Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
Buy Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: The first standalone from the creator of DI Adam Fawley. It's an unusual format and makes for a cracking read or listen.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 480/9h15m	Date: July 2023
Publisher: Harper Collins
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0008530020
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It was in December 2003 that fifteen-year-old Maura Howard came home and found the body of her stepfather, Luke Ryder, in the garden of their West London home. He had an injury on the back of his head which could have happened if he'd slipped down the steps but the vicious beating his face had taken was obviously deliberate. Twenty years later, no one has been charged with his murder and it's now the subject of Infamous, a true-crime show. A group of experts has been brought together to review the evidence and to take the investigation further. More to the point, they're going to do this live on camera, episode by episode. There's no dump of the whole box set - and no shortage of cliffhangers. It's compelling viewing.

I'm often underwhelmed by true crime programmes - either in real life or as fictional themes - but this is Cara Hunter and I am a big fan of her D I Adam Fawley series and I was more than happy to give this standalone a few hours of my time. So, how did it stack up?

At the start, I was absolutely riveted. We've got an ex-Met DI, Alan Canning, for the inside view on how the investigation progressed. Mitchell 'Mitch' Clark is a journalist who has always lived in Ladbroke Grove, not far from the murder scene. Hugo Fraser KC is a skilled interviewer and Dr Leila Furness is a forensic psychologist. JJ Norton is a forensic investigator and William 'Bill' R. Sepaphini, lately of NYPD is an expert crime scene investigator. The producer of the show is Guy Howard - the youngest of Luke Ryder's three stepchildren and just ten years old at the time of the murder. His plan is to stay behind the camera but will appear on screen if there's something he can add to the investigation.

What does become clear very quickly is that at least some of the panel have more involvement with what happened than they're prepared to divulge. Mitch Clark is open about the fact that he actually came onto the premises when the police arrived but what about the others? The tension ramps up very quickly and the tempers of the panellists are not always under control.

The concept was well-developed and it was a very good read. I treated myself to an audio download (narrators: Lisa Armitage, Olivia Dowd, Rupert Fairley, James Goode and Colin Mace) and although this was entertaining reading I think I might have been better sticking with the physical book. The cast created the story well but I suspect that I might have got more from reading newspaper clippings, emails, etc than listening to them being read. That's me being very picky though.

As I listened, I was put in mind of the writing of Lucy Foly - my favourite is The Hunting Party.

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