This book was so unique and unlike anything I had ever read before, which made it SO fun to follow along with!
It was a little difficult to read as an ebook just because flipping between pages and revisiting information is a little more difficult but I really enjoyed it!

Great book! An easy read and easy to follow along. Reading this one would think they are reading a True Crime novel, not a fictional mystery/thriller.

This is a good book. Has a unique written format. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading. It is a great storyline, and I recommend it based on that.

Read this on vaca and it was a great beach read. Fast paced and enjoyed the multi media format. Overall felt fairly surface level and the big reveal at the end wasn’t that surprising.

This was not for me. The story was kinda slow and I couldn't connect with the characters at all. I was hoping for something different

I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

Murder in the Family

Interesting. Lots of twists and turns. This felt more of a murder mystery than thriller it was definitely shocking and interesting especially as things started to really unfold but there were a lot of characters and timelines for listening to the audio it was hard to follow. Also, I’m not sure exactly who did what at the end. So I finished being almost just as confused about it all as I did from the beginning. I think if I read the physical book my opinion may be different. I thought how the story played out was intriguing and I loved how each character ended up being involved in some aspect of the case.

Thank you Author, Netgalley & William Morrow Paperbacks for sharing the ARC in exchange for honest review.

A twisty decades old unsolved murder mystery is opened again by one of the family member and is approached uniquely to help find answers via documentary!
Experts in various disciplines roped in who dig back into the case and give it new perspectives, trying to place the pieces of the puzzle to solve it after decades. With excerpts of interviews, dramatization of what transpired, BTS interactions, newspaper articles, online interactions from audiences watching the episodes narrates the entire story with big reveals & twists in a Netflix Documentary styled book !
While this is definitely unique style of storytelling I found it difficult to get into and enjoy it . It’s literally like reading a written version of a crime documentary you would watch . I like watching them but reading each interpretation of something that’s visually engaging was hard to read .
The remaining of story is like any crime story with new revelations and theories to a past crime and shocking conclusions.

While I can definitely see a section of readers enjoying this book , it personally did not work for me. But I liked trying to read something different and kudos to the author for presenting a crime thriller this way .

It’s a 3 / 5 ⭐️ read for me .

Murder in the Family is a modern twist on a classic murder mystery. We follow a true crime show in episodes as they film and broadcast this season of Infamous. This season focuses on the murder of Luke Ryder that has been unsolved for 20 years. I really liked this authors use of unconventional writing. Instead of chapters we get 'episodes' and we're also given different text messages, newspaper articles, emails, and more. We see the story unfold mostly through the scripts of these episodes. The author also brings up the controversy around the genre of true crime as a whole. I really enjoyed getting a classic whodunnit repackaged in a new and exciting way.


Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Did not finish - this is definitely not a title that is conducive to e-format. I wanted to love this - truly, I did - but I think I'll need to get the print copy in order to fully enjoy it.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter is great fun to read. The format of the book is a transcript from a TV show about a murder that took place years before. The step son of the victim has decided to make a documentary/true crime show investigating the murder of his stepfather when he was a child. It took me just a little bit to get into reading that format but once I did, the story took off. If you enjoy shows like Dateline or true crime podcasts this is definitely your book. The layout of the story made it enjoyable to read and everything was explained in great detail. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author, for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was a bit hard to follow due to the format, I wanted to get lost in the story and the author is a very talented storyteller, just this time I was not a fan of this book.

The following is my review as posted on Goodreads and Instagram @brews4books:

I am thankful that the publishers provided me with an advanced copy of this book to read and review. This book is truly unlike anything I have ever read before. It is a fictional “true crime” story about a young, aspiring filmmaker who is directing a television series about the unsolved murder of his stepfather that occurred when he was only 10 years old. The format of the book is written as a screenplay or script, with all of the different investigative team members speaking on camera during taping, with asides that describe reconstruction videos, home video footage, photographs, and interviews with witnesses and suspects. Also included are newspaper articles, text messages, voicemail messages, e-mails, and online discussion forums. As each episode “airs” more connections are made and the plot thickens. I thought this was really clever and my guess for “whodunnit” kept changing with each episode. While I wasn’t completely shocked with the ending, I thought the way it led up to the reveal was really interesting! It was slightly awkward reading on my Kindle because of the images. I would recommend checking it out in print version if you are intrigued and interested in reading it!

OH MY!! What an all around mind-blowing, unputdownable, addicting book!! It kept me guessing as I turned the pages. I need to read other books by this author. I will say the format took a second to get used to but once I did I was hooked.

Murder in the Family is a mystery/thriller unlike any I’ve ever read before. Though it’s a novel, it also reads as a promotional packet/transcription of a true crime documentary. I was unsure of how that would work, but it does. If you’re a documentary watcher, I think you’ll latch onto the clues embedded in the story. My only complaint was that the one American character, Bill Serafini, didn’t really sound like an American. Unique and hard to put down, this was an absolutely enjoyable murder-mystery with a lot of twists!

What a fun concept for a book! I buddy-read this with another NetGalley fan and we loved going back and forth discussing the story and who we suspected. This would be a great book to read with a group or book club with a continued discussion during the reading. The writing is slightly harder to get into due to the format and text or conversation exchanges but the content is where it's at! I have a feeling this one is going to be pretty popular due to the uniqueness and fun concept. Thanks for allowing me to pre-read!

Great concept, not so great execution. I love the mixed media format of this book but started to find it redundant around the 75% mark. The plot was not particularly interesting to me and there were WAY too many characters to keep track of. I think with a different plot and less characters/complicated subplots, this story could have been great. I'm hopeful that this style of story becomes more popular as it is a lot of fun.

I know a lot of people have loved this book but it was only a like for me. I liked the format and the twists. I felt like it did move a little too slow in the first half.

I absolutely loved Murder in the Family. Hunter expertly plots and uses a script format to deliver the story like a true crime documentary - think The Staircase. It’s a visual book and I highly recommend reading a physical copy if available. I read it on my Kindle and ended up taking photos of pages because I kept going back and forth to double check my theories (I am sure there is a better way to do this but I am #old).

Once the plot started twisting and turning, I was in my amateur detective mode trying to solve the case. This was a standout 2023 read for me!

Thank you William Morrow, Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for the gifted copy to read and review.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley

This book really did not grab me like some do. You have people sitting around talking about how to solve a current cold case. It was kind of convoluted and confusing at parts and I had to force myself to finish it.