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This is a hugely enjoyable modern version of a classic golden age crime novel, a psychological thriller with the Christie like tropes of a country house, only here we have a remote and desolate exclusive hunting lodge situated next to a loch in the bleak and forbidding wintry landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. There is a group of thirty something longstanding close friends from Oxford University, who for the last decade have always gathered together over the New Year period. It begins with New Year's Day 2019, when gamekeeper, Doug and lodge manager, Heather, discover a missing guest on the estate, it is inescapably clear that it is no accident and that a murder has been committed. Heavy and blustery snowstorms have cut the area off, and the police are unable to respond. Without revealing who the victim is until near the end, the narrative goes back and forth over the days since the group arrive, revealing that below the surface of the jollity and apparent closeness of the friends, lurk dark murky secrets, questions about the supposed friendships between them, and exposure of the deep fissures that lay hidden from view.

Emma, a relative newbie to the group, and girlfriend of Mark, has organised the hunting lodge for the gathering in her desperate efforts to fit in and be accepted into this long established group of privileged and entitled individuals. The beautiful, attention grabbing, and popular Miranda, with her good looking husband, Julien, are the enviable golden couple. Samira and Giles are the couple with a 6 month daughter, Priya, that curtails their previous ability to be the total party animals they used to be. Nick is gay, and has been in a long term relationship with his partner, American Bo, a man that has recovered from a history of drug addition. The reserved Katie, a high powered London lawyer, is the single one, with a history of being the closest friend of the glamorous Miranda since schooldays, but her career has meant that recently they have seen little of each other. Amidst the partying, binge drinking and drugs, secrets begin to emerge, lives unravel and the killer's identity slowly comes to be revealed.

Lucy Foley writes a chilling atmospheric crime mystery, laden with an air of menace, set in the most beautiful of locations, but which carrys its own dangers with freezing conditions and snow blizzards. As well as the Oxford group, there is the unexpected addition of two Icelanders at the lodge, Ingvar and Gudrun. Heather has past trauma that triggered the move to work in the most loneliest of places, and Doug, an ex-marine, still suffers from PTSD, leading him to seek the isolation of the estate as he cannot bear to be amongst other people. Foley provides us with a diverse cast of characters as suspects trapped on the estate, with many in the Oxford group not being particularly likeable human beings. This is a fabulously entertaining and riveting murder mystery that I am sure will appeal to many crime aficionados! Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.