Author Lucy Foley talks about her first thriller, The Hunting Party
Author Lucy Foley reveals more about her first thriller, The Hunting Party, which is not just a “Whodunnit” but a “Who died” — with the victim’s identity not revealed until late.
Books
Don't miss out on the headlines from Books. Followed categories will be added to My News.
New Year’s Eve, a Scottish estate, and a body …
Of fiction genres on pulse in Australia right now, historical fiction and crime are leading the pack. Lucy Foley has taken a step from the former to the latter with her first thriller, The Hunting Party, published Down Under by HarperCollins Australia.
In a twist on the standard formula, it’s not just a “Whodunnit” but a “Who died” — with the victim’s identity not revealed until late in the narrative. Today London-based Lucy addresses that and more as she takes the Sunday Book Club Ten.
Give us your elevator pitch for your novel
Nine friends travel up to the Scottish Highland’s to see in the New Year in a remote hunting lodge. The next 48 hours see the friends catching up, reminiscing over past stories, scratching old wounds … And guarding friendship-destroying secrets. On New Year’s Day, a broken body is found in the snow. Not an accident — a murder among friends. When a thick blizzard descends, the group are trapped, meaning the killer is among them. Whodied and whodunit? Dun dun dun!
What was your inspiration for The Hunting Party?
I was staying in a cottage on a remote, snowy estate in the Scottish Highlands and thought it would be a great spot to get a group of friends up to see in the New Year. Then, when I learned that there was a possibility of my actually being snowed in on the estate and not being able to leave, I thought it would be a perfect setting for a murder mystery, and the two ideas converged in a rather evil way.
There have been a lot of comparisons to Agatha Christie, was this intentional?
I’m a huge fan of Agatha Christie’s writing — and in writing this I did in a way want to create a modern take on the classic whodunnit. What I’m particularly intrigued by in Christie’s books is how she explores what makes ordinary people murder — and that’s very much the premise of The Hunting Party.
The book provides an interesting insight into a group of old friends — what made you want to explore this dynamic?
I’m intrigued by old friendships — I think they’re generally a wonderful thing, of course. But I’m also aware that friendships can sour and people can grow apart without even realising it has happened — unless they’re placed in close quarters with one another. Old friends can hold onto outdated versions of each other and that’s what some of the characters in The Hunting Party are kicking against — as well, of course, as harbouring some murderous intentions!
What was it like writing from the perspective of so many characters?
It was a new challenge for me. Most of the time it was great fun and immensely satisfying — and I certainly found that I never got bored, being able to leap between different points of view! At other times, it was, well … challenging. The main difficulty was in managing this large ensemble cast of characters who were all ‘onstage’, for large parts of the action. And to stay true to the established form of the Golden Age, each of the characters also had to have a motive. In the first edit, there were actually fewer characters — the group of friends was smaller. I knew I wanted to add more of them in, but had to begin with a workable number, and ‘build’ outwards from there. I’m not sure this was the necessarily the right way to go about it, but for me it was the only way to do it without losing track of everyone’s movements.
The sense of place is so vivid in The Hunting Party, how did you manage to establish that?
I was helped by the inspiration for the setting — the Highlands is one of the most atmospheric places on earth. I love the sense of space and wildness up there — its raw beauty. But having spent quite a bit of time there I’m also aware of how that environment can also turn pretty hostile in certain weather conditions. What is, most of the time, a wonderful peaceful isolation could quickly become fairly unsettling — even perilous. So I really wanted to get that across in the book. The landscape is really like a character in the novel in itself — in a sense it defines what happens.
The victim’s identity isn’t revealed until much later in the piece — why is that?
I wanted the readers to really scrutinise every interaction between the different guests. I wanted there to be the destabilising sense that anyone could be murdered — to remove the odd sort of comfort that you might find in a classic murder mystery in which, early on, you know who’s been bumped off.
The Hunting Party is quite different to your previous novels, what made you want to go in this new direction?
I thought it was time to explore the dark side! In writing, I’ve always been inspired to write the book that I as a reader would like to come across. For a while I’d been thinking I’d really like to read a modern take on the classic murder mystery, so when the plot for the book came to me I couldn’t resist starting to write!
Did you find your writing process to be different from when you wrote historical novels?
The preparation was very different: in writing historicals, of course, there’s a massive amount of period-specific primary and secondary research to be done. With the thriller it was more about researching the setting — and thinking about the how and the why. I probably spent a lot more time plotting out The Hunting Party beforehand as that fundamental structure is so crucial to a murder mystery and plot is so important in any form of crime fiction. I wanted the reader to be able to go back and see that all the clues to the solution were there if they had picked up on them, like an elaborate puzzle. I needed to know what twists and turns I was going to throw at the reader, rather than letting them come to me more naturally, while writing, as I tended to do with the historical novels. There were still some things that surprised me, though!
What are your three favourite books you’ve read recently?
I enjoyed The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths, as I’m a big fan of the gothic short story and the plot takes that as its jumping off point and plays with all of its conventions. I also finally got round to reading The Dry by Australia’s Jane Harper which I thought was utterly brilliant — and such a fantastic example of the landscape as character in a novel! I’m now off to read her other two. And I’ve also just finished Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith — I’m a huge fan of hers but I hadn’t read this and it’s a new favourite: it’s a masterclass in gradually ratcheting up the sense of menace.
* The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley is published by HarperCollins Australia and available in all good book shops and online.
** Remember Sunday Book Club readers get 30 per cent off our Book Of The Month — this month it’s Not Bad People by Brandy Scott. Go to Booktopia and use the code BCBT19. And we always want to know what’s turning your pages at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.
Originally published as Author Lucy Foley talks about her first thriller, The Hunting Party
‘Don’t try this at home’: Risk rewarded
Joanne Fedler defied inner fear and official advice, to take a risk at a time of personal loss – and made an extraordinary discovery that brought back her gift for storytelling.
‘What happened? Who is guilty?’
Four girls disappear from a school camp and a male teacher goes after them. The girls return – but the man does not. Wouldn’t you be asking hard questions, writes Nikki Gemmell.