ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Making a Killing by Cara Hunter

Making a Killing by Cara Hunter is the latest instalment in the DCI Adam Fawley series and it’s out tomorrow! My thanks to the publishers, Hemlock Press, for the proof copy.

In 2016, eight-year-old Daisy Mason vanished from her Oxford home.

Her disappearance made the national press and the final culprit shocked everyone. DCI Adam Fawley remembers the case well, he arrested Daisy’s mother for murder himself.

But her body was never found.

Now, forensic evidence at a current murder scene calls the whole case into question. DCI Adam Fawley and the team are brought back in to investigate. And they all have one question on their minds.

What really happened to Daisy Mason?

Making a Killing is book seven in the DCI Adam Fawley series (eagle-eyed readers will spot his promotion!) and is a follow on to the events of book one (although it can be read as a standalone if you haven’t read that one) with a resurgence in the case that Fawley led in 2016: the investigation into the disappearance of eight year old Daisy Mason. At the end of Close to Home it all seemed to be tied up nicely, but Cara Hunter has done a brilliant job at breathing new life into the case with a few cunning curveballs.

For me, the main strength in this series is the characters. It’s always good to catch up with them all again. Fawley is such a likeable and fair man and his team are a great bunch, reassembled to deal with this case, including Quinn, Gis, Baxter, Ev and Somer. I like that there’s a recap of the characters at the beginning of each book which is really helpful for those of us who’ve had a sleep since the last one.

Making a Killing is a brilliant crime story with some good old-fashioned detective work being undertaken by the team. As always, the book is peppered with transcripts, reports and other innovative ways of telling the story, something I really love about Hunter’s books. I thought this was a twisty and clever read, an intelligent and well-written police procedural.

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.