Book Review: Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

 

Book: Murder in the Family

Author: Cara Hunter 

Pages: 470

Read on: Kindle

Read in: ~5 hours 

Plot Summary: 

IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION 

LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED 

In October 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.

General Thoughts: If there is only ONE Crime Fiction/ Thriller book you read this year, make it this one! :) Now, on to the review. 

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise had me at hello! A cold case, a murder of a much younger step-father, no solid leads, promise of a messed up/ interesting family dynamic, told in a documentary style format- what is not to love?! 

2. The book is well-written, fast-paced and even though it is told in a documentary-ish style, with conversations, interviews, text messages and newspaper clips that move that story forward, the reader gets a good sense of each of the main characters in the story- both the members of the Howard family and the six experts working on solving the cold case. 

3. There are multiple twists and turns as one goes down the 'episodes' of the documentary and each of these reveals are quite shocking and you most likely won't see them coming! 

4. The investigation undertaken by the team of experts -two cops (one British, one American), a psychologist, a lawyer and a journalist - is realistic and nothing that the cops in 2003 couldn't have done. A lot of the new information found is shocking, interesting and only very slightly predictable. The book does make several digs at the inefficiency of the Met cops for some reason :).

5. The book is atmospheric and an absolute edge-of-the-seat page turner! Get started on it on a Friday night and read late into the night! I promise you, you'll not regret it! :) 

Rating: 5/5