would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

yes cara hunter is back with her second book and its a page turner, this story grips you and it doesnt let you go until you read the last page...what a thriller of a ride it was

so many twists and turns its mind blowing, it starts with a young girl found in a cellar where she was trapped and from there you are just gripped at how the storyline continues...

cara hunter is fast becoming one of my all time favourite authors...

My first Cara Hunter book and definitely won’t be the last. I really enjoyed this and the format it’s written in, with the insight into the interviews he police carried out etc. The story was a great one and I have to admit I didn’t see the final twist coming with the two girls being sisters and planning the whole thing. I now want to learn more about Adam Fawley so am off to read the first book!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Wow, Hunter has once again created an amazing book! Her last book, ‘Close to Home’, had me hooked from the first page and became my favourite book for 2017. This book is equally as amazing! From the first page, I was hooked, with each chapter throwing another spanner in the works, just as I thought I had the mystery solved, or turning everything on its head completely.

A brilliant page-turner. I can’t wait to see what else Hunter writes!

A brilliant psychological novel. A young girl and a child are found alive in a man's basement.The man in question is elderly and has dementia. Taken to the hospital the girl will not acknowledge that she has a son in fact she struggles to talk at all. Her time in the cellar was presumed to be horrific. The girl is a Jane Doe until a notebook is found relating to her time in th cellar.
This really is a riveting read with twists and turns and a very unexpected ending. Well worth reading. A very hard to put down novel.

This is a gripping story of a young woman and her child who are found in the cellar of an old man who claims to know nothing about them.
The writing style is good and I particularly enjoyed the way the chapters were broken up by interview notes / emails / discussions that specifically related to the story.

It's an uncomfortable, horrifying read in parts, although, the likeable police detectives really help and it's got twists and turns a plenty.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK, Viking and Cara Hunter for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed Cara Hunter's first book called Close to Home and the start of the of the DI Adam Fawley series so was really looking forward to the follow up. Within the first couple of pages I knew I was hooked. There were lots of twists and turns which kept me gripped. The ending was quite a surprise and quite gruesome in some instances but needed to be told as part of the story. Another great story from Cara. I can't wait for the next one!

I LOVED 'Close to Home' by Cara Hunter so I was really looking forward to reading In The Dark. I thought it was really interesting title and I was definitely intrigued by the constant spins and turns of the story. I was not expecting the ending either so I was shocked when I came to the final page. The book left me with a strange feeling - I definitely enjoyed it but I don't think it can be compared to her first novel.

I can't wait to see what the author does in her next book!

I really struggled to come to terms with the way this book was written. Some in the first person, some third. Some just notes, interviews and TV or radio recordings. It was quite bizarre and took me a while to realise it was, in the main, being told by DI Adam Fawley. Because of this the story didn’t flow well which was a shame as I persevered and the story developed well and was in the end quite different and shocking. A girl and her child are found in the basement of a house occupied by an elderly, confused man. Has he kept them prisoner for several years and fathered the child? It seems obvious that this is the case, but is more going on than first appears? Although I guessed part of the plot, a significant part was well hidden and therefore a satisfying conclusion made up for the confusing style.

This book draws you in from the very beginning and twists and turns to the very end. Well told and keeps you guessing until the very end. All the characters are well developed with female police officers coming up with many of the ideas that lead to a final result. The well publicised Fritzl case is cleverly aligned with this fictional tale. An excellent follow up to Cara Hunter's first book in the Adam Fawley series, Close to Home.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Cara Hunter/Penguin Books for a digital copy of this excellent novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

Wow,what a rollercoaster of a book ! Adam Fawley and his team are back again and the story starts with finding a young girl and her toddler imprisoned in a cellar of an old house and from that moment the story gathers pace,twisting and turning red herrings thrown in until the very last chapter ,such an unexpected ending but so perfect !The characters are very real,I just loved this police procedural,psychological thriller. I would give 10 stars if I could .Many thanks the the Publisher,the Author and NetGalley for the review copy in return for an honest review.

In the dark sums up this story. I hadn't a clue where it was going. A very complex and deep story full of unexpected twists. A really enjoyable read.

Complex and believable characters in a plot that has more twists and turns than the Snake Pass over the Pennines.
A young woman and her baby discovered in a locked cellar, tragic circumstances. I knew from early on who the guilty person was but, hey, I was completely wrong! Need to read some more of this team from Oxford Police.

This is a darned good mix of psychological thriller and police procedural from Cara Hunter. I liked it much more than the first, which in my view was too far fetched, in the DI Adam Fawley series set in Oxford. A young woman and toddler are discovered locked in a cellar whilst the house next door is being renovated in a wealthy part of North Oxford. The woman, Vicky, and child are in a desperate state, starved, thirsty, cannot bear being with each other, and are too traumatised to speak for some time. The owner of the house they were imprisoned is owned by the querulous elderly dementia suffering Dr William Harper, the sole occupant, visited once a week for 15 minutes by his social worker, Derek Ross. What with his confusion and Vicky's silence, the police face a heartbreaking, complex and long running investigation to figure out what exactly happened. In a narrative interspersed with news reports, police interviews, social media comments and emails, we discover a truly twisted and complicated story, where it is best to take very little at face value.

To add to the enormity of the case, Harper's home is opposite the home of Hannah Gardiner, wife to Robert, mother to a small boy, local news reporter, who went missing two years ago. Fawley wonders if there is any connection to Harper, instigating an even deeper forensic examination of the house and grounds. A live in nanny to Robert Gardiner's son, Pippa Walker, implicates Robert in Hannah's disappearance, but can she be relied upon? Why did Hannah go out to the Cowley Road? In the meantime, Adam is still suffering from the grief of losing his beloved son, Jake, through suicide. His wife, Alex wants to move on, perhaps adopt, but Adam is not in a place where he can take this on, his emotions are just too raw. However, Alex insists on temporarily looking after Vicky's son, born whilst she was incarcerated, as Vicky shows no sign of wanting him. Adam agrees reluctantly, but wonders if Alex could cope when the boy is taken away from them. The police team working under Adam are hard working, although DS Gareth Quinn proves to be problematic, both to the case and other team members.

Cara Hunter writes a fast paced and compelling tale, that reveals shocking twist after twist. What seems so black and white at the beginning with the discovery of Vicky in the cellar becomes considerably more murkier, the city of dreaming spires harbours some very dark deeds. I find it difficult to get a real handle on Adam, he is such an able officer, weighed down by the burden of his family trauma, and whilst I like him, I feel he needs more development that needs to take place for him to feel more real to me. Hopefully the author is planning to do that in future additions to the series. Nevertheless, I found this an excellent novel, so entertaining and enthralling, highly recommended! Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

This book was very well written with numerous plot twists and overall it was truly disturbing. It will make you look over your shoulder when alone in your own home, question the motivation of others and otherwise unsettle you.

I would like to thank Penguin Books UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘In The Dark’, the second in the DI Adam Fawley series written by Cara Hunter, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
A house in Frampton Road is being renovated and when the owner goes into the cellar he finds that some of the wall has collapsed. He breaks away part of it and is shocked to discover a woman and child barely alive in the cellar of the adjoining property. The elderly owner of the adjoining house suffers from Alzeimers Disease and when arrested he claims he knows nothing about a woman being in his cellar. Can he be believed? Two years earlier Hannah Gardiner living in a house backing onto the house in Frampton Road was reported missing and her body never found. Could her disappearance be connected to the woman and child or should the investigation be kept separate?
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading a second novel about DI Adam Fawley and his team, including the newest recruit uniformed DC Erica Somer. It has a complex and well-executed plot, is fast-paced, full of suspense, and with so many twists and turns it’s difficult to know who’s responsible. I thought ‘Close To Home’ would take a lot of beating but ‘In the Dark’ is every bit as good. What makes it stand out is the way it’s been written as if it’s an actual police investigation with newspaper and TV reports, interviews, departmental emails and reports, rather than being fiction. Once started I found it impossible to stop reading and read the majority of the book in one sitting. It’s an enthralling and suspenseful police thriller and one I can thoroughly recommend.

This book was a real page-turner and I imagine it will be very popular reading, particularly for those interested in a Summer thriller. There were elements that were reminiscent of Emma Donoghue's "Room" and then I found a direct reference to that novel in this book, so there was an acknowledgement of that.

I do like a well-paced novel that keeps me guessing and keeps me changing my mind, but I personally felt there were too many twists in this one and that some of those twists were a bit beyond what I was willing to believe. That, coupled with some unrealistic dialogue at the finish, meant that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I might have done.

I'm sure this will be amended for the final print version, but there were a number of unfinished paragraphs which kept me wondering which words were missing.

Overall, a quick and easy read for those who enjoy a police procedural mystery, with plenty(!) of twists.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK, Viking and Cara Hunter for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent read. A real page turner, keeps you guessing to the end. The characters were very believable.

Brilliant read. I am sitting in shock. This is a brilliantly written thriller with a twist that I did not expect at all. I was gripped from the start and kept reading. I read this book in one sitting. I was totally immersed in the story. I want to sit and read it again to try and work out how I missed the twist.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

It isn’t every time one can give an unequivocal five star rating for a detective thriller but this is one. In The Dark delivers thrills and spills without any dodgy technology, just good solid detective work and the wild card of human naivety. I could hardly put it down such was the pace and intrigue. The characters are realistic, the locations….well cellars are cellars and every city has the tired Victorian adjacent to the newly renovated, all very well described.

DS Quinn thinks he is in for a quiet day. How wrong he is when a builder knocks down an adjoining cellar wall and through a small space sees a face. On entering the next door house they find an old man with dementia and down in the cellar a young girl and a small boy.
The investigations begin and unravel a story that will keep you guessing as to what is happening and what has happened. Who is Vicky - the girl in the cellar? Another young woman went missing two years previously - is there a connection? Is the old man as senile as he says? And what about the small boy?