Hope to Die

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Cara Hunter has recently adopted a practice that I thoroughly approve in crime novels, that of including a dramatis personae at the beginning.

My favourite feedback is when readers tell me it's like getting the raw material of the case, so they can be detectives themselves. In the time it takes for the police to arrive, all of his identification documents have been disposed of and the elderly homeowner is immediately taken into custody. But I gotta say, this book was quite a chunk with +900 pages, and then I was waiting for that punch in the jaw at the end of the story - Cara Hunter style, which was there but we've had stronger punches in the previous books.I'll say nowt about the plot as all you need to know is in the blurb, (some of the reviews I've read were a tad spoilery 😬), but I will say it was great to be back sleuthing with DI Fawley and the team (well that's what it felt like 😄). I don't give out many 5-star ratings for book reviews, but "Hope to Die" fully deserves that top mark. When the police discover a connection to a high-profile case from years ago, involving a child’s murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice, the press go wild. But, finally the door is opened by the homeowner, pensioner Richard Swann, who seems startled to see them.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. One of the main characters (and I won’t spoil why) was largely absent from this book, and they were missed. But, I did get a kick out of a character who had a major role in The Whole Truth, making a brief cameo in this one. In the acknowledgements, Hunter notes that Camilla’s history of multiple unplanned and secret pregnancies, resulting in two babies given up for adoption in addition to the missing baby, is based on the case of Australian Keli Lane. Written like others in the series, with lots of police interviews and TV scripts amongst other formats making up the bulk of the text.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly. Under questioning, Richard Swann and his more evasive wife Margaret insist that the man was an intruder and they were defending their household, but the police believe the real story is much more complex than that. It is an enthralling story told at a fast pace as the case unravels in tantalising style; addictive in the extreme. Richard’s wife Margaret backs up his story – they had retired for the night when they heard someone breaking in downstairs.

Lastly, the covers are still awful - mass market, crime fiction trashy artwork, please could we have some original artwork? It’s full of very good twists and turns, it’s exciting and unpredictable and as yet another excellent addition to this outstanding series. I kinda felt a bit unsatisfied at the end of it all but only if I'm comparing it with the previous books. or even just someone who enjoys good, well-written fiction of any genre, then you really should put this on your reading list. Further inquiries then reveal that Swann is not their real surname and that the couple changed their name by deed poll after their daughter Camilla Rowan was convicted in 2003 of killing her newborn son six years earlier.