Absolutely nothing in this book is as it seems. As soon as you think you have the plot figured out, the author hits you from the left with another twist. This was a fantastic read, and I can't wait to read the next one.
Highly recommended.
TB

I listened to and read this book, absolutely brilliant, I had to finish the book at bedtime as I just had to know how it all worked out.
The story was as usual gritty,edge of your seat stuff x

Highly recommended in both forms.
Looking forward to the next story.

This is the first Cara Hunter book I've read so I was a little worried being part of a series that I'd not be able to connect to the storyline. I was wrong, at the very beginning you get a brief description of each main character and a little of their 'history' which I really appreciated, although I'd recommend reading a series in order this worked well as a stand alone.

I read this over two days wishing I didn't have other distractions so I could have read it in one! The story really kept my attention, throughout the book you're back and forth between two separate storylines one a sexual assault between a teacher and student the other with link to DI Fawley and his wife.

Pretty much every part of this book ends in some sort of cliffhanger, a sentence not quite informative enough, a piece of information that could sway the case.. it was really difficult to find the right place to put the book down!

I particularly enjoyed the teacher/student storyline. Professor Marina Fisher has been accused of sexual assaulting Caleb Morgan; one of her students who occasionally babysits for her 8yr old son Tobin, after a fundraiser Marina returns home and remembers nothing out of the ordinary about the night until police turn up at her house and arrest her for alleged sexual assault... However Caleb remembers everything! But a drawing by Tobin might be more than it seems?

Overall this is a great fast paced thriller with a more than a few twists. The office rivalry, extra information in form of podcasts, blogs and text.. really helped to add depth to the story. Cara Hunter has a great writing style and I can't wait to pick up another of her books.

Thank you #NetGalley and @Penguin for my #gifted Advanced readers copy of #TheWholeTruth

Called out to a college one weekend, the Oxford team are involved in an allegation of sexual assault - a world-renowned female professor and the son of a local MP. It's a case of he said / she said but maybe not so straightforward. Meanwhile the Roadside Rapist is out on parole and this is affecting Alex Fawley, former victim and the heavily pregnant wife of DI Adam Fawley, the man who put him away. Her longstanding friend has disappeared and is found dead and the accused is Adam Fawley, forensic evidence is strong but is this a set-up? Hunter's series of novels set in and around Oxford are a strong oeuvre, it's not all dreaming spires. Here the thread of the Roadside Rapist is brought to the fore alongside a topical #metoo #hetoo plotline. This is definitely an ensemble piece and works well because of that. Hunter writes pacy and twisty plots that are realistic enough for the cynical reader and this is a very strong police procedural.

My first Cara Hunter read, which I understand is the fifth book in the DI Adam Fawley series. Normally I would take 2-3 weeks to finish a book as I read other books at the same time. But I finished this book in less than a week. This says quite a lot about the sheer enjoyment I got from reading it. Although I’m not a big fan of police procedural novels, I found myself warming up to this novel, because intrigue and suspense is set in motion right from the start. This got me going until the end.

DI Adam Fawley is called in to investigate a sexual assault allegation brought by a graduate student against a college professor. But this isn't a garden-variety case. So Fawley and his team must handle it delicately.

Suddenly, not long after, Fawley is blindsided by an incident that is going to change his normal life as he knows it. He becomes a suspect himself in a murder investigation. And the case is being handled by another team that seems determined to make the murder charges stick on him.

The storyline has many twists and turns. Almost every chapter ends with some sort of a cliffhanger, which makes one want to read on to find what happens next. But there are some threads of the story that did not find closure. That’s probably deliberate on the author’s part.

I found this book entertaining and suspenseful with a good dollop of office politics and rivalry among the police team members.

I've received this free eARC from Netgalley and the publisher and I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

Gripping, heart stopping, fast paced, tense. The perfect thriller for curling up with. I could not put this down. Excellent story, Kept me guessing with a twist in the tale. Another best seller for Cara

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read before publication 10/10

I haven’t read the other books in this series and it was really helpful to have a brief description of each character at the beginning.

This book definitely held my interest throughout and despite a few annoying areas in particular the son of Marina Fisher, Tobin who is 8 nearly 9, my son who is the same age how Tobin talks and what he says are very immature this is explained and later in the book. I did enjoyed the book a great deal.

Reading on a kindle was difficult when it came to reading the text messages and notes but I got over it! I now want to read the others in the series as I’m now a Cara Hunter fan!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

The Whole Truth by Cara Hunter was a brilliant sequel to All the Rage. I do enjoy familiar characters and following their personal and professional development and Cara does this so well with DI Frawley and his team. I’m left wanting more. What’s going on with Erica for example? The character strengths and flaws are credible and engaging. The plot line is fascinating and the sexual allegations and interviews are well handled in the book. Good plot twists and realistic ambitions and grievances impacting on the players as they work to solve crimes. Another great five star read

I’m always excited by a new Cara Hunter novel coming out but this is the first time I liked the fact it had a recap of who is who at the start but I would say though if you haven’t already done so read the novels from before (this is book 5) as it will make understanding of the characters much better as there is quite a back story. This particular one has Detective Adam Fawley investigating a alleged sexual assault between a student and teacher, it uses a narrative between the characters and podcasts and hashtags showing the way crimes are now seen as trial by media in the 21st century, it is cleverly written with plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged. The epilogue at the end was a satisfying conclusion and excellent news that the rights have been given to making the series into a tv programme, I just hope they can live up to the novels.. I look forward to the next instalment.

I really enjoyed this latest Adam Fawley mystery. It challenges our preconceptions but it was hard to work out where the truth really lay. Great story with strong underlying questions and authentic characters.

I have to admit firstly that I have become a real fan of Cara Hunter’s books, so was very happy to be offered this one to review. I was not let down! This time our protagonist is the one in the spotlight, accused of the most appalling crime, whilst we also examine a tale of sexual assault. Who really is the perpetrator?
I loved this book and especially the epilogue.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin General UK for the ARC.

This is Book#5 in the Adam Fawley series. I've rather enjoyed them all. Adam has a really good team around him and the author continues with their individual back-stories so we know what's going on. Adam's wife Alex is now 35 weeks pregnant - and feeling it. He's worried about her. Not least because Gavin Parrie (The Roadside Killer) has been released from prison - both Adam and Alex know that he was guilty of rape and murder - but, he was convicted on a lie.

The story begins with DI Fawley's team being called in to an Oxford college to investigate a sexual assault. Caleb Morgan is accusing his supervisor, Professor Marina Fisher. The assault took place in her home where Caleb had been babysitting Tobin, her eight year old son, following a very successful fund-raising dinner for her department.

The narrative alternates between text messages, newspaper reports and a podcast being broadcast to show just how Parrie had been set up, as well as different points of view in interviews, interspersed with the actual ongoing investigation.

She said/he said - who's telling the truth - Marina or Caleb. As the investigation continues the team have to re-think their strategies and assumptions: does eight year old Tobin hold the key?

There are lots of twist in this story as Adam needs to understand what's going on but, despite being unwell, Alex starts to make connections after Adam is arrested for raping and killing her friend Emma.

I have to say, although I have enjoyed these books before, I did get rather bored with the interspersed re-writing of the Parrie case and the on-line posts, so am not going to rate it so highly.

The Whole Truth is the 5th book in the DI Adam Fawley series. This was my first taste of the series but it did work quite well as a standalone story so don’t let that put you off too much! I really liked that there is a table at the beginning containing information on the main characters including their physical appearance and anything about them we should already know from reading the other books. I have not seen this used before and it was a really nice way to get an overview of everyone and to stop some bits from becoming repetitive for those who have read the other books. I assume it is full of spoilers though so if you want to read the rest of the books, don’t start here first!

The main case in The Whole Truth was really intriguing – a story of sexual assault but the victim is a 6 foot rugby player and the perpetrator is a female college professor. I really liked this premise and it showed how hard it is to find the truth in these cases when a lot of it relies on he said/she said evidence. There are also another 2 cases within this story, both of which feature on our main character DI Fawley and I won’t give any spoilers but they were certainly very interesting! All of the cases have a plot which kept me gripped and guessing from the outset – I never once felt lost although they do take a lot of twists and turns and it was hard to guess where they were going which is great for a reader who often correctly guesses the conclusion mid-story.

Even with my handy little ‘who’s who’ guide, there are a lot of characters to get to know in this book – it becomes a little overwhelming at times. There are 7 main character police officers outlined at the beginning of the book, then 3 cases, each of which have their own victims, suspects, witnesses and family members, then each of the police officers also have their own personal stories in the mix too and we meet their partners and members of the family. I guess if you already knew the 7 officers very well from other books this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for you. I did feel sometimes that the secondary character’s personal lives were focussed on a little too much, particularly when the main stories were ramping up to their climax. I do understand that loyal readers may have favourites though and these also set up some good drama which I’m sure will be used in the next book.

The writing style of the book was also very different from crime thrillers I have read before. We have the usual 3rd person accounts of some characters, although as it rotates between 7 voices plus Adam’s wife and occasionally the victims so there’s a lot going on here! We also have a 1st person diary-like account from our main character Adam Fawley. This felt very odd although I’m not sure if that’s because it’s quite an usual narrative technique, particularly as the rest of it is in 3rd person. As Fawley is quite a central character in the other cases this also became a bit jarring as it sort of took away any doubt the reader may have about him as he doesn’t really come across as an unreliable narrator.

The book also has a lot of interspersed media text to break up the story and give us insight into the wider world. There’s transcripts of podcasts and police interviews, snippets from newspapers and threads from Twitter. These worked nicely to keep the pace up and often all of the sections would be kept very short and particularly at the end, cycled through quickly with just enough information to keep you hanging on for the next part. There are also a few images in the book – there’s a picture of a phone with a Whats App conversation on it for example, also a page from a notebook and medical and police reports. Unfortunately, on my Kindle Paperwhite these were so small they were unreadable, although I don’t think there’s too much on them that’s important to the story – I never felt like I missed too much from not reading them.

Overall The Whole Truth is a fast paced and intriguing crime thriller which keeps the genre fresh with it’s interesting writing style. Now that I have gotten to know the characters a little better I would certainly keep an eye out for the next one! Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin General UK – Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton and Viking for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've really loved all of Cara Hunter's D.I Adam Fawley books and this is no exception. As always, a hooking narrative drive throughout and an intelligently plotted structure with timely reveals.
What I really enjoy about these books is the creativity: there's the main story that is interjected with articles, interviews, media, reports, podcasts and many more modes of information gathering; these really work to drive the story and offer the reader with multiple perspectives.
Highly recommended, as are all the previous books.

How on earth did I not know about this author and why on earth had I not read anymore ?
This book is incredible. Read in two sittings.
Amazingly well written, great plot, twists a plenty and great characters
Already read more books so thank you not only for a fantastic read but introduction to a new favourite author - the only issue I have is I have to clear the decks to read them as I just cannot stop reading !

I’m a big fan of the DI Fawley Series and yes this could be read as a standalone but it is definitely worth reading the series in order as a lot of the storyline can carry over. I really like the fact if you have or haven’t read the others in the series you were given a quick introduction to the different characters. I was hooked from the first sentence. Loved the dual storylines and they were equally as intriguing as each other so one didn’t overpower the other. As always really likeable characters bar one or 2 but that goes without saying and adds to the story. The flow of the book worked really well and how the information was given to the reader. Would definitely recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read and review this audiobook that will be published on the 29th of April.

I really enjoyed this book and there were lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing. I love the way the book is written and I would highly recommend.

My first book by Cara Hunter although not the first of her books to follow DI Adam Fawley and his team. Helpfully there is an introduction to the characters at the start of the book, which means this book works as a stand-alone.

Throughout the book, there are interesting features, such as text message exchanges or scripts from podcasts, which I found fascinating adding depth to the story.

I found myself easily drawn into the investigation of an Oxford Professor and a student and the officers drawn into the enquiry. Quite quickly I found myself enjoying reading about an entirely different investigation and marvelling at how rapidly events can change. Two intricate but separate plots carefully intertwined, also reflecting back over a previous case. There was a lot to keep my brain working overtime as I puzzled along with the officers.
I found myself emotionally invested, not only with the investigations, but also with the personal stories of some of the team, each with their own quirks and loyalties.

The story had an ending, which effectively concludes most of the loose ends (apart from who phones the newspaper?) Overall I found it easy to get into and thoroughly enjoyable. Adding Cara Hunter to my growing list of authors to follow!

Excellent page-turner with many, many twists and turns. A worthy addition to Hunter's series of books about Adam Fawley, an Oxford detective, which continues events from previous novels, but can still be read as a stand-alone.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an ARC

I finished this at 4 in the morning so that should tell you how readable this book is! The phrase page-turner is one of the most overused in the book reviewing world but if this book doesn’t qualify for that accolade then I don’t know what does.

I’ve never read Cara Hunter before but with the ‘previously..’ section I was able to be brought up to speed with the main team before the story began. The characters were interesting, the storyline topical, and the pace fast and entertaining. It felt very much like I was watching it on tv so I am in no way surprised to hear it has been commission to be made into a series.

It was well executed to have two storylines bubble alongside each other, if the ending involving Fawley felt somewhat rushed.

Also, as a huge Morse fan, I was pleased to be surrounded by the spires of Oxford once again and enjoyed the various nods to this legendary fictional officer.

Although nothing to do with Hunter’s skill as a writer, my ‘enjoyment’ was definitely hampered by the the crimes committed. With the death of Sarah Everard very much in my mind, been ‘entertained’ by some of the book sat very uncomfortably with me.

Trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, child death