I had to reserve it pretty much the day after New Year last year, as soon as the bookings opened up.

This time of year, as you might guess, is the most popular. Very exclusive: they only let four parties stay there each year-the rest of the time it’s kept as a private residence. And Katie.įour days in a winter Highland wilderness. Me and Mark, Miranda and Julien, Nick and Bo, Samira and Giles, their six-month-old baby, Priya. ALL OF US TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ages. He shakes his head, and I feel the question expire on my lips.

But his eyes tell the story before he can, a mute communication of horror.įinally, he speaks. There is a moment-a long pause-in which he tries to catch his breath. He brings with him a rush of freezing air, a spill of snow. I open the door of the Lodge, let him in. This is the expression of someone who has witnessed something horrific, beyond the bounds of normal human experience. I know this without being able to see his face.Īs he comes closer I see that his features are frozen with shock. But the fallen, falling snow hampers him. He is hurrying toward the Lodge, I realize, trying to run. FROM A DISTANCE, through the curtain of white, he looks hardly human, like a shadow figure.Īs he nears me I see that it is Doug, the gamekeeper. I SEE A MAN COMING THROUGH THE FALLING SNOW. But how close is too close?ĭON'T BE LEFT OUT. Keep your friends close, the old adage says. Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. .

Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands-the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. “My favorite kind of whodunit, kept me guessing all the way through, and reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best - with an extra dose of acid.” - Alex Michaelides, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Silent PatientĮveryone's invited.everyone's a suspect.ĭuring the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago.

The hunting party lucy foley