Member Reviews
When I was approved to review this book, I was so happy, particularly as I’d just finished No Way Out. I read All The Rage in a day and was so happy to be surrounded by familiar characters. The police procedural focus of these books is one of my favourite things, it’s so well done and makes the story feel even more satisfying.
I was really intrigued about how the story would tie together, as there were a lot of twists and turns, and I didn’t guess the ending. I think my main criticism is that there were maybe too many characters, sometimes I found myself checking back to work out who fitted in where. I really liked Faith, I thought she was a great character, and I loved her attitude.
I enjoyed the fact that there was a stronger focus on the police team as a whole, I loved finding out more about them, as well as learning more of DI Fawley’s backstory. While ultimately I preferred No Way Out (I’ve also just purchased the previous books in the DI Fawley series - yay!) this is still a really well-written crime story.
One thing I really like about the DI Fawley series is that although they do follow on and previous cases are referenced in the books, I think they can be read as standalone novels.
This book is the latest in the series to feature DI Adam Fawley and his team. I was late to the series, only beginning with the last one (No Way Out) but haven't had any problems with catching up.
In this novel, a girl is abducted in Oxford and DI Fawley is called in to investigate. The circumstances take Adam back to a crime he was involved in prosecuting back in 1999, one that has personal significance for him. When a second girl is abducted, the Oxford police are involved in a race against time to save the victim from a vicious and evil criminal.
It's not often that I read a book that I can't put down, but this was one. There was an interesting range of characters, a twisty plot and shifts in perspective that kept me reading. Recommended for those who love tense police procedurals, especially those with a focus on forensic investigations.
When teenager Faith Appleyard is abducted from the street, a plastic bag placed over her head, and cable ties used to tether her hands, she believes she’s going to die, but though she’s very badly beaten, luck is on her side that day, when sirens from a police car in the locality stop the abductor in their tracks. The strange thing is though, she won’t press charges. Now why is that? The next victim won’t be so lucky though, and so begins another complex but riveting case for DI Adam Fawley and his team.
This case is particularly difficult for Adam because the crimes appear to have the same M.O. as Gavin Parry, The Roadside Rapist, who has served 20 years for his offences, and Adam was the one who helped to convict him. Parry is now due for parole, but these new cases are so similar that it begs the question, was the right man convicted, because Parry has always maintained his innocence!
Dealing as it does with issues that are currently receiving media attention such as gender reassignment, the novel develops through changing scenes, told mainly from the points of view of DI Fawley and his team, each with their own loads to bear, problems in their home lives, weaknesses they wish they could redeem - imperfect.
Incredibly complex yet completely gripping, All The Rage keeps you reading because these are characters that you know, characters that you’ve met in real life. You don’t necessarily have to like them, indeed some of them are everything you hope you aren’t at times, but they come from normal everyday families that have similar aspirations to life and family that the average reader will have. That’s what makes this a winner - Cara Hunter is adept at getting into the minds of those intent on committing evil, and also of creating a claustrophobic atmosphere of family life - the stifling conformity and the worry of being a good parent, as well as being seen to be a good parent - protecting your kids from the bad things in life - sometimes though it’s just not enough! Cara Hunter has done it again - Unmissable!
Excellent story, keeping you on your toes as you the truth unfolds in a series of clever twists and turns. Will keep you guessing - often wrongly - right through to the very end.
So we are already into the fourth book in the DI Fawley series. Can’t even begin to tell you how desperate I’ve been to read this. I have to admit I’m not sure if this can be read as a standalone and would probably recommend that you have at least read the first couple of books in this series before reading this one.
All I can say about this story is that it is one twisted read. I kept thinking we were being taken down one road when it comes to the case that Fawley and his team are working on, only for it to go off down a totally different route. Not just the once either! I was kept on my toes with each shocking revelation. Even the ending has left me anxious to get my hands on the fifth in the series.
All The Rage is an edge of your seat read with twists and turns you won’t see coming. It had me going through an array of emotions but mainly, shock and horror with each revelation. It will certainly get the adrenaline coursing through your body, especially by the end. Am praying we don’t have long to wait for the next book.
My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penquin Books (UK) for the ARC.
This is #4 in the DI Adam Fowley series, and what a cracking read it is! I find it quite frankly mind-boggling how Cara Hunter manages to weave this complex plot, constantly leading the reader down blind alleys with red-herrings before dropping-in the twist to go off in another direction.
Faith Appleford, a beautiful and talented student, is encountered by a taxi driver one day mid-morning in Oxford; she is in a terrible state having suffered some kind of attack. However, she insists on being taken home. The driver informs the police, who begin investigating against Faith's and her mother's wishes.
A couple of days later Sasha Blackford, another beautiful and talented student, is reported missing. When her body is found the particular MO of her death matches the mode of Faith's abduction - which she finally revealed - only the attacker was disturbed and Faith came back. Why has Faith no social media presence since she moved to Oxford a year ago?
The problem for Adam Fowley and his DCI is that this particular MO matches-up with that of a convicted serial killer who has been locked up for 18 years and due to be considered for parole. A case review is initiated - a case to which Adam and his wife Sandy are inextricably linked. Could they really have locked up the wrong man, or are these copy-cat crimes?
This story has great characters and dialogue, is fast-paced, with an ingenious plot involving social media communications as well as dark-web message-boards.
DI Fowley shares his feelings and thoughts with us in the first person and, intermittently, we read the message-board strings as well as the trial transcripts being reviewed. Really interesting writing.
This is a tense, gritty crime thriller. Loved it!
Excellent read as always. This particularly series Is always gripping and I like the way you have a stand alone thriller but you have the background of the he main characters developing their own story.
Faith Is found wandering the step reefs dazed and distressed. She had been dragged off the street, a plastic bag put over her head, driven to an isolated area where she was subjected to an assault but she is refusing to press charges. DI Farley investigates but there is little he can do without Faiths co-operation. Is she hiding something and why does Fawley keep thinking that he has seen a case like this before? Then another girl disappears and Adam has no choice but to face up to his past. Until he does this victim may not be coming back.
How on earth have I never read anything by this author before? This was brilliant. It kept me reading and when I wasn’t it was all I could think about. The characters were well developed, some not so likeable but they all had a good part to play within the storyline. I didn’t realise this was the fourth book in a a series so I was worried I might have missed out on lots of previous information but I didn’t need to worry, even though I haven’t read anything by this author before, I didn’t feel like I had missed out at all! A truly gripping story which kept me turning the pages until the very end. I loved this book and now need to go and find more by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Penguin Books UK for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Cara Hunter is an excellent author. Her Adam Fawley series is one of the best police procedural books that I have read. Once again, with All the Rage, she has kept me guessing, unsuccessfully, till the last chapter. D.I. Fawley has secrets of his own and I can't wait to read the next book to see where this leads. His team are all brilliant characters and I would love to learn more about them too. I can't recommend this book highly enough, and I would definitely give it more stars if I could.
Thank you NetGalley and Cara Hunter for this amazing book.
Brilliant book edge of the seat. Twists and turns you think you have solved the mystery and then boom something else happens to make you change your mind
Although this is one in a series, it can be read as a stand alone police detective story, although, it’s definitely easier if you recognise the characters.
A young girl is snatched from the street, a plastic bag put over her head and she’s assaulted. What follows is the subsequent investigation. Why won’t she press charges? Each chapter is written from a different perspective and flows reasonably well. This book definitely required my full concentration. Not one to dip in and out of.
Overall, a good read, well constructed and with surprising twists.
3*
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview in exchange for my honest review.
This is the first book I have read by Cara Hunter, and think that my enjoyment may have been slightly dampened because I wasn't aware that this is the fourth book in a series, so I didn't have an easy intimacy with the characters themselves, the dynamics of the team or their shared history. There are a lot of characters to remember, and I did find it somewhat confusing at times.
The pace of the book is good, and the subject matter is full of current hot topics; bullying, social media, incels, transphobia and hate crimes, the current wave of true crime series on television and stalking. However, these are quite superficially mentioned, so when the truth about the crime emerges, what should have been truly shocking felt somewhat dulled.
I would recommend this to fans of the series
My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.
If you appreciate a very modern detective story that is full of twists, turns, truths, half-truths and downright lies then this is a book you will definitely enjoy. Would have started reading it earlier in the day if I had known how good it was going to be. Sadly, I started it late in the day and so could not finish it in one sitting, my loss but you know that this really is a "one sitting" book. Go buy it and make sure you make time for an uninterrupted read.
This is the fourth book in a detective series featuring Adam Crawley. I have not read the others, so some references were confusing, and the epilogue is obviously a lead in to the next book. These books are very popular but I do not like series novels or detective novels, especially ones concerning pointless murders and nasty characters. I got bored and skim-read most of it.
I raced through this book in one sitting! There were so many things I loved about this book: how Hunter gave light to the hate crimes that occur every day to trans women, how she managed to portray this without being offensive to trans women (in fact, I thought quite the opposite - Cara did a great job at giving a voice to Faith!), whilst also keeping up with an engaging plot that had me hooked. Thanks for an advanced copy, Net Galley, I can't wait to read the rest of Hunter's works!
Absolutely brilliant! I haven't read any other books in this series, but I will definitely look out for them. The story is clever, and completely believable, and I couldn't put this book down. I know Oxford well, and it is nice to read a book set in Oxford which treats it as just anther city, rather than a romantic place with dreaming spires. I also like the police characters, who seemed like a real team, rather than a group of mavericks. I will be recommending Cara Hunter's books.
A teenage girl is snatched from the street, a plastic bag placed over her head, pushed into a van, driven to a remote site and assaulted. She doesn't want to press charges and this is just the first of many questions in this intricate story. When a second girl goes missing, Adam Fawley must not only investigate this crime but must also look at a past case with very similar circumstances. Did he get the right man or not? More questions, more twists, and turns in a complex but compelling plot.
I didn't work it out until near the end because it was clever and this is the reason I kept reading, to find out the answers to all those questions.
However, each chapter incorporated several different characters and their POV. Adam Fawley was written as first person, present tense and this I liked. You get to know Adam and what's going on in his head. Other characters are in third person and the paragraphs are sometimes short, too short to really get into the scene or into the character. I got the impression that some scenes were short just to leave the reader with a cliff hanger and for no other reason. And there were so many characters, it's not just the police investigating the crime who are given a POV but also bit players who are important to the plot but I didn't need the scene from their POV, it just made it confusing. This was not a book I could pick up and put down because when I did it took a while to get back into who was who. In the end, I had to just keep reading and finish it, it was the only way to keep on top of all the names.
I realise now that this is number 4 in a series. If I'd read the others, then most of the names would probably be familiar to me and I wouldn't have felt quite so lost at times. It does work as a stand-alone, but it's hard work.
Having said that, the plot is excellent, I just wish I could have spent more time with fewer characters.
First and foremost, thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK Books for sending an eArc in exchange for an honest review.
This is a difficult one. Unlike the first two books in the series ( I haven't read the third ), the fourth instalment failed to engage me. Don't get me wrong, Cara Hunter's writing style never disappoints. I also love the format of this particular police procedural series. I've always appreciated the addition of newspaper reports, interview transcriptions and more. Also, the plot was clever and the story doesn't seem too rushed. It was an easy albeit slow read. However, it wasn't as thrilling and gripping as I've expected. The storyline was a tad difficult to follow.
Plus, there were too many characters for my liking, I got confused about who's who throughout the whole book. But I enjoyed reading from the different POVs / narratives. I loved Adam Fawley's character development in this one. Don't skip the other books. Otherwise, you'd miss it.
All in all, a great read still.
And that epilogue? Excuse me. I need the fifth book pronto.
Kudos, Cara Hunter for another great addition to the DI Fawley Adam series!
This was another fantastic instalment in the DI Adam fawley crime series set in Oxford.
I absolutely loved all three books in the series so far and this one was no exception.
I really love how multi media elements are used in this book series. They get more and more creative in each book.
I think the plot was really strong. I found myself constantly guessing as the story unfolded trying to figure the ending out, but I definitely didn't see it coming.
At times, it's not the easiest book to read. It's pretty graphic and definitely upsetting in places but there is also a sprinkling of humour which balances the book out well
There were lots of twists and turns, some of which were pretty shocking.
I cam not fault this series. If you like crime and you've not read this series (although they can be read as standalones) then you are missing out big time
TW: rape, sexual assault, murder and suicide
I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy of All the Rage, the fourth novel to feature DI Adam Fawley of the Thames Valley Police Force.
When teenager Faith Appleton is found wandering the streets it is obvious she has been attacked but with little to go on and an initially unwilling victim the investigation doesn’t get very far. When another teenager, Sasha Blackford, goes missing DI Fawley can’t help but see parallels to a past case.
I enjoyed All the Rage which is a tense procedural with a full plot and plenty of twists and turns. I have loved the previous novels in the series but this one I didn’t find quite so gripping so it has taken me days rather than hours to finish it. I don’t have a reason for this, except perhaps my mood, as it follows the same format, a first person narrative from Fawley intercut with third person narratives, mostly from the team rather than the “other side”, press releases, court transcripts, police interviews and social media screenshots giving the “man on the street” view. It is an interesting approach and certainly gives the reader a wider perspective on events, although mostly they add little but pressure to the investigation. Having said all that I found the last quarter of the novel gripping as that is where all the disparate parts come together in a rather shocking finale.
I think the plot is rather clever as it has, as its basis, several real life crimes melded together to make what would seem a fairly unbelievable scenario if you didn’t know (as a true crime documentary aficionado I recognised some of them, by the end, I should stress, not during the novel). I liked looking back with this knowledge to admire Ms Hunter’s skill at weaving them together but all through the novel I appreciated the bombshells she kept launching to keep the reader on their toes. I think where the novel falls down that these don’t always have the impact they should as they get lost in all the different points of view and bogged down in other details. I have no doubt that the novel accurately reflects a police investigation with its emphasis on detail and a myriad of false leads and theories but it’s not always enough to maintain attention.
The first person narrative by Adam Fawley brings a more personal note to the novel. His wife is pregnant again after their first son died and is suffering from stress and anxiety. Throughout the novel the reader is led to believe that this is due to the pregnancy but secrets have a way of getting out, so maybe there’s more to it.
All the Rage is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.