Luke Ryder was killed in 2003 and the case has never been solved. Now a team has been put together to finally solve the case and its all being filmed in real time for a TV show.

This was mainly told in transcripts from the show as well as texts, articles and emails. I absolutely love this structure Cara uses it makes it seem so much more exciting and stands out from other books in this genre.
Especially enjoyed the little Easter eggs in some of the articles which you will pick up on if you've read Carla's DI Fawley books.
The ending was fab too and had me checking back and doing my own little detective work.

Overall another stand out book by Cara Hunter and I can't wait to see what she does next.
Thanks to Netgalley for the Arc.

4+ stars


I raced through this, it was so enjoyable.
It felt like every five pages a new bomb was dropped onto the story, and you started looking at things differently.
Each character, major and minor, gave little hints that made you question what you'd believed 3 minutes ago.
The TV reviews added a nice touch.
I'd guessed fairly early who did it, but it didn't stop me enjoying every page until the reveal. 





Just a note to say, reading this on my kindle, the comments (I assume) after the TV review was too hard to read. The black background didn't work for me, so I had to skip them.
It didn't detract from my enjoyment.

I love Cara Hunter's Adam Fawley police procedural series, so was excited to read this stand-alone novel.

The story is told mainly through the transcript of "Infamous", a true-crime documentary series, interspersed with emails, text messages, newspaper reports, etc. (This structure reminded me of Janice Hallett's novels, which I love.)

The series, brainchild of 30-year-old Guy Howard, seeks to uncover the truth about the unsolved murder twenty years earlier of Guy's stepfather, Luke Ryder. Bringing together a cast of investigators from various backgrounds to take a fresh look at the case, it's safe to say there are a lot of surprises in store, not least to the participants. Not everyone is who they appear to be, and not everyone is telling the truth (indeed, it's entirely possible that no-one is.) The truth will - eventually - emerge.

It's an engrossing read with lots of twists and turns. None of the characters are particularly likeable - but that TV series must have made compelling viewing! The very end made me think a bit, which was no doubt the intention.

I was lucky enough to read an advance e-book via NetGalley. Not all the pages were easily - or sometimes at all - readable on Kindle, but I found I could read them if accessing the book via the NetGalley app.

A great read.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. Having read previous books by this author I was looking forward to this one and I wasn't disappointed. Full of twists and written in an unusual style I literally couldn't put it down. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Cara Hunter defines thrillers to me. First of all, I love the different formats she uses: texts, interviews, newspaper articles. It's always fun to see something different. It does make it a little difficult though to find a good stopping point! This book takes Luke who was murdered years ago, and reopens the case in a pod cast. What happened to Luke? Who is Luke? Who wanted him dead. Secrets come out like you would not believe. Lots of jaw droppers in this story. Loved it!

I’m a massive fan of Hunter’s DI Adam Fowley series so was vey excited to read her first stand alone book and she’s done it again, another fantastic read!

Murder in the Family is in the format of a cold case documentary script along with a few emails and messages. This may not be to some people’s taste but I enjoyed the format as I find unnecessary details annoying, whereas this has some descriptions to help you picture the scene but is mainly dialogue. I also liked the photos included of some of the main characters, I’ve never had that in a book before.

It’s a great whodunnit with lots of twists and accusations thrown around. Some are probably a bit too much and slightly far fetched but that’s why I read fiction, you can be as far fetched as you like, it’s not true.

Cara Hunter is one of my favourite crime writers and her Adam Fawley books make for a fantastic series so I was very intrigued by her writing a standalone and this 100% did not disappoint. I love the format of this, predominantly based on a transcript of a tv series but interspersed with texts, emails etc it reminded me slightly of Janice Hallett but with the multiple twists you can certainly expect from Cara Hunter. This really kept me on my toes and the revelations just kept on coming right to the end with some fantastic characters with way more to them than I first thought and a very well thought out crime which even ended on a further twist, loved this.

Without a doubt this was my book of the year. As a matter of fact I think it might be my book of several years. I loved the layout with interviews, newspaper articles and recordings, I've read books before where the author has interspersed these among the text but never one where they make up the whole book. I thought it worked brilliantly, I felt as if I was part of the story and that everything was currently happening. There were so many twists in this book that I had no idea who the murderer might turn out to be and I was really shocked at the final dénouement. I've read Cara Hunter's work before and was a bit disappointed at first to find that this wasn't part of the D.I Adam Fawley series but, as I soon found,this was even better. I'd give it an infinite amount of stars if I could. Just one note, I found this book difficult to read on my kindle, all the zooming in etc didn't work well for me so I ended having to read it on my tablet.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

#MurderInTheFamily #NetGalley
Brilliant.
It was a case that gripped the nation. In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard (then aged 10), was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home. Luke Ryder’s murder has never been solved. Guy Howard’s mother and two half-sisters were in the house at the time of the murder—but all swear they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged. But some murder cases are simply too big to forget… Now comes the sensational new Netflix series Infamous, dedicated to investigating—and perhaps cracking—this famous cold case. The production team will re-examine testimony, re-interview witnesses, and once again scour the evidence. The family will speak. The key players will be reunited—on camera. The truth will come out. Are you ready to see it?
I think everyone should read it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy.

I had mixed feelings when I saw Cara Hunter had a new novel out. First was my initial sense of excitement that I was about to read the new DI Fawley novel which is my favourite detective series at the moment. Secondly, when I discovered this was Cara's first standalone and not the new Fawley, I was an equal mix of excited and worried.

Well, worried I needn't have been. After I got my toddler-esque tantrum, I jumped straight into this one. I have to say I have read quite a few novels recently with the cold case made warm again by a true crime podcast and this one was a broadly similar trope.

However, what stands this novel apart is Hunter's storytelling, her grasp of pace and plot just keep you turning one more page, one more clue, one more red herring until you are hit with the sucker punch ending which will blow you away.

The story is told in a non traditional prose with the majority of it told via a 'script' type dialogue. Those familiar with Hunter will know she frequently uses non traditional mechanisms in her book (emails, messages, voicemails etc) to great and realistic effect and she continues to do so here.

For anyone not familiar with the DI Fawley series, I would recommend it thoroughly and would also highly recommend this one too.

Huge thanks to the author, Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Another great novel from a great author and a great publisher.

This will probably be the last novel I read this year and I am so glad to finish the year on such a high.

I was unable to complete this book as the format of the ebook was not great and some parts were unreadable, but from what I did manage to read the story seems really intriguing and I will look forward to buying and reading the paperback when it is available.

I love Cara hunter and their books never fail to deliver. This one is written in the format of a tv show with interviews, news paper articles, voice-overs describing scenes, research etc. It is literally watching a true crime TV programme put into words and it just didn't work for me. I ppve watching true crime but if I wanted to watch some, I'd put the TV on. Likewise I wouldn't watch a TV programme that had the format of a novel. The polt was good, there are twists and turns and it wad interesting to have the characters brought to life through nothing but newspaper articles and 1st person interviews but it just didn't land for.me and I felt it very disjointed and difficult to really get lost in

This was a different style from this author but that didn’t detract from the gripping plot. I found this book hard to put down and finished in less than 24 hours. Brilliant as always.

Thanks to Cara and NetGalley for allowing me to read Murder in the Family before the publication date.
Nick Vincent, a producer with Dry Riser Films, is making a true crime series about the unsolved murder of Luke Ryder 20 years earlier.
He has gathered a variety of “experts” in the field of investigations to work together to review the documentation surrounding the murder and to interview all the witnesses again.
It would appear that Nick has more information than he has told them, dropping little bombshells in at the end the first episode whilst justifying it as shock tactics.
As the episodes progress, the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense, crossing from a Cold Case program to a reality TV program and not in a good way.
There will be many secrets, lies and red herrings along the way.

This was an unusual book in the sense that the narration took place partly within the recording of the series.

The black screens with minute writing could not be read on the ebook so I cannot comment on whether they added any value to the story.

A Triumph…
Through a melange of multimedia a twenty year old cold case concerning the death of Luke Ryder is examined by a reality television crew live screening their findings. Family, friends and associates as well as the crew themselves become inexorably connected to the case. Red herrings abound and the finger of suspicion veers erratically as the reader is drawn deeper into the tangled family web. The use of media is superbly done - from the crew conversations to newspaper articles to email and website armchair detective discussion (although note that the web discussion board is impossible to read on kindle but transported to iPad screen perfectly). Immersive, entertaining and impossible to put down through to the final perplexing denouement.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter.
WHO KILLED LUKE RYDER?
When Guy Howard’s stepfather is found dead in the garden of their family home, the police are baffled. No-one saw anything. No-one heard anything.
Someone knows the truth.
Years later, a true-crime show re-examines the evidence – with shocking results. Do the experts know more than they’ve been letting on? Or does the truth lie closer to home?
One by one, the secrets begin to emerge.
Brilliant read. I love Cara books. I loved the images throughout the book. Twisty and tense. 5*.

Loves this book so much , had read nothing like it before loved the images thru the book , loved all the different perspectives, I devoured this book in 6 hours as I really never wanted to put it down , cara is definitely one of the top thriller writers for me . This book is such a twisty psychological thriller.

Unfortunately did not work for me. Purely because of the format. May work for others who like multimedia.