Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter is an original excellent whodunit which revisits a cold case murder committed in December 2003.
It is a production team who revisits the case and it is scheduled for tv and all of the production team have a vested interest in the case and all have their secrets. Guy Howard is the production manager and it is his stepfather, Luke Ryder who was murdered.
An interesting way of looking at an old murder case when no-one was ever found responsible for the crime.
Recommended

Clever, original, so many adjectives to Cara’s stand alone book. Written as a True Crime series on Netflix in eight episodes. Apart from the odd catch up with the participants deciding on their next move, it is written as played out on screen. It did make for exciting reading as each episode ended on a cliff hanger. My one gripe was that the inclusions such as newspaper articles did not transfer to the e reader well and were too small to read, even taking the font to the limit
20 years ago a man was brutally murdered in the garden of an upmarket house in a select area of London. The killer was never found. The man’s stepson, now a Tv Director is making the film to see if it can be solved with modern methods and possible new information and help his family. A panel of experts has been assembled to take part.
It is brilliantly plotted with so many twists; nearly all the characters come under the microscope or have their own agendas. And when you think it’s solved - it isn’t and no, I didn’t get there. I really enjoyed it, just great!

If your Netflix ‘watched’ is full of true crime and your podcast list includes classics such as ‘Serial’, then this novel is for you.

It follows the creation of a true crime TV show that aims to solve the mysterious death of the producer’s step father 20 years previously.

This novel takes a novel (ha ha) approach - it includes a review for each episode of the show, as well as other diverse materials as it tracks through the TV show’s development.

It’s an interesting way to present a gripping narrative and worth it for the novelty value alone!

This was so uniquely presented, although the layout was hard to get used to it was really modern and I enjoyed it after the first few parts. The layout added a unique suspenseful atmosphere and I felt I was going along on this true crime adventure with the characters and I felt completely gripped within the story. I also loved all the twists, I think this was really well written and for fans of crime thrillers who want something new this is for you.

A fantastic story which had me guessing throughout. Once I started reading i didn't want to put it down
I would highly recommend to everyone

A first read from this author and she didn’t disappoint. Based on a true crime story, it was well written, although it did take some getting used to the format. However it gripped me from the beginning and kept me guessing until the end.

A true life crime series is being made 20 years after a young husband was found beaten to death in his own garden. His step son is the director of the series, with the aim of finding out the truth for his family. Written as transcripts, emails, reviews and social media this is an interesting and riveting novel, really original and memorable.

In 2003, Luke Ryland, was killed in the family garden by blunt force trauma. Twenty years later, a Netflix serial convenes experts to solve the who and why questions. The programme is conceived by Guy Howard, stepson of the murdered man. He was ten at the time of the murder and is now a film director. Luke’s death has blighted the family in the intervening years and Guy wants to resolve the mystery. His older sisters are less keen and his mother, Caroline, is in early onset Alzheimer’s so is not a party to the decision. The panel of experts that the producer of the programme, Nick Clarke, has assembled include a retired police officer, an American PI, a psychologist, a “True Crimes” reporter, a KC prosecutor and a CSI. Their brief is to interrogate the 2003 evidence, witnesses, etc. and to identify trails that might not have been obvious, or available, to the original Met investigation. Filming begins in January 2003 with the first of seven episodes due to air in October as part of the continuing “Infamous” true crime series. Caroline Howard’s husband had died a few months before she met Luke, fit, blonde, blue eyed, twenty years younger than her. They married within a year. Needless to say tongues wagged (gold digger, etc) because she was rich with a palatial mansion and extensive, gated, grounds in an exclusive part of Camden Town, North London, and he was an itinerant Aussie. Equally needless to say the kids, ten, twelve and fifteen, were not pleased. On the night in question, Luke was found at the foot of some steps in the garden, with his head thoroughly smashed. All of the family had alibis and there were no viable suspects. However, one person, a local reporter, was found on the scene, although cleared by the morning. By coincidence (is there such a thing as coincidence?) that young reporter is now the one on the panel. Is this a sign of confusions to come?
The story is told episodically, in each case with material from the filming and the programme, and the press reports on the programme, and the Twitter feed. So, this is a sort of epistolatory style, although the filming and programme stuff is all done in a script format (Cut to X, Close up on Y, etc). This is a bit distracting to begin with but, thinking about it, it controls the story arc. As a fairly straightforward text piece, there would be huge numbers of flash backs and scene changes, and a lot of reveals, requiring build ups and backgrounds; whereas, in this format its TV, discoveries just happen, bang, with a word from the producer and a “Cut To”. As a consequence of this style, it also means that the reader needs to hold a lot in their mind (a picture may paint a thousand words. but a written description of a screenshot doesn’t do that in reverse); there are also a lot of transient characters to balance. At heart, the story is a cross between a courtroom drama and a “Then There Were None” plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it for the complicated, brain exercising, and I hope you do too.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I love Cara Hunter's Oxford crime books, so I was thrilled to see this come up on netgalley, but I hate to say I'm a little disappointed.

I really enjoyed the main plot and the various reveals and fake-out endings, but felt that the actual ending was very anticlimactic and almost rushed.
(98% of all the characters mentioned are accused at some point and that's exhausting in my opinion).

What really coloured my opinions on this book was the format. Written in "table read" type script, I found it exhausting and unpleasant to read and concentrate on.

Had it been more like normal prose, I think I'd have had more patience with it. I'm really sorry to have reviewed so negatively but I still have hope for her future writing. It's hard to break into a stand alone novel when you've had one world and set of characters for so long.

Hopefully this is just a transitional blip.

Really enjoyed this. It took some getting used to the way it is set out as though you are watching a Netflix doc but very clever way to do it and a good hook. It really kept me guessing the whole way through and I had no idea of the twist coming at the end; well played. Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very cleverly written book, on trend using Netflix as a tool to tell the story. The story is told in episodes and at first I found that a little strange to read but as the episodes play out and the tension and mystery builds it is very clever.
Luke Ryder was murdered in his garden 20 years ago, no one was charged his murder and the truth surrounding his death has not been told.
Stepson, Guy Howard, who was just 10 years old the time, is going to replay the events leading up to his death and that fateful night in a true crime documentary Netflix series. There is a panel of different experts to help him go through the evidence and tell the story
There is a lot of tensions as the episodes are played, the experts all seem to have secrets relating to this crime, the tension builds as they suspect and point fingers at on another
Luke Ryder it seems was not actually Luke Ryder!! Who killed him and why? There are lots of twists, turns, drama and surprises as Cara Hunter teases her readers with yet another excellent book.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
4.5 stars

Another brilliant read from Cara Hunter. The twists and reveals are brilliantly done. I couldn’t put the story down and really enjoyed all the different media formats that were incorporated into the plot. Cannot recommend it highly enough. I think it may work best to read as a paperback rather than kindle as I struggled to read some of the smaller articles on the kindle as increasing the font didn’t do anything. Absolutely brilliant nonetheless. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this book.

In December 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of his family home in London, leaving behind his wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. No one was charged.

It’s now twenty years later and the case is being re-examined by a team of experts as part of a true crime series- but do those involved in the show know more than they are letting on or does the truth lie closer to home?

Murder in the Family is Cara Hunter’s first standalone novel and seeing as I absolutely love the DI Fawley series, I was excited to read this thriller.

The book is written in a script format, which I found off-putting initially, however I soon got used to it and by the time I finished I appreciated it for being different. You experience the story as a viewer would with each chapter marking an episode of the series and ending with reviews, emails, messages, and online discussions (the latter was impossible to read on Kindle format), all of which added depth to the story.

Whilst the format was different and felt modern one drawback was that it was very difficult to warm to the characters. This is because whereas in usual novels you would experience individual thoughts/emotions, the lack of narrative didn’t allow for this. As a result, I didn’t particularly think a lot of the characters- however I liked the way they all fitted into the story and thought the plot was well thought out.

As for the statement in the blurb of the book ‘the truth will blow your mind’, unfortunately I wasn’t left feeling that way. There was something at the beginning which already narrowed down my suspects so already that took many of them out of the equation. I felt like the clues were there- however on the cover of the book it does say ‘Can you solve the case before they do?’ so perhaps that was the intentions of the author for us to work it out as opposed to being shocked at the end?

Overall, whilst I enjoyed the different format of the book and the fact the mixed media made it feel modern- in terms of thrillers I have read this was very mediocre hence why I am giving it three stars.

I have enjoyed the author's Oxford books, so was interested to read this one. It is a gripping story, and the format was clever, and really worked. I didn't really care for any of the characters though, so it didn't engage me as much as I expected, but it is still a book I would recommend.

Such a fun book!
It was smart and also very intriguing. The characters were good, the story was great and it really made my brain work.

I was interested in reading this book, mainly because of the premise of being able to solve the murder myself, ideally before the in-book experts. The positive review from Janice Hallett increased my interest as I know she writes similar books which I enjoy so I hoped that this book would be along the same lines and as good. It's difficult to review a lot of the book without referring to the plot or content and completely spoiling it for other readers.

I wasn't expecting it to be in script format and that was a little off-putting initially. The book started off quite slow and took some time to get interesting, even with an allowance given for introducing all the characters and the murder. It finally picked up about a third of the way through, where the first twist was revealed, and after that it became much more intriguing. The book should come with a warning not to read it before bed though! It was far too engrossing and I didn't want to put it down to go to sleep! There were several major twists so it kept changing everything I knew about the case. It was really well done. I thought I had it sussed out early on but I was very much wrong!

The main issue I had with the book was that all of the characters were quite annoying and I don't think any of them were particularly sympathetic. None of them are really well fleshed out though because the focus is more on solving the case so in some respects, it's not as much of a problem as it would be otherwise.

I would definitely be interested to read other books like this where the reader gets to solve the case by this author.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy to review.

Unfortunately I could not finish this book, which is very unlike me. I struggled to connect with the story or format - both left me confused which is a shame because the premise sounded so good. The beginning is an explanition for a tv show, fair enough, but as the book progresses it is as if someone has already watched the show and transcibed it for reading. Or is it a script for a tv show? Or are we following a tv show which is almost more confusing? Because there is no character development I struggled to care. Some of the text is impossible to read in digital format and the maps are too small so I missed on part of the plot. I struggled to the 26% area and then quit.
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC maybe other readers will enjoy it more.

Really loved everything about this book. As a fan of crime thrillers this was a novel way to present the details of a cold case framed in a documentary style. A panel of experts from various police, psychology and fore be sic backgrounds is assembled by Guy and producer Nick to investigate an historic murder in Guy's family which occurred over 20 years. Guy just wants to get closure for his family at long last but surprising truths begin to emerge as the documentary is filmed not least from the panel members themselves. I found this plot gripping and felt as though I was actually watching it on TV as a real life case. Great book.

A brilliant standalone read from thriller genius Cara Hunter.

Murder in the Family is a fresh take on the genre with the story unfolding in the form of a Netflix TV series with interview extracts, emails, newspaper clipping mixed with a range of experts debating the case. It's complex, and takes some getting used to, but once you're in the swing of things it's incredibly clever and really effective.

Well paced and full of twists - Murder in the Family is a must read this summer. 5 stars.

This is an addictive stand alone read from Cara Hunter. I really enjoyed the clever format as the reader sees messages and production notes for a documentary about a cold murder case. We soon learn that things are really not what they seem with the expert panel or the production team. There were so many twists and turns and open mouth moments, it was brilliant. I thought I knew who the killer would turn out to be but was completely blind sighted. Cara Hunter is a very talented author who really taps into current trends like the true crime documentary and really turns it on its head. A fabulous page turner that was impossible to put down.