I love Cara’s books so was intrigued to read Murder in the family.
Written very differently to her other books, which did take me a little while to adapt to, but once I got used to it I enjoyed the concept of newspaper articles, text messages and a running documentary.
Who killed Luke Ryder is a twisty suspenseful read that will keep you guessing, then floor you as each new revelation is revealed!
Lots of characters to get used to and American police procedures as well as British, but a fantastic concept for a new read Alone book which I’m sure will be very popular!
Thank you netgalley for this early read.

This book is cleverly done, the murder mystery takes the form of a cold case television programme. A wealthy widow with three young children, takes a young husband, who is found beaten to death in the garden of their luxury home. The killer is never found, and the children are now adults, and the youngest child wants to solve the mystery. The "experts" selected for the programme all have connections to the case that the director is aware of, so there are a lot of dramatic "reveals". There are a lot of surprises and twists and turns, and misunderstandings.
In addition to the programme, there are text messages exchanged between some of the parties, and a fan chat, which seems a bit redundant, until it delivers a witness.
Very enjoyable.

I’m a Cara Hunter fan after ready all of the Adam Fawley series so I was looking forward to reading her new stand alone!

Unfortunately I struggled, a long list of characters that I couldn’t keep up with and remember who was who, I didn’t mind the format being in a documentary style however not being able to decipher who was who made it difficult to read and get into.

Took me a while to get into, there were some twists and turns and a slightly rushed ending.

I wish Cara had written this in her usual style!

I really enjoyed this novel. I'm a fan of using different narrative styles and like the use of TV show, emails, and newspaper articles. This has been done very well in this book.
I enjoyed watching the plot unravel with its many twists and turns. I worked out the ending fairly early but that's about me not the author's skill.
The large cast of characters occasionally made it hard to remember who was who.

I'm a huge fan of Cara Hunter's DI Adam Fawley books - She has captured my attention with every single one of his stories. I struggled on occasion with this book though. It is a very visual book - I suspect it would be much easier to follow in hard copy rather than on an e-reader. Some of the documents and text were super tiny.

This follows a tv series which a series of 'experts' have been brought together to solve the murder of Luke Ryder over 20 years ago.

There were elements of this book that I did enjoy - some clever little twists that I did not see coming. I felt sometimes the impact of them was slightly dampened down due to the large cast list which was on occasion a struggle to remember who was who.

This book had the feel of The Appeal by Janice Hallett and I do wonder if we are about to go through a stage of many authors trying out the format of snippets of information through social media, email and texts.

Fab book, really compelling and interesting, it read like a Janice Hallett book where the reader could be expected to solver the mystery. I didn't but I did work out some of the twist and turns!

As someone who loves their sleep, it takes a lot for me to read late into the night, which is exactly what Cara Hunter made me do with the ultimately gripping and can’t-put-it-down thriller, Murder In The Family. Written in the style of a true crime documentary about the twenty-year old murder of Luke Ryder. It is this style that made this book feel fresh and different from anything I have previously read, and I loved how the twists and turns of the case kept coming and coming. As a fan of crime crime dramas and documentaries, it is a genre that I happily binge-watch and I this is a book that made me put down my remote and binge-read. I cannot wait to discover what Cara Hunter writes next!

Murder in the Family
Cara Hunter
Publication Date: 25th May 2023

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Thanks a mil to Netgalley.co.uk and HarperCollins Publishers aswell as the author Cara Hunter for an ARC of Caras latest book 'Murder in the Family' prior to its release date in May of this year.

Cara Hunter proves herself yet again with this fantastic standalone. Its utterly different to her other books and the format is unusual as the story is told in documentary form using texts
voicenotes, emails, interviews and newspaper clippings; it took me a while to get used to reading this format, I wasnt a fan to start with but I soon adjusted to it and the story was so cleverly written it kept me hooked throughout. Really enjoyable read with so many clever twists. It read very similar to an Agatha Christie at times, filled with unlikable characters, lies and secrets, jaw dropping moments that I never saw coming ... this one certainly had me guessing right to the end. I loved it and will defo be recommending it to all my friends and family.

A very deserving 4 stars from me.
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Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but I'm sorry - this book just wasn’t for me. The layout made everything so difficult to follow and, possibly because mine was the electronic version, parts of it were so greyed out that it was impossible to read. In addition there were several times when the person speaking was given the wrong name, for example Alan Carrick says something and Alan Carrick replies! So confusing. Apart from such errors which hopefully will be corrected, there was just too much going on and it seemed very disjointed. All the wild goose chases and red herrings that came to nothing – I started to get annoyed. I think this would work very well as a ‘real’ TV documentary but, for me anyway, it certainly didn’t work as a book.

Is it possible to have too many clues? Too many red herrings? If so, this book wins the prize. However it's a gripping thriller without a single boring episode, just high speed reveal after reveal;
the sort of book you're desperate for friends to read so that you can discuss the ending.

The format is unusual as the story is told in documentary form using emails, interviews and newspaper clippings; this is becoming a popular format which I have enjoyed in a couple of books recently but it doesn't necessarily translate well onto an e-reader as the changing font sizes can be difficult to read. Regardless, it's very enjoyable and I highly recommend it.

I’m loving being in my murder mystery era!

We have mix media and from the get to we are into the action. I love being able to escape into a good book!

Slightly disappointed by this original mystery novel

Having enjoyed my first Cara Hunter book, I found this one a little disappointing. . The premise is that a cold murder case, taking place in London, is investigated in a television series by a team of "experts". The format therefore follows the script and displays shown on the box. In the Kindle version, the displays were not easy to read. The plot involves a lot of revelations, some of which were a little unnecessary in my opinion. It's a format which didn't really work for me but it's certainly an original way of telling the story.. I hope to enjoy other works by the author in the future. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A challenging format and a multitude of characters but once you get through that, Cara Hunter doesn't disappoint. Clever premise and a fresh approach to true crime with lots of reveals along the way to keep the reader guessing.

You can never go wrong with a Cara Hunter thriller.
As always a great who done it.
I did struggle at first with the lay out as the story is a series of newspaper articles, text messages etc.once i had got my head around that it was an enjoyable read.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Guy Howard's step father was murdered at their home when he was ten years old. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the murder, as an aspiring film maker, he is taking part in a documentary to attempt to uncover what really happened with this unsolved murder.

This is absolutely one of the best books I have read in a really long time. I really like this author's Adam Fawley series, but this is way beyond that. It is written in an 8 part documentary format, and of course the purpose of the documentary is to keep the viewer engaged, and that obviously worked to keep the reader engaged too. I love a book where there is new information turned up around every corner and that is what happened here. I was never bored for a minute and tore through this one in just over one day. This book was full of twists and turns and I loved every bit of it. Just excellent.

Guy Howard is the director of a true crime series which sets out to solve the murder of his step father 20 years ago, the so called "Cougar Murder"

They have a panel of experts and each of the six episodes ends on a cliffhanger until the surprise conclusion.

I love Cara Hunter but don't like this "television transcript" format but it's still a great book!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the chance to read and review this book

The story itself reminded me Agatha Christie's books. Every single character is a suspect in a murder. Despite that, the writing format is very unusual-mostly interviews for documentary research series. It was difficult to follow as there were many characters in the picture and without deeper analysis they looked underdeveloped not very interesting.

With many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Fiction for this free ARC and I am leaving this unbiased review voluntarily
I absolutely adore Adam Fawley so I was very interested, excited and nervous as to whether Cara Hunter could deliver a stand-alone. Not only did she deliver she smashed it out the park! This book has that beautiful unique Cara Hunter style of writing that she uses in her Fawley series, but this time she uses it for the whole of the book. It is so well done, so clever, so unique and a storyline that leaves you breathless. This author is seriously in a class of her own with this literary masterpiece. Flawless

It was a case that gripped the nation,Luke Ryders murder has never been solved.Now secrets will be revealed-live on air.Can you solve the case before they do.
The truth will blow your mind.
A group of experts try to solve a 20 year cold case murder told throughout with interviews,newspaper articles and text messages,it's all being filmed for a Netflix documentary.
This was something totally different from the author of the D.I Fawley series, it was a fantastic read that I raced through i hope there are more standalone books like this one from Cara Hunter.A top thriller Highly recommendedThanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC

Synopsis
IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION
LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED
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.
Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.
Years later 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?
Can you solve the case before they do?
The truth will blow your mind.

This was a very different read and I was initially disappointed it wasn’t Adam Fawley
I found the format difficult to get used to … texts …. Emails…..Transcripts from TV series I did get used to the format and did manage to work with it but cant say that the format was to my taste or that I really enjoyed it
Characters are introduced with background information which expands as the story is told There are multiple twists
The writing was good and I was interested in the characters
I would recommend this to those that enjoy this style It was not my favourite due to the format and my difficulty with it