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 Murder In The Family by Cara Hunter

Published by Harper Collins

Publication Date: 20 July 2023

My thanks to publisher Harper Collins for the early review copy of this book via NetGalley

Book Description:

IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION
LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED

In December 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything.

Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.

Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?

Or does the truth lie closer to home?

Can you solve the case before they do?
The truth will blow your mind.

My Thoughts:

My first observation of this book is that the author has taken a break from writing her Adam Fawley series, which I was in a way pleased about - my TBR pile stands taller than mount Everest, and the possibility of novels in a series coming out in quick succession bothers me (I use the MJ Arlidge series purely as reference. I was thoroughly enjoying the early instalments however they were being released so frequently that I totally lost track and have therefore abandoned the series as a lost cause).

The "main character" in this book, if you can call him that being as he's been dead for 20 years, is a young man named Luke Ryder. Killed in the garden of the home he shared with his older wife and family, the crime was never solved. Now 20 years later his step-son Guy Howard, a filmmaker, wants to make a mini-series re-opening the case to look into the evidence and maybe even find out who was responsible. The program makers have brought together a team of "experts" to analyse the official documents and interview relevant witnesses.

The chapters are similar in style to Cara Hunter's previous books: short, sharp, information-heavy, laden with distracting red herrings - or are they? It's the reader's challenge to work out what is relevant and what is speculation and guesswork. The interspersed sections of social media posts relating public reaction to the episodes of the mini-series as they are released feed in between the main chapters are typical of Hunter's style but if you've not read her books before they can take a bit of getting used to.
There's plenty of finger pointing between the experts on the show - everyone has a pretty strong opinion, and this raises tempers and some interesting questions which were never raised in the first police investigation. Apart from Guy, nobody is quite who they first appear to be, and this keeps the tension going right to the end.

Another resounding success from Cara Hunter in my opinion - I don't know how she plots and twists her storylines as intricately as she does.

About the Author:

Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels Close to Home, In the Dark, No Way Out, All the Rage, The Whole Truth and Hope to Die, all featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick (as is her latest) and was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019. No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara's novels have sold over a million copies worldwide, and the TV rights to the series have been acquired by the Fremantle group. She lives in Oxford. Murder in the Family is her first stand-alone crime novel. The Fawley series will also continue.