The Whole Truth - Cara Hunter

(Even though this is the fifth book in a series it can definitely be read as a stand alone, and there is even a recap section at the beginning of the book if you did want a little round up of all the main characters.)

The story is fast paced and gripping, you will want to devour it in the one sitting. I am now tempted to go back and read the others books that I have missed!

I’d like to thank Penguin General UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Whole Truth’ by Cara Hunter in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Student Caleb Morgan from the Edith Launceleve College has reported Professor Marina Fisher to the police for inappropriate physical attention towards himself. Meanwhile, Gavin Parrie, the ‘Roadside Rapist’, is being released from prison after eighteen years and threatens revenge against DI Adam Fawley and his wife Alex for what he believes were lies they told to the jury to get him locked up.

‘The Whole Truth’ is the latest in the DI Adam Fawley series and with the social media and mobile text messaging together with in-depth interviews it felt more like an actual police investigation than a fictional thriller. The two separate investigations merged nicely into the fabric of the story and with the drama, tension and twists and turns I was kept guessing throughout. This is a tremendously enjoyable thriller by a very talented author who brings excitement and suspense to every novel and I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it.

The Whole Truth is the fifth book in the Adam Fawley series. I’ve read all four of the previous books in the series and loved them all and this one didn’t disappoint either.

The Whole Truth follows two separate cases. The first follows a case where a student claims to have been sexually abused by a tutor, and the second follows a murder case which has connections to both DI Fawley and his wife Alex.

The first half of the book slowly sets the scene of both cases and the second half goes full speed into revealing plot twists that you just don’t see coming. There were moments where I thought I know what was about to come but I was so wrong, Cara has definitely included some red herrings in this one.

I’ve been a fan of Cara’s writing style from the very first book and have always liked the inclusion of the interview transcripts and different multimedia throughout the book and was glad to see that she included them in this book too. I know a few writers have started doing this in their novels but I still think Cara does them the best, as she manages to make them follow with the rest of the book and they never feel out of place.

I may be biased but I loved all the characters, especially the main ones that have been with us from the beginning. They are well done and continue to be developed as the series progresses. I really liked the side characters in this book too. I feel they were better done and they actually all seemed to have a part to play in the storyline rather than just appearing in the background for the sake of adding characters and bulking out the book.

Even though this is the fifth book in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone. And if you’re worried about not knowing the characters don’t worry as there is a quick summary of the main characters in the series at the beginning, which gives just enough information about the characters. I loved this and think more writers need to include something similar in their book series, as it’s super helpful, especially if you have to wait a while to read the next book a series.

I really enjoyed this one and can’t wait for the next book. Also, can’t wait for the series to be made into a TV series, which I hope will be coming soon.

If you’re looking for a fast paced, well written Police procedural thriller, thin I definitely recommend this book and all the previous books in the series.

Before picking up this book please beware there may be some triggers which some people may find difficult to read. I have listed just some of the ones I found.

• Rape/Sexual abuse
• Violence
• Murder
• References to suicide

I would like to thank Penguin Random House for inviting me to read and review and to NetGalley for my eARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

A great book and great topic, we always assume that a man would be the protagonist and turning it on its head with a woman and then the turns of the story to get to the bottom of what has happened when all is not what it seems. It kept me engaged and needed to know how it would all end.

This was only the second Cara Hunter book that I've read and it turned out to be even better than the first one I read!

It was really well written with plenty of little threads that you weren't sure about whether they would fit together, but they did and sometimes in surprising ways.

I loved the addition of tweets, police reports, and news articles which were very effectively used and added to the story.

DI Fawley was a really likeable character and you really found yourself rooting for him. At one point in the book, (and without giving anything away) he really needed that too!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin and Cara Hunter for the chance to read this book.

The Whole Truth truth by Cara Hunter

This book is 5th in the DI Fawley series which I was not aware of before picking it. In this one, DI Fawley and his team are investigating a sexual assault. They receive a report of an unusual sexual abuse from an Oxford student. Unusual because the predator is a highly accomplished female Professor and the victim a 6-foot tall male rugby player.
DI Fawley wants to get to the bottom of the investigation but there is someone else who is watching and planning something different for him.
Will DI Fawley remain as DI for much longer?
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I had no clue what happened in the last four series but the book has all the details in the start regarding all the characters of the series. Plus the story is set up in a way that I didn't have any problem in understanding the storyline.
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I enjoyed the book. The book was gripping from start till the end. As a crazy thriller lover What I really loved about this book was that it has two mysteries to solve which are running in parallel. It was a double treat for me.
The thing I loved about the author's writing style is that she uses different mediums to tell the story like podcasts, WhatsApp chat, emails, screenshots of conversations, police reports etc. I felt that I am actually watching a show on Netflix.
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This is my first book of the series and not the last one, I am definitely going to read the earlier ones and will be waiting for the coming ones too.
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⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have been really looking forward to reading this fifth book in Cara Hunter’s DI Fawley series. I received it a while back from NetGalley but needed to familiarise myself with the main players again before diving in.
However, I have found myself somewhat disappointed; it took me ages to get into the book as it just felt disjointed and slow. The beginning covers a myriad of characters but doesn’t seem to have enough of a hook to keep you interested. All of the other books in the series have had you on the edge of your seat from the beginning. This one felt like it was setting the stage for far too long.
When we do finally have an investigation to delve into, it is far from thrilling. I am not diminishing the subject matter at all, please don’t get me wrong on this, but it all appeared to be based on not very much. For a crime novel, I want to be drawn in with the horror of crimes; this just wasn’t doing it. I want to be shocked, appalled and horrified by the gruesomeness the author has come up with but this just felt lethargic and lackadaisical. I wasn’t really interested in the investigation at all. I remember my husband contacting the author after one of the first books in the series, telling her she had a warped mind. This was certainly not evident in this storyline. Controversial maybe but not thrilling.
The main story is interspersed with snippets of a past crime that has been mentioned in the previous books that Fawley and his wife were involved with. We are given this in the form of a podcast looking into the background of the crime. This felt very disconnected from the main story and almost felt like I was reading two books simultaneously. This does become relevant as the story goes on, but at the same time, it made the other storyline even more redundant.
I usually enjoy the Twitter feeds, and news articles of Hunter’s books but the ones inserted into this story didn’t really bring much to the table. They just seemed to be there for the sake of it, and I don’t think there was enough of them. The unique take on a novel that Hunter deploys is there being no chapters. However, we just seemed to jump from character to character and had nothing of the usual tidbits to keep us interested.
The character development was overdone. There were whole sections just on the police team and their personal lives, but again this didn’t really lend much to the story.
To say I am gutted would be an understatement. The only reason I persevered with the book is due to so many rave reviews and a sort of loyalty to the author. However, if it hadn’t have been a ‘Cara Hunter’ book, I would have discarded it about 15% of the way in, and it would have been put on the DNF pile. However, she’s never done me wrong before, and so I persevered. Was it worth it?
It was worth it as the book really does pick up the pace at around the half-way mark. However, the book’s beginning had left a bad taste in my mouth, which hindered me from thoroughly enjoying the book’s conclusion and the book as a whole.
The ending isn’t a surprise; there was no real shock factor. The way the story had been set up ensured that the way it was going was very obvious. The initial investigation is almost forgotten about once another storyline takes over, but then is shoehorned back in to make sure we get all the answers. However, at that point, I didn’t really care about the outcome of that! The epilogue seemed pointless as it wasn’t really what we wanted extra on. As many have said the ending felt very rushed and I agree with this, the epilogue would have been better off serving the storyline that had been more prevalent throughout the book and giving us a little bit of closure from Fawley’s point of view.
The book does seem to be a lot better structured once the story itself starts to flow. The beginning was over descriptive like I say it was setting up the scenes for far too long. However, the end abandoned the over wordiness for the sake of moving the story on at a much quicker pace. The interviews and the podcast became more relevant. However, I would have still liked more Twitter feeds, news articles and comments than there were.
Overall, this was a very disappointing experience, and I am devastated as I’ve enjoyed all of the other books in the series and I’d really looked forward to this one. I’ve championed this author, and I am really upset that I haven’t enjoyed this as much as I’m sure she intended it to be. I’m going to have to think hard whether it is worth persevering with this series or whether this was just a filler book, leading to more exciting stories or not.

Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my reviews visit www.pinkanddizzy.com

Firstly, I’d like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

This is the first book involving Adam Fawley that I have read. Didn’t realise that it was the latest in a series. However, I thought it was a good stand alone book. There were a couple of plots going on – the first involving a University Professor and her sexual assault on one of her students, the other involving Adam Fawley himself, who is accused of murder. The subsequent investigations make for an exciting read.

The book had all the ingredients of a good thriller, and I enjoyed it.

I knew I would enjoy this book, I’ve enjoyed all Cara Hunters books so far.
There’s something captivating and enthralling by the way she writes.

The story starts with a case of he said/ she said. Only the he is a university student and the she is a university lecturer top in her field.
Did the professor abuse her position of power?

Alongside that is the story of Gavin Parrie, also known as the Roadside Rapist who has been released from prison, on tag. His former victim Alex Fawley, wife of DI Adam Fawley; is nervous to the point of paranoia of a revenge attack.

Emma an old friend of Alex needs some help, she’s worried she had stalker.

There’s plenty in this book to keep you gripped, and as always I always enjoy a procedural novel.
I like the style of book, how it introduces a modern take with social media inserts.
The characters, I’ve grown fond of.. even someone a suave as DC Quinn.

I did however lose a bit of faith in the ending - not totally though. It wouldn’t stop me from buying any more of her books

As with all Cara’s books I read these very quickly, I enjoy reading them and always find them a pleasure.

Definitely a recommendation from me.

Thanks Netgalley for my free Arc copy in return for an honest review!

Firstly when I received this book from Netgalley I didn't realise that it was number 5 in the DI Fawley series. This did not matter as the author had the genius idea to recap the characters in the first couple of pages as a reminder for those who had read the first books and for those of us who were new readers.

Secondly the blurb outlined on the book that drew me in turned into so much more and I was hooked. Sexual abuse, murder and wrongful convictions with plenty of twists and turns.

Thirdly the format was brilliant. The narrative goes from diary to social media to police interview to podcast. This along with the great storyline had me gripped from the start. A real page turner that I couldn't put down, to the point where I forgot I hadn't read the previous books. It worked really well as a stand alone but even so I will definitely be going back and starting from the beginning.

Highly recommended 5 stars.

This is the first of the Adam Fawley series I’ve read and I’ve undoubtedly missed out not discovering them before. I really appreciated the overview of characters at the start as it helped me understand the dynamics of the main character but in honesty I found the storyline had me hooked in no time so it was a bonus rather than necessity. I liked the different formats of writing such as shots of text messages here and there and the short sections of writing switching between one character and part of the story to another made it a pacy read and the two different storylines running on the theme of revenge both worked incredibly well. I raced through this, I was definitely a one sitting read, very well thought out and the end sent a shiver down my spine.

Ohhhh this is good! Cara Hunter is a seriously good writer and the Adam Fawley series is excellent! This one brings together two cases, a sexual assault accusation and a continuation of the Roadside Rapist case. Very cleverly written. Adam Fawley's backstory is very interesting and it unravels slowly throughout the series, so although I have read and loved all of these books I would like to back and reread them with the knowledge that I have now!
This is not a criticism of the book but probably the formatting of the ebook - the inserts showing transcripts such as the pod casts, press releases, police notes and private letters - these are too small to read. I have to enlarge the font on the kindle as it is but these inserts can't be read even using a magnifying glass so I would ask that they could be formatted in the same way as the book so us oldies with bad eyes could read them! In a book I would imagine they could be read no bother but they can't be enlarged on a kindle. Anyway, minor point, this book is yet another cracker from Cara Hunter!

This book! Holy moly. I adored it. I haven't read any of the other books in the series, so was unfamiliar with the characters and their history. Admittedly, I was immediately put off by the character breakdowns at the start of the book, but don't let this deter because I do think it helped provide some background which would have been provided in the other books. Honestly I feel like I need to go and read the rest now, I loved it. Such a wonderful level of tension and suspense the whole way through.

I found this to be an interesting read with well-developed characters. It wasn't a page turner and it didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat, however it was an enjoyable read which I would recommend. My thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

A very engaging read. So much so that I read it within 24 hours. DI Adam Fawley and his team are asked to investigate an allegation of a Professor sexually harassing a student. The complication is that the professor is a woman and the student is a strapping man. They have to abandon all preconceptions and stereotypes to investigate. At the same time Adam is trying to provide extra support to his wife Alex, who is heavily pregnant. She is on edge as the man who raped her many years before is out of prison nad had promised revenge.. Then the team are called to a suspicious death and things start really hotting up.
This was very quick paced and although you knew who was responsible, it was the how that was the issue.
An engaging read.

I have read all of Cara Hunter's books to date, and I have always enjoyed them. I have always found them to be classic thriller page-turners. However, I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. I found it incredibly slow paced, and I didn't find the plot as creative and original as Hunter's previous books.

I'm really disappointed as this book just seems a real drastic change from all of Cara Hunter's previous books. It wasn't exciting. It was dull.
I'm genuinely gutted. Gutted! I really don't know if I will read anymore of the Adam Fawley series of books (if there are anymore)

Thank you very much #NetGalley and Penguin for a #gifted copy of this ebook in exchange of my opinion.

The Whole Truth is that Cara Hunter is the Queen of thriller and mystery books.

I have read many, many thrillers, suspense, mystery and crime books and no one does it like her.

She does have something special, something different that make her books so engrossing and addictive that you won’t be able to stop turning pages until you are done with it. And, even then, you’ll want more!

This is the fifth book in the DI Adam Fawley and, although my favourite so far is “In The Dark” (The second one), this one is real good too!

I really liked the two storylines in The Whole Truth. I liked the one about the sexual assault made by a professor to her student. I liked how they were all lying about what had happened, how, at some point, I didn’t even know what to believe or who to believe anymore, and I also liked to find out the truth about it.

But I think I enjoyed the one about this lady who was found murdered and all the crazy events that comes from that a little bit more! Just because of who is involved in it!

Like always, the WhatsApp conversations, the press articles, the police interrogations and every little bit piece that Cara Hunter managed, somehow, to put into this book, made this the best first read of 2021 that I could read.

AMAZING.

The latest in the DI Fawley series set in Oxford. A male student accuses his female tutor of sexual assault and then a friend of DI Fawleys wife is found murdered and the detective becomes the main suspect. A competent police procedural, a well written assemble of characters and a satisfying read.

The “Whole Truth” is the 5th book in the D.I Adam Fawley series. I have to say this is one of my favourite authors and I just love this series!!

D.I Adam Fawley and his team are investigating a sexual abuse case regarding a professor and student. I love how the police and myself presumed it was a man abusing a young lady and no it was the other way around!!

The second investigation is an old case from 1998. Gavin Parrie named the “Roadside Rapist” has been released from prison. He is adamant that he has been set up and wants revenge!! This is a personal case for Adam as he worked the original and Alex who is now his wife was the key witness.

A gripping read with characters that I’ve come to love through this wonderful series. The twists will keep you guessing!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

I found this to be a thoroughly good, interesting read with well developed characters. For me, personally it wasn't a page turner nor did it keep me on the edge of my seat but overall it was an enjoyable read which I would recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this book.