This is about a true crime television series investigating a 20 year old unsolved murder. Luke Ryder was murdered in his garden and although there were suspects nobody was ever charged with his murder.

I would describe this book as multimedia as the evidence is presented in the form of emails, newspaper articles, police reports etc. I did really enjoy this aspect of the book although the evidence was quite hard to read on the kindle. I would highly recommend that if you read this in ebook form you read it on a tablet or phone to make it easier to enlarge the articles as this is not as easy to do on the kindle. I really appreciated that this was based around a television series rather than a podcast which has been done to death. I really enjoyed how the story unraveled to get to the conclusion. I will continue to read this author’s work as she just keeps getting better in my opinion.

Enjoyed this story and the characters! Liked the idea of the the crime series using what the author has! Looked forward to more from this author.

In December 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything. The murder has never been solved.

Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera! A group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on? Or does the truth lie closer to home?

At first, I wasn't so sure about the unusual style, but it got me hooked immediately. It is absolutely genius how implemented transcrips, texts, voicemails, news, clippings, and so on. I felt like I was part of the investigation, listening to the experts and discovering more secrets. I couldn't understand how the police missed out on so much in the original investigation. I also found the dynamics between the experts really interesting. Not everyone was who they seemed to be on the surface.

Throughout the book, we find out more about Luke Ryder and who he was, and each episode leaves the readers with a cliffhanger. The twists are mind-blowing, and the ending, of course, is a shock, but very cleverly executed.

An utterly brilliant read, highly recommend, and I can't believe I have never ever read a book by this author yet.

Thank you to @netgalley, @harpercollinsuk, and the author @carahunterauthor for the advanced copy. This book will make my 2023 top ten because it stands out from any other books in this genre and is one of the best crime fiction I have ever read.

Cara hunter has s definitely an auto purchase for me,
As I hoped, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved it. So well written and great story.
Will be recommending to everyone

What a good way to write a murder mystery! I enjoyed following the cold case, lots of unexpected twists - you were left wondering what on earth could happen next. The ending was unexpected as well although you did get hints as to whodunnit if you were paying attention! The suspect list swung to and fro as each chapter provided motives for all involved. Well thought out and written.

This book had so many twists and turns I thought my head was going to fall off! I couldn’t put this down - enjoyed from start to finish. I really like that it read as if you were watching a true crime documentary - what a great style! Thank you to Cara Hunter, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.

Guy Howard decides to make a six part Netflix documentary series examining the murder of his stepfather Luke RYder twenty years earlier. A panel of experts has been assembled to examine the evidence and reinterview witnesses. The story is told through various mediums including transcripts, interviews, news articles, text messages. This novel was absolutely gripping and addictive, and felt like a real-life docudrama. Easy 5 stars for me!

Thanks must go to the publisher, Netgalley and Cara Hunter for the ARC of ‘Murder in the Family’.

This novel is highly anticipated given that it is Cara’s first standalone thriller following the huge success of her 6 book DI Fawley series. Initially I struggled to get into the book due to the format it’s set in however, became immersed very quickly. The format actually lends itself to enabling such visualisation of the story as it evolves.

This book pulls you in further and further as it progresses and Cara absolutely needs to make a habit of writing standalone as this book is a serious thriller!!!

Brilliant read, finished in one sitting, highly recommended.

The TV transcript format in which this novel is written was new to me, but I quickly got used to it although parts of the start of each episode got a bit repetitive, and began to annoy me. What was even more annoying was the incredible number of important revelations made by the programme “experts” towards the (quite rushed) end of the book. I thought the solution of the mystery itself was a little weak, especially, as other reviewers have pointed out, the book’s title is a big give-away. However, I do think that this would transfer successfully to TV!

There may have been an error/ omission in the e-book I received in which the novel’s ending is an incomplete transcription from a local newspaper, pictured immediately before. In my opinion, the original article’s final paragraph should have been included in order to finish the novel satisfactorily, and I hope that the copy I have read was incomplete.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter gave me a bug surprise, no matter in the writing/presenting style, the story telling and the twists she inserted. This is a totally unusual format for lots of readers, it includes filming rundown, dialogue, audio transcription message, resumes, email conversation and so on. These all make the story more vividly presented in front of readers.

Luke Ryder was brutally smashed dead 20 years ago in the garden of the family home. 20 years later, his stepson Guy Howard is a film maker and Guy decides to launch a TV program to invite the professionals who related to this case, including the detectives, psychologist, journalist etc. to join the filming, in order to find the murderer of this 20-year unsolved case. Among these 6 episodes, each guest has done their own research and revealed more. Now, they are getting closer to the truth.

I did enjoy this book a lot! The twists are really mind-blowing and the format of the book just put me in one of the audience's chair as well. I highly recommend Murder in the Family to all the crime fiction lovers. Moreover, reading in the kindle format might be a bit frustrating, so I just read it back on the pdf format which makes it easier to read.

I remember reviewing the first book Cara wrote and getting my name in the cover with the review. Who knew then that she would go on to be a best selling author.
This is her first stand alone novel and what a great one. It is based on a cold case and a TV show that is trying to solve the crime.. The plot twists and turns and reminded me in places of Agatha Christie.
I found this to be one of the best books Cara has written and hope she does more stand alone novels if they are of the standard of this one.

This book… I finished it over a week ago but I haven’t actually been able to put into words just how much I loved this reading experience.
All the mixed media and structure really made me feel like I was part of the team investigating this cold case. I had my suspects from early on, however they were blown out of the water.
Murder in the family was one of the easiest 5 stars I’ve given this year. I will be posting a full review on my blog soon.

Very different format than I’m used to. It’s a story told of a cold case murder that is the subject of a TV series looking back at the case. The story is the dialogue from the programme, social media content about it, and phone calls and texts between done of the characters.
This does mean it’s harder to get involved with the characters themselves as you don’t get to know them. When I’ve tried this style of book before I’ve given up. However, the pace of this story carried things along nicely and I enjoyed it. Quite a few cliffhangers at the end of episodes that made you want to read on. Recommended.

A good book, slightly difficult to follow, might have been better reading it as a hard copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the author for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

I love Cara Hunter's police procedurals (featuring DI Adam Fawley) so I was thrilled to get my hands on 'Murder in the Family', Hunter's first standalone novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy - opinions are entirely my own.

The story opens with the formation of a team of experts brought together by a TV show to reopen a cold case from 20 years previously - we see the CVs of the team and the narrative is told through transcripts of the programmes made, emails, phone records and newspaper articles. They're asked to investigate the death of a young man - Luke Ryder - outside a family home in an exclusive part of London in 2003. The son of the family - and Luke's stepson - wants to find out the truth about that fateful night and is determined that every lead will be followed for the pleasure of the viewing public...

It's virtually impossible to say more about the plot without giving away the many twists and turns that the case takes. Suffice it to say, nothing is quite as it seems and the team have quite a task on their hands. It all makes for absolutely compelling reading - like the most sordid and tense soap opera ever. The reader takes on the role of the voyeuristic TV viewer devouring the show - while possibly also feeling a bit awkward about its intrusion into people's lives. This is an idea that we're becoming ever more familiar with in our world of social media, reality TV and docudramas - so brava to Hunter for capturing the zeitgeist here.

The format of the book - emails, transcripts, articles - is very clever. It may take a little while to adjust to, but it works brilliantly. The clues are all there...if you can spot them! Hunter also used a similar technique in her last DI Fawley novel with great results - so you're in safe hands.

My main niggle was with the formatting of the ebook - I couldn't adjust the font size of some of the texts, a couple were misaligned or blacked out and my Kindle doesn't seem to display emojis. It wouldn't stop me recommending the book wholeheartedly, but I'd suggest a print copy would be better. I don't think I missed anything critical, but I did need laser eyesight at times!

This is an excellent addition to Hunter's work - I literally have no clue how she manages to handle such fiendish plotting with the multi-format narrative approach! It's clever, it's totally addictive and it is a total winner for me.

I found the format of the book a little bit difficult to follow- perhaps it comes across better on the printed page. I really wanted to be able to read the newspaper articles that headed some chapters but the print was too small on my e-reader and could not be increased!
Other than that this is a triumph of a book, told through the eyes of a true crime documentary, examining a cold case and re-interviewing the family and other witnesses is a really clever way to draw information out about the crime and the suspects without giving too much away and without affecting the pace of the read.
Overall a good read but with some formatting issues that it was hard to look past.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK and Cara Hunter for my ARC in return for an honest review.

Cara Hunter is one of my favourite authors so I was delighted to receive this ARC and it did not disappoint. It was cleverly constructed in the format of a crime documentary appearing live on television.

Guy, the director of the series, had his step father, Luke Ryder, murdered 20 years before and the series sets out to find out who killed him as nobody was ever charged with the murder.

Each of those taking part has something to offer the investigation and, as the series progresses, we find out they all have something to hide.

Highly recommended

A murder mystery with a completely unique (to me anyway) concept and style. Written in the form of a ‘crime documentary’, the book follows Guy, a director, revisit a cold case from 20 years prior for a true crime documentary series on Netflix. The cold case he aims to crack? The murder of his step father.

Cleverly written, the book presents the investigation in episodes, with a group of specialists sat discussing the existing evidence and any further evidence they uncover, as well as showing readers text messages, emails, voice mails etc.

I truly enjoyed this book. It had me
hooked from the start. Perfectly paced with an ending that didn’t disappoint.

I’ve read some of Cara Hunters books before but this stand alone has been my favourite.

I will be recommending this to anyone after a good thriller

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Just wanted to raise some technical issues I had with the ARC (not plot or book related). Unsure if it was because I was reading on my kindle, and I also appreciate this is not the final copy but some of the images and news reports didn’t load correctly for me. Additionally some times it didn’t give the characters name before they spoke, making it look like the person who had spoke prior was saying what they were saying

Many Yeats’s ago, Guy’s stepfather Luke was murdered in their front garden. He is now a director and is recording a series of true crime documentaries with the aim of discovering the truth. Some of the family have agreed to be interviewed and the panel is made up of a range of experts including police, investigators, a forensic psychologist and a journalist. The story is written as script of the TV shows with some emails and social media posts in between. Whilst other people will probably love this format, it didn’t draw me in as a story would have and I had to force myself to keep going at points, There are many twists and revelations throughout the episodes which felt like too many coincidences for me. This wasn’t for me but I think others will really love it, Thanks to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this advance copy to read.

Absolutely incredible book worthy of 5 stars.

The book is written as a netflix cold case documentary that sets out to try and work out who killed Luke Ryder 20 years ago.

The way the story is written is so unique. I could see the documentary clearly in my mind as if watching it on netflix myself. Cara is extremely talented in the twists and turns that deliver the entire way through this story. When I first started it I was bit put off by the multiple characters and feared it would be similar in style to Daisy Jones and the Six (which I really didn't like). But that was not the case.

I implore anyone who loves a crime drama or netflix documentary to read this. Absolutely amazing and will be gifting to anyone given the opportunity.