At one level, if say Enid Blyton had written it, this could be called “Five Go On a Search”, for this sums up one of the central themes of the book. Alternatively, it could be billed as a Police procedural in the “A child is missing, presumed dead” trope, for this is also a theme. The latter is in the subtype where the investigating officer is hampered by an incompetent boss.
The action takes place in the woods and by the riverside of the town where the police officer had grown up and where his sister had died in tragic circumstances. The “Five” are young teenage friends of the missing girl and the police officer is disliked or hated by people in the town, convinced that he is trying to stitch up one of those friends for what is assumed to be a murder.
The two strands are woven together well, largely by putting the activities of the children into a series of police interviews in which their actions, mainly in the woods, are dissected, while the police actions, mainly by the river, are routine but conducted in conflict with everyone. Misdirections are integral to the writing which helps to keep up the reader’s attention.
I thank Net Galley, the author and the Publishers for supplying me with a prepublication copy for the purpose of review.

I found this book to be quite slow, particularly for the first half of the book. I wasn’t a fan of the one sided conversation that recorded the various interviews. Although the outcome was a surprise, I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters. D.I. Fleet had various personal issues to deal with, as well as the investigation and pressure from his boss to achieve a result. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

School girl Sadie has been missing for days. The police are searching the river for her but her five friends are convinced they are making a mistake. With pressure mounting as they all become suspect, they decide to form their own search party. When they have found two days later only four of them are alive. Things in the woods obviously took the sinister time and it’s up to Detective Fleet to uncover what really happened in the words as well as what happened to Sadie. However, that is no easy task when all of her friends have secrets and extremely unreliable.

I received an ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and when I began reading, I was a little thrown by the writing style. The book alternates between the perspective of Detective Fleet investigating the case and the four friends who remain alive. In Fleets chapters you are very much in his head as he tries to solve the crime. However, the friends are recounting events to the police whilst responding to questions and comments that we never actually read. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this well!. Anyway I found this jarring to begin with because it was like reading one side of a two-person conversation. A quick trip to Audible told me the audiobook was already out so I decided to give that a go. The audiobook was fantastic! and I listen to long whilst reading. If it’s told with an almost full cast of characters which really brought the story to life. I thought it was just worth mentioning how good the audiobook was and would suggest reading it that way if you can.

Let’s return to the book itself and I would say this was a really solid crime/thriller novel that I enjoyed my time reading. I felt that the story was really well-placed. It was compelling and I constantly felt the pull to keep reading. I actually read it in one afternoon, I kept trying to put it down, but I always wanted another chapter. However, I didn’t feel the need to rush through to discover the outcome. I was happy to enjoy the journey with the characters and the detective to find out what happened with them. There was a gradual uncovering of various things that lead to lots of reveals, some of which I predicted and quite a few I didn’t.

The detective in charge of the investigation is also quite prominent in the story. In many ways he is your stereotypical middle-aged fictional police officer, separated from his wife with a level of baggage. I know some people do not like being in the detective’s head during crime stories and don’t enjoy reading about their personal dramas. However, I have always been a fan of reading from the detective’s point of view so I quite liked that we got his perspective. I also found him really likeable and was interested in his personal story which I often find isn’t the case with detective in books. The other characters in the story were all unlikeable and questionable from Sadie’s friends to all of their parents, this book was really full of some horrible characters! It was clear they all have secrets none of them could be trusted to tell the truth, they were the definition of unreliable narrators. This meant even when I thought we have discovered the truth I would then question if that was the end. I certainly questioned everyone’s motives and thought I’d figured out the mystery’s multiple times. I’m pleased to say that there was lots I didn’t figure out which was great fun to read.

Overall, I think this was a really well paced imaginative, intriguing crime/thriller story. I had lots of fun following along with Detective Fleet and trying to work out who could be trusted and who couldn’t. There were lots of surprises along the way that gradually unfolded like a good crime TV show. It was a really quick read but not one I felt the need to rush through. I think there were elements of the final mysteries outcome I had seen before in other books but the journey we took to get there was quite clever and unique. I think if you’re a fan of YA mystery thrillers then I would recommend picking giving this one a go.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher, Penguin Books for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Sadie, a 16 year old, goes missing one night. Her friends and her twin brother decide the police are not doing enough and form their own search party. They pack their backpacks and head for the woods.

As they get deeper into the woods it gets dark and they decide to camp for the night. One of the girls thinks they are being watched and then they all become concerned with who may have followed them.

Will the friends find Sadie or will the police solve the case?

The story is told between one sided interviews with the children, which is a bit odd to read, and also from the point of view of the policeman who is leading up the investigation.

I enjoyed it enough to read to the end. The story was quite nicely wrapped up.

I’m sure lots of people will enjoy the book, it just wasn’t for me sadly.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Search Party but that has in no way influenced my review.

So I admit it, 'The Chalk Man meets The Hunting Party...' line sold this book to me before I had fully taken on what the book was about. Two of my very favourite books, the publisher was telling me, had conceived a book baby and it was The Search Party with its fantastically striking cover. I was sold and oh boy, I was excited to make a start.

Sadie Saunders is missing. Her friends, keen to be involved in the search for Sadie, want to help. But they're told they're too young. They're told to stay at home and wait for news. So they decide to pack a few non-essential items (phone chargers for example 🤦) and head out to the woods for a few nights to look for Sadie. But they all have secrets. Things they're keeping from one another. And one of the teenagers, Mason, is a little hot-headed. He's Sadie's boyfriend and he suspects one of the friends has something to do with Sadie going missing...

The book opens with a bang which immediately grabs your attention, puts you on the wrong foot and makes you start to ask questions. We're then introduced to the absolutely brilliant DI Robin Fleet who was one of my very favourite things about this book. Fleet is in charge of putting the pieces together and working out not only what has happened to Sadie Saunders, but who is responsible for this latest tragedy. I loved Fleet. He's flawed but not too flawed. Just a good, honest copper who struggles with the politics of policing and the restrictions put upon him by his current superior officer. I hope to see more of him in future books.

What's interesting about this book is the way the author has presented the viewpoints of the teenagers who went into the woods that fateful day. It's clear from the get-go that they're recounting what happened to a police officer, but you only ever hear from the teenagers. The accounts are presented as monologues allowing each character to have their say and their moment in the spotlight. There's every chance this approach is used in most of the books I read but this time, it felt different and new.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Search Party is an intricate, slow-burn mystery full of suspense which I found entertaining from start to finish. I should say that before reading this book, I had very recently finished another novel featuring a cast of whiny teenagers which perhaps took the edge off of the book for me a little. However, the chapters focussing on the investigation with DI Fleet as their star, I really enjoyed. More Fleet please! Recommended.

I chose to read and review an eARC of The Search Party. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Sixteeen year old Sadie Saunders is missing, presumed dead. Her five supposedly best friends head into the woods to look for her but they are all keeping secrets of their own and when creepy things start happening as they camp they are forced to confront their own lies and each other. That isn't a spoiler as it is made very clear from the start that each of the friends has their own hidden agenda. The policeman investigating the crime also has his own difficult past with the town and find it hard to overcome suspicion from people who remember him as a child. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot and the number of shady characters makes it hard to predict who is eventually going to be guilty as so many have plausible motivations. However I found the denouement to be unsatisfying as I think the author was trying so hard for the reveal to be something that no one saw coming that he goes a bit too left field.

I was so looking forward to reading this book but I have to say I was disappointed. I don’t know whether it was just my mood, the hot weather we were having when I started it, or the style of writing, but it didn’t grip me as much as I thought it would. That being said it was good but just as good as I thought in my head it would be.

It tells of a group of friends and one of them goes missing, presumed dead and the remaining friends go out on a Search Party to try and find her. Various secrets and truths come out along the way and it did keep you guessing until the end.

Intriguing, entertaining & hard to put down.

The structure of this novel was cleverly done to maximize suspense and uncertainly. I really liked the unique one-sided interviews with the police, I thought it gave momentum to the narratives and stopped it getting bogged down by the question/answer format.
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It missed out on 5⭐ because I felt all the slightly different perspectives of wandering around in the woods made drag in the middle for me. I also would have loved to see a more sinister ending (but that is because I'm obviously too dark and twisty!).

Overall an entertaining read with well-built characters and plenty of twists to keep you guessing. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley & Nuala Ellwood.

Thanks to Penguin Books UK & Netgalley for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sadie Saunders is missing for over a week now. Everyone in town thinks she's dead, murdered in the woods by someone close to her. The most obvious suspect is also part of a private search party which consists of her five best friends. They all have secrets and are hiding a lot about Sadie's life. But what started as a search for the truth, turns into a witch hunt and then another death.

My top three thoughts on 'The Search Party':
1. I read this book when I really needed a distraction. It helped get me out of my cycle of anxious thoughts, keeping me engaged and entertained. I always appreciate books that make you think, and there's a lot to think about and actually like in this book. The pace is fast, the plot is complex, the characters can't be trusted, and the crime is intriguing as it uncovers plenty of twists and turns.
2. I liked the way Lelic covers relationships in this book. The teenagers deal with feelings of jealousy, anger, love, neglect and abuse. But it's the way DI Fleet thinks that makes this book interesting. He investigates with an obsession and determination of only someone who continues to be haunted by demons.
3. It's hard to differentiate between any of the voices in the book. I kept pausing to try and figure out or remember which character was being interviewed during integration.

This book is full of twists and turns and had me captivated from the start. The differing viewpoints were confusing at first but I soon got into the flow of things which was great. Recommended.

A creepy and atmospheric crime thriller about a missing girl, her five friends, and the Detective trying to uncover the truth.

16 year old Sadie Saunders has been missing for 6 days., and is presumed by most of the town to be dead. Her friends (including her boyfriend and her twin) think that the police are searching in the wrong place, so form their own 'search party' and go looking for her in the woods. A few days later they will need rescuing too! What happened in the woods? Where is Sadie?

I will be honest, I struggled to get into this for about the first 10% or so. The chapters switch between Sadie's friends and Detective inspector Fleet, and the teenagers POVs were full of rambling monologues. They were meant to be talking to the police, but it didn't feel like it, as we didn't hear any police question them, we just have them talking as if they were speaking to a friend? I think the book would have benefitted from using an interview style here. Some of the teenager's voices sounded very similar too, and I did get them a bit confused at the start.
One other thing that bothered me, was that in this e-Arc, I would be reading from one character's POV, and in the next sentence it would switch to a different character, which was extremely jarring! I am assuming that this will be ironed out in the final copy though!

However, The Search Party soon sucked me in, with its gripping and creepy atmosphere inside the woods! Once I got past the YA feel, I devoured this fast paced and twisty book like an addict! When the teenagers were in the woods searching for Sadie, it was pretty scary and the woods felt menacing! Simon Lelic's writing made me feel like I was out there with them in the darkness, hungry, cold and seeing shadows and eyes everywhere! Even the daytime, with its oppressive heat, felt sinister! *shivers*
And that final, unpredictable twist had me turning back to the first chapter to check things, as I had been blind sighted and played due to my own assumptions!

The teenagers were written well; Abi, Cora, Mason, Luke and Fash felt like a typical group of young adults, grappling with jealousy, lies, secrets and lust. I couldn't tell who was telling the truth, there were so many lies! As time went on, they started to blame and turn on each other, and I didn't know who to trust. What started out as a seemingly tight group of friends, each had their own personal problems, which start to fracture their friendships.
I definitely preferred DI Fleet's chapters. He was an interesting, and perhaps one of the only really likeable characters in the book, as he tried to ignore pressure put on him by his Superintendent and the media. I enjoyed his banter with his partner, Detective Sargent Nicky Collins, and was drawn to his tumultuous relationship with his wife Holly. His backstory and history with the town was sad, and I rooted for him. I can imagine reading future books with this character in!

The parents in this book was truly awful excuses for human beings!

Overall, The Search Party was a solid and intense mystery/thriller, which I can imagine as a tv series! The eerie woods will stay with me for a while! 🌲 🌲 🌲 1/2

Sadie goes missing and DCI Fleet is tasked with finding out what has happened to her. But it becomes more complicated when her friends form a search party. A gripping novel, so well written.
Chilling novel at times where truths are hidden and lies told. This can only lead to tragedy.

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

My thanks to Penguin Books U.K. Viking for a review copy via NetGalley of ‘The Search Party’ by Simon Lelic. It is available now in ebook and audiobook formats and will be published in hardback on 20 August.

‘A Missing Girl. Five Friends. Who Will Survive ...’

Sixteen year old Sadie Saunders has been missing for almost a week. A huge police search has been triggered led by DI Robin Fleet, dubbed ‘abloodhound’ as he has a reputation for being able to find people.

Yet Sadie’s five friends are convinced that the police are searching in the wrong place and so head off instead to the woods. They neglect to tell their parents what they are doing. Things don’t go well. When four of the teens are found after a few days of wandering about there is also a body!

This novel is written in quite an unusual style, including one-sided interviews with the teens where they talk in a stream-of-conscious manner to the police as well as flashbacks to earlier events.

Unfortunately, this novel just didn’t work for me as I found its constant jumping between viewpoints confusing. In addition, the concept that each of the five teens would be sitting on major secrets seemed rather implausible. Also, their lack of preparation before heading off into the woods was astonishing. I just couldn’t understand their motivations.

It seemed strange that the police were talking so early about suspects and murder when there were other explanations for Sadie’s disappearance. Would a missing 16-year old really attract this kind of police response? Also, the teenagers didn’t seem to have legal representation. It was odd.

I found myself more engaged by DI Fleet’s subplot about his links to the town and sister along with themes linked to bullying.

Overall, I found it an okay read without feeling rapturous about it.

Such an intensely suspenseful, twisty and engrossing story this is. I have been in thrall to Simon Lelic's writing for the last few days, enjoying the images he creates of the woodland setting and experiencing events from the viewpoints of his well-drawn characters.

The situation of a missing teenage girl is the nightmare of most parents and it is easy to suspect the worst possible outcome; yet with no body, there is no certainty and there is also the possibility of other explanations for the disappearance. Sadie is popular, but within her group of friends there is ambivalence which surfaces when we follow the narrative via their different perspectives. Each relationship has its strengths and weaknesses, and these are not adults. An added twist is that the primary detective involved in the investigation has had past experience of a missing family member of his own, and he also has powerful instincts for truth. Further, the parents of the missing girl are not the most involved or caring. So many different strands present themselves, the truth is elusive, and the story is truly a web of possibilities. Gradually what happened is revealed and the conclusion is poignant, surprising and moving. The plot has been very cleverly crafted: Simon Lelic has created a stupendous novel which deserves to be widely read and enjoyed. I really hope that this is not the last time we meet DI Fleet and Nicky, his DS work partner, because I would love to spend more time alongside them on another case.

This is a gripping mystery story about a group of teenagers who set off in to the woods looking for their missing friend. Sadie has disappeared and many of the locals in her seaside home in the south of the UK presume she is dead. Popular and talented, Sadie seems perfect but lately there has been some rather unsavoury gossip about her. Maybe that has something to do with why she is now missing. Her boyfriend, Mason, is number one suspect in the potential foul play. He protests his innocence and a couple of days after Sadie's disappearance he and four more friends form a 'search party' and slip in to the local woods to try to find Sadie and clear Mason's name. But when the weather changes and no evidence of Sadie is found, the ill prepared group begin to distrust each other and their friendships begin to strain in the dark and the rain. I enjoyed this book a lot. There is some genuine tension and the woods are a creepy and atmospheric setting for a large part of the story. I didn't guess the ending, which I though was a little far-fetched but that did not spoil my enjoyment at all.

The Search Party by Simon Lelic is a thriller of a missing girl, and her friends who go to look for her.

It's written from the point of view of DI Fleet, who specialises in finding people and her friends in their interviews with the police.  It makes for a really interesting way of the story coming out.

This is a well paced book from the beginning, moving fast as you'd expect from a thriller, and you are gradually told what has happened in the woods.

I didn't guess what had happened until we were getting to the end of the book, as it was unfolding for us.

If you've enjoyed books like The Chalk Man, The Hunting Party or The Guest List, then you'll enjoy this!

 The Search Party  is due to be published on 20th August, and you can pre-order it from  Amazon,   Waterstones , or your  local independent bookshop .

You can follow Simon Lelic on  Twitter .

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Penguin Books (UK) .

The Search Party by Simon Lelic was seductive and compelling and everything you would want from a thriller. I read way it way into the night, much later than I should have done but I found it impossible to resist. The mystery of the disappearance of Sadie and the body in the woods was one I wanted to solve.

The book begins with a frantic emergency call made from an abandoned house in the woods.

16- year-old Sadie has gone missing. The evidence the police have uncovered so far is sketchy at best and doesn’t quite add up but Fleet, the officer in charge isn’t quite sure why.

Sadie’s twin brother Luke and their friends think the police are looking in the wrong place and decide to mount their own search.

When the teens are finally found in the woods days later Fleet is under pressure from his superiors to solve the mystery quickly, but he has his own issues. Fleet has recently separated from his wife and dealing with the complications from that. Also, being back in his hometown is causing issues for the inspector because of the history he has with some of the locals surrounding the death of his sister.

The book is set out as a series of interviews with the children and also chapters from the point of view of Fleet. I thought this style lent itself well to the feeling of suspense built throughout the novel.

Sadie and Luke had been friends with Mason, Abi, Cora and Fash a long time but like any friendship at that age there were a lot of simmering tensions below the surface.

Mason is the number one suspect. Is he a jealous and controlling boyfriend guilty of murder or is he a loving boyfriend worried about Sadie?

Cora had her own motives for killing Sadie because of her history with Mason but that doesn’t mean she did it, right?

The whole group knows Abi’s father is verbally abusive and she was jealous of Sadie because of her loving and supportive family but that doesn’t mean she was involved in her disappearance does it?

Likewise, Sadie’s twin Luke is always second best in his parent’s eyes and always having to parent his little brother because his parents only care about Sadie. Maybe he had enough.

The Search Party threw up a lot of questions. Where is Sadie? Is she dead or has she run away? What are the friend’s hiding?

The Search Party is full of suspense and I just had to know how it ended. A great read.

Such a a good read, with twists and turns and an ending that you won't see coming. I couldn't put this book down.

Thankyou to Penguin and Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is an utterly tense, riveting and addictive thriller. The storyline is that a teenager is missing, a police detective who is experienced in this type of search is drafted in to assist and is ordered to get a quick result. However, he has ties to the town and memories to face up to. Five best friends of the missing person decide to form their own search but after that goes awry they are taken in for questioning and from each of their narration you think you are beginning to piece together what actually took place and who (if anyone is guilty) except you aren’t! Brilliant twist at the end. I didn’t see that coming!