – the right person in the right place. His past, connected with the little town where Sadie went missing, plays an important role in the whole story and this only added much more depth to this subplot and the story overall. He simply felt real and human and I’d trust him to solve any case, to be honest.

Now, I’m not so sure about my feelings. The book didn’t hook me. I had a feeling that there is really not much happening, that the book goes in circles and is not moving forward. The twists and new information were a few and for me came always too late, when I really stopped caring. The final twist didn’t shock me, even though, let’s be honest, I of course didn’t guess it. It made me feel truly, really sad about what has happened and how unnecessary it was. Sure, the author has done a great job, creating a plot full of theories about who did it and filled with surprises that, sadly, didn’t take me by surprise. It was probably impossible to say who’s telling the truth and who’s lying and keeping secrets but my heart was not in it and it eventually there came a moment that it was all the same for me. Nevertheless, it is a book with a good and strong plot that will keep you in suspense and asking questions. The atmosphere of uncertainty is really well captured and there is always the feeling that something really bad can happen.

Really gripping and clever, kept me page-turning compulsively. I liked the character of a DI Robert Fleet and would read more featuring him but essentially this is a thriller that works - good characters and twists that you won't see coming, well-written, pacy and a sure-fire winner.

Initially this story felt like a young adult story because of the teenagers but as the story developed and became more intense that feeling disappeared.

This story was like a scary rollercoaster, I wanted to shut my eyes at the bad bits when I felt like something was going to happen , there were highs and there were lows.
I found myself suspecting everyone of Sadie going missing and was constantly wondering was she dead or missing.

This is my first novel by Simon Lelic although I have had another of his books on my reading list for some time.
In The Search Party, Sadie Saunders has vanished, and she is believed to have been killed. One of Sadie's circle of friends is the primary suspect so five of them set off to search for her in the woods where she was last seen... with terrible consequences.
This book incited me and got into my psyche, refusing to leave, thus I read it in a single sitting. It's well written with precisely the right amount of drive, and the characters were interesting, though mainly abhorrent, including Sadie's friends and the majority of the police. The detective in charge of the investigation, DI Fleet, with his personal problems, was the only one that I considered affable. As most of the cast were untrustworthy, there were suspects galore as I switched my opinions over the course of the novel. The backdrop of the woodland created a chilling and claustrophobic atmosphere which enhanced the story and added another level of suspense. As this twisty, sinister and compulsive thriller headed towards the startling conclusion, the tension really escalated and I was caught off guard. A must-read for thriller afficionados.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Penguin Books/ Viking via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.