What amazing book. The twists and turns of the story kept me glued to it from the first page to the last..
Without giving anything away. All I can say is read it.! You wont be disappointed

This was a brilliant follow up to Cara Hunters's first book 'Close to Home' and I was hoping I was going to enjoy it as much - I think I enjoyed it more! I am one of these people who likes to think they can solve all mysteries by chapter 2 ... this one had me guessing right up till the end - the sign of an excellent and well written story!

When a young woman and small child are discovered in a basement by a neighbour who is renovating the house next door, the finger is well and truly pointing to the house owner - an elderly man with dementia. The victim is so traumatised she doesn't speak at first but they soon establish that the elderly man is indeed the child's father and so the evidence stacks up against him... As the story progresses, similarities between this case and an older case become apparent and so unravels a whole other dimension to the story!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next in the series! Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Deliciously and deceptively dark. I can’t give too much of the plot away because that would spoil the intricate layers which are built and then knocked down as the Police investigation unravels. Safe to say that everything you believe is going on isn’t in this complex jaw-dropping thriller. From the start when a young woman and a toddler are found barely alive having been locked away in a damp basement for years I can guarantee a thrilling uncomfortable (at times) but engrossing page turner. The characters seem so life like (worringly so with some of them) and the banter between Police colleagues, the intensity of the interrogations and investigation and piecing together of possibly two interlinked crimes all result in a mind boggingly addictive story. Like the Police we follow the investigation as each new sordid detail is revealed and like the Police we have to separate fact from fiction, lies from truth. Wow- this kept me guessing! Fantastic!

It's rare to come across a genuinely surprising twist, let alone multiple, but they come thick and fast in this police procedural thriller.

This is shaping up to be a truly outstanding series filled with multidimensional, flawed but likeable characters and unusual crimes that keep you gripped to the very last page.

I read the first book in this series and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was definitely excited to read the second book and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It had many twists and turns which added to the story and I genuinely didn’t know who to believe or trust. Lovely mix of characters that I all liked and I look forward to the next in the series. Would definitely recommend this book.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Book 2 by Cara Hunter sees the return of Detective Inspector Adam Fawley.
A young girl and a small boy are found in a cellar, it would appear they have been there for some time. The boy seems to have been born there. The girl is so traumatised she cannot speak or bare to look at the child who is obviously her son. The elderly gentleman who owns the house they were discovere in had no idea they were there, he has been recently diagnosed with dementia.
What a complex case the DI has, kidnap, imprisonment, rape and a murder, there are many twists and turns, a number of suspects and the team come up against a few dead ends.
This story is full of mystery and keeps the reader guessing right to the last page.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will look forward to meeting DI Fawley and his team of characters in book 3. 4.5 stars.

A young woman and child are discovered starving and severely dehydrated inside a locked cellar during renovations at the house next door. Extremely traumatised, it's some time until the woman, Vicky, can be properly interviewed. The homeowner, Dr William Harper, is an elderly widower in his 70's who has arthritis and Alzheimer's disease. As unlikely as it seems, could he have abducted the woman and held her captive in his cellar with the child?

To further complicate matters, Dr Harper's home is opposite the flat where missing BBC journalist Hannah Gardiner lived with her husband and toddler son. Is it possible Dr Harper was involved in her disappearance too and if so, where is she now?

In the Dark is the second book to feature Detective Inspector Adam Fawley. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first, this is fast becoming a must-read British police procedural series.

This second book didn't disappoint. Set in Oxford, it had so many unpredictable twists and turns that my head was literally spinning. It was exceptionally well written by a very talented author. The pacing was relentless as DI Fawley's team sought to unravel two cases simultaneously. It really was edge-of-the-seat stuff! I highly recommend.

The Kindle edition of No Way Out, DI Adam Fawley #3, is due in late December 2018, with the paperback to follow mid-January 2019.

This is a very good read, it really makes you think about what we don't know about what goes on in the house next door or in our neighbourhood. It had sat unread on my kindle for a while because the initial description did not totally inspire me . When I checked the author I found that I had bought the first book in this series in January on an Amazon daily deal and had not got round to reading that either , no real reason than other books needed reading!

I therefore decided to read the first book in the series first and although they stand independently it was useful to meet the mail characters in book one and then follow them into book two. With both books I read well into the night and couldn't put them down , I was also surprised by the ending of both books although I had,had some suspicions the facts were even more sinister and unexpected!!!

This is a cleverly-plotted book, just the right side of being far-fetched. What begins as an apparently straightforward case of kidnap and imprisonment turns into something far more sinister and wide-ranging, with an excellent final twist.

The characters - and Oxford - are well drawn, and enough of their history is revealed for the reader who has not already read the author's previous book in the series, which I now plan to read. I am also looking forward to catching up with them when the next book is published.

Many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

Having read the first in this series, I was really excited to read this and it didn’t disappoint. Yet again Hunter has used a unique style, mixing up the narrative with media and statements and evidence. It also jumps back and forth which gives great insight and detail. I particularly liked DI Fawleys character, and the fact we learnt quite a bit about him. A really strong detective series and I can’t wait for the next instalment.

For a detective story this seemed to be too simple but it turns out to be the opposite. Cara Hunter takes us to the university town of Oxford for this extreme case of of abduction. She starts out with what appears to be and straight forward abduction of a young female but as the case develops the detectives have to revise their thinking and find other suspects as the main suspect is increasingly bring ruled out. Excellent twist and turns build the excitement and catch out some of the detectives into displaying their weaknesses. In the main it is fairly fast moving and exciting however once or twice it gets a bit bogged down in mostly unimportant detail. Well worth a read.

Murder thriller with endless twists

This is the sort of book I basically dread – a young woman and a two-year-old child are discovered locked in a cellar starving to death, bringing back memories of Joseph Fritzl. Another body gruesomely murdered is found in the woodshed. These are horrible events, but luckily this story is so brilliantly written, with so many unexpected twists and turns, I remained gripped and found I couldn’t put it down.

Once the young woman and child are discovered in the cellar, DI Adam Fawley and his team have the difficult task of trying to find out how she came to be there. The obvious suspect, the owner of the house, is a very frail and confused old man suffering from Alzheimer’s and is of very little help. Adam Fawley quickly links this to another case, a woman who disappeared from the house at the bottom of the man’s garden two years previously. When her body is discovered in the woodshed, the hunt is on for the killer, or killers. The distressing scenes are not gratuitous but always relevant to the storyline, and it is so ingeniously put together we are kept guessing as to which of the many suspects is guilty, right to the very end.

This is the second of the DI Fawley books, and hopefully, there will be more. He is likeable and well-drawn with his fair share of personal problems. Part of the story is written in first person narrative by Fawley, and there is the third person for the rest, along with reports, interviews and emails. The story is set in Oxford, a city which never fails to provide an interesting background for detective series.

This web of lies and deceit is extremely well written, and I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Jane

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

Oh this is a fantastic book. Much more than your average murder mystery. There seems to be 2 crimes running concurrently when a girl and her young son are found locked in a cellar of an old house. The house is owned by an elderly man with Alzheimers. A few days later a body is discovered at the bottom of the garden. Could the 2 crimes be linked and could the murder be associated with the disappearance of a local lady 2 years before?

It was great to be back with the police team led by DI Adam Fawley. This is a different book to Cara Hunter's first novel, Close to Home but no less brilliant.

4 stars - a brilliant thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. Cara Hunter has created some great characters in this series, displaying real emotion but still able to keep it sympathetic which is something that is very hard to do. I loved reading about Adam and how his team solve this crime, and I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. I was truly led down the garden path with this book.

The plot was well thought out, and there were a couple of times where I thought "well, what about..." only for a character to cover it a few pages later. The fact that the reader was able to be one step ahead of the detective until the end was done well and didn't last too long and it was good to see the thought processes around the solving of the crime. I also thought the ending was phenomenal and gave me real chills when I put the book down, so much so I had to wait until this morning to pick up my next read.

My only issue with this book is the amount of graphic detail we get, especially at the end when the big reveal is happening. It isn't plesent to read and should carry a number of trigger warnings. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read another by this author.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Having read and enjoyed Cara Hunter’s Close to Home earlier this year, I was delighted to pick up In The Dark, the second DI Adam Fawley thriller. Despite being second in a series, In The Dark works just as well as a standalone thriller, but I would definitely advise you to grab Close to Home if you can.

It’s really difficult to give an in depth review of this book without revealing some of the details of the riveting and twist-filled plot, but I shall definitely try as it really is a masterclass in keeping the reader guessing.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the police procedural format had nowhere else to go, as it has be used so many times but Cara Hunter is able to inject a freshness into it with engaging characters led by a flawed DI whose personal issues occasionally bubble to the surface. There is a diverse cross-section of officers and detectives, which is in keeping with a modern police force, and it’s great to see glimpses of their personal lives too as they work together – sometimes with a lot of friction – to find out what happened to the girl and the child.

The plot itself is really clever, leading you to assume many things about what is going on before peeling each of your assumptions away to get to the truth of the case and I guarantee you, your jaw will drop come the end of the book.

The style of the book is definitely to my taste, using news reports, transcripts of police interviews and Twitter comments to provide background on the case – the Twitter comments I feel act like a Greek chorus in a way, attempting to sway the reader into a certain way of thinking. It’s a clever device to use and is in keeping with our social media age.

As I said before, I enjoyed Close to Home, and am looking forward to picking up book 3 in the series soon – Cara Hunter is definitely an author to watch and I’m excited to see more twisty plots from her!

A young girl is found trapped in a cellar with her baby but the kidnapper seems unaware of her existence or much of anything. The case is then linked to a missing persons case. Can D.I Fawley figure out how they're connected and the truth about what really happened.

Wow are there some twists in this story. I really enjoyed this and loved the twists. I picked up on a couple of them but not all. The ending was good and really clever. The plot begins quite steadily but it soon builds to a brilliant ending. I read a lot if this type of story so it's always good to find one that I can't figure out right away.

There's many characters in this so we don't learn a huge amount about them but there's some interesting back stories that are built up. I haven't read the first in the series but I shall now and I hope there are more to follow. A Brilliant thriller with many twists.

I reviewed Close to Home, the first book in the D.I. Adam Fawley series by Cara Hunter in January this year. I was intrigued by the character of Adam Fawley and eager to catch up with him in the second book in the series. In the Dark works fine as a stand-alone, and if anything it is even stronger than its predecessor.

Hunter’s trade mark style of using newspaper articles, interviews, forensic reports and social media commentary alongside the police procedural narrative really brings this story alive and adds to the feeling of authenticity in the plot.

In the Dark is a well structured, complex police procedural which involves a plethora of crimes from murder to kidnapping and false imprisonment.

An emaciated woman and a child are found in the basement of an old house belonging to William Harper, a retired academic in his seventies. Fawley and his team; DS Gareth Quinn, DC Chris Gislingham and PC Erica Somer investigate, but the information they have is woefully incomplete. The emaciated woman is completely traumatised and unable to speak; the child is far too young and William Harper, as prime suspect, seems to have a convenient case of Alzheimers.

As the story develops, we learn that nothing is quite what it seems. Hunter leads us up and down a twisted path and just when you think you are getting somewhere, introduces a dead body into the equation, turning the reader’s expectations on their head and ensuring that a full scale murder enquiry is launched.

In this book we learn a little more about Adam Fawley’s backstory and are introduced to his team who are all convincing characters. Fawley himself is a clever and methodical policeman but struggles in his personal life and a devastating incident which has left him and his wife with a bleak hole in their relationship.

Beautifully plotted, cleverly structured and with a twisting, tense and propulsive action, this is a book that keeps you guessing to the very end.

Verdict: Suspenseful, thrilling, clever and utterly riveting.

What a cracking read! Cara Hunter kept me guessing throughout. Just as I thought I had it all worked out: bam! Wrong again. I found the character of D.I. Fawley intriguing - intelligent and compassionate. The back story of his own sorrow was almost as fascinating as the main plot,. I had to go back to read the first book in the series, Close To Home, having missed it when it was first released.
Delighted to see another installment coming at the end of the year.
Thank you NetGalley and congratulations Cara Hunter .

So I have to say I was wrong. I said that the first book in the series was going to be the book of 2018 however I think this is. As with the first book there are twists and turns that leave you guessing and this is again a real page turner that has you gripped form the start. As with any book like this saying too much will give the game away but I think it is safe to say that Cara Hunter will be the next big British Crime Writer.

I loved the first in this series, Close To Home, so had high hopes for the second, In The Dark - and it certainly didn't let me down!

What started out as a powerful and well-written series has only been reinforced with In The Dark - this novel builds on some great characters and offers up an exciting, complex-but-not-too-complex plot. It's bloody brilliant!

Firstly, as I mentioned, the characters are just great. I enjoyed reading more about Fawley, Quinn, Somer - everyone! There are some flawed characters, including less-than-perfect police officers, so they felt like real people. I really felt for Adam Fawley at times, and am glad we get to see a good portion of the book through his own eyes.

The plot completely sucked me in and kept me intrigued at just the right pace. There's mystery, character-building, and tension in spades, and some truly messed up occurences! 

With plenty of twists peppered into a plot that slowly reveals more and more, this is addictive reading and bound to be high on the list for any seasoned (or new) crime fan. Give it a go (but if you haven't read Close To Home, I say start there and relish having not one but two novels in this series to read!)