The Hunting Party

Historical novelist Foley (The Invitation) makes an auspicious thriller debut. Nine close friends, four of them couples, gather for their extravagant annual New Year’s getaway—this time at Loch Corrin, a remote estate in the Scottish Highlands—a decade after most of them graduated from Oxford. Tensions, sexual and otherwise, first flare during the lengthy, alcohol-lubricated train trip from London on December 30, fanned by charismatic, capricious Miranda—the golden girl most men want to be with and more than a few women long to become. At the Loch Corrin station, they’re met by Doug, the estate’s odd, though hunky, gamekeeper; at Loch Corrin, they encounter unexpected additional guests: a pair of strange Icelandic backpackers. Things start to go seriously wrong with the arrival of a blizzard that will soon cut off the 50,000-acre spread from the outside world. And then one of them disappears. Foley spins her story skillfully through multiple narrators, and if she’s less sure-handed with character, this still makes for a cracklingly suspenseful story for a long winter’s night. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (Feb.)