The Hunting Party

Should old acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind?

2nd January, 2018: One of the guests staying at the Loch Corrin Estate has been missing since New Year's Eve. Heather, the office manager, and Doug, the groundsman, have conducted as extensive a search as possible in the terrible conditions. The western Highlands are experiencing the heaviest snowfall for decades, which has left the remote estate sealed off from the world: no-one can get out, and the rescue services cannot get in. Now, Doug comes to tell Heather that he has found the missing guest: dead, the body lying broken at the bottom of the frozen waterfall. It doesn't look like an accident.

Four days earlier: Nine friends, friends since their time Oxford a decade ago, have travelled up from London to spend New Year's Eve in the stunning wilderness of the Loch Corrin Estate. The next few days see them catching up, taking drugs, going deer stalking in the starkly beautiful surroundings, reminiscing over times past … and keeping huge, friendship-destroying secrets from each other.

Everything comes to a crisis on New Year's Eve when the biggest secret of all is revealed. One of the guests, distraught, stumbles drunkenly away from the warmth and safety of the Lodge. The unforgiving wilderness contains many potential dangers: a notorious serial killer has murdered several victims nearby; the weather is turning from bad to worse and the estate itself conceals a dark secret unbeknownst even to Heather, the manager. Or might the threat be even closer to home?