ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Close to Home by Cara Hunter
Close to Home by Cara Hunter is published by Penguin and available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. I purchased my own copy of the book.
Last night, eight-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a family party. No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything – or at least that’s what they’re saying.
DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows the nine times out of ten, it’s someone the victim knew.
That means someone is lying…
And that Daisy’s time is running out.The first twisty, up-all-night thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling Cara Hunter. For fans of Shari Lapena, Claire Douglas and Lisa Jewell.
Cara Hunter’s Adam Fawley series is a crime and thriller highlight for me and I know I’m going to love each book. I came to the series on book three and whilst I always intended to read books one and two, I never felt I had missed out. However, book seven is on the way in February 2025 and as it returns to the case in book one I felt the time was right to read the book that started it all.
Eight year old Daisy Mason has gone missing from a party at her family home. DI Adam Fawley and his team are called in to investigate and right from the start there are strong suspicions as to what might have happened to Daisy. It was nice to see how the series started and the roles of each member of the police team. I recognised them all from later books and there were also some characters who have developed more fully throughout the progression of the series.
The use of emails, transcripts, newspaper reports, forums etc is a common device in Hunter’s books and I do love to see this mixture of formats. The lack of chapters may dismay some readers but trust me when I say that this book is very fast-paced and there are plenty of stopping points. In fact, I think defined chapters would have actually slowed the pace for me.
This is an excellent crime/police procedural novel and the start of what has become an auto-read series for me. I didn’t see the clever ending coming and I’m really looking forward to reading Making a Killing to see how Hunter brings Daisy’s case back to life.
Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK alone, and have been translated into 27 languages so far. The fifth book, The Whole Truth, was a Richard and Judy summer pick for 2021. The series is now in script development for TV, and the screen rights to Murder in the Family have been acquired by Neal Street Productions.
