I was recently asked by Penguin Books to write an honest review for Cara Hunter’s upcoming new release book in the DI Adam Fawley Series, Hope To Die, which I was thrilled to do.
I have reviewed this author’s previous book called The Whole Truth, which I have to say was thrilling, gripping and extremely intriguing right to the very end.
Hope To Die starts with a bang – literally a shotgun being fired at Gantry Manor, a remote farmhouse. The police are called out but not from the old couple who live at the house, but a night time photographer who just happens to be in the woods trying to catch a special star constellation.
When the local police arrive at the scene at 3am in the morning, an old gentlemen answers and shows them through to the kitchen where there is a body lying on the floor with no face left to identify him. No identification, phone, wallet is found on the body. At first this just looks like a break-in that went wrong.
However, when Richard and Margaret Swann ,the couple who live at Gantry Manor are questioned by the police there are more and more anomalies arising, more questions being asked rather than answers.
DI Adam Fawley and his team are called in to investigate the shooting, and this is when the case starts getting interesting, especially when a family link comes to light. Links to a 15 year old case and conviction brings up a whole new side to this story.
Without spoiling the story line, Camilla Rowan is convicted of killing her 1 day old baby, although she has always denied this and no body was ever found. However, there is a close connection between Camilla, Richard and Margaret Swann, the residents of Gantry Manor.
I love the way Cara Hunter links these two cases together, it’s pure genius and will keep you turning page after page wanting to find out what’s going to happen. But just like in her previous book, The Whole Truth as you near the end of this intriguing read, when you will think you know all the answers, the author throws in another curve ball, and a fabulous twist to end this all consuming and gripping story.
I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting to read the next installment about DI Adam Fawley and his team. As the characters in the book seem plausible. The more books in this series you read, the more important each character becomes to the story line. Whether that’s their working relationship, the banter or even the competitive tensions to move up within the team. I especially enjoyed the cast list’s back stories at the beginning of the book.
I also thought that the inclusion of narratives, such as interview transcripts, online chats, news headlines, emails etc was a very clever concept and made you feel like you were actually part of the investigation. Only downside to this part was, as I was reading it on my kindle the inserts were in very small print and it made it difficult to read. I did enlarge these sections of text but had to keep reverting back and forth between normal text size when reading the rest of the book.
Thank you to Penguin Books and Netgalley for letting me review Hope To Die by Cara Hunter, I would certainly recommend this book if you love reading a thoroughly entertaining, engrossing and riveting story.