Close To Home by Cara Hunter is a first by the author for me and is an authentic representation of the part in which social media, especially the darkest parts which houses the almost sinister trolls, can play in encouraging public opinion in the most emotive of familial crimes; the abduction of a child.

Barry and Sharon Mason are not particularly happily married. Barry is a busy building contractor hardly making ends meet and Sharon is his insecure wife who seems to have her heart set on building a public persona which belays the fragility of their family life.

Sharon decides to throw a BBQ Party for their friends and neighbours, partly to show off her perfect family life and partly to allow her son Leo, and daughter Daisy an opportunity to find friends. The children are encouraged to wear fancy dress, and it is only towards the end of the evening that it is discovered that Daisy is missing, and no-one can actually recall when they say her last.

The Police are called and once they start to talk to the family, their strangeness starts to become obvious; Barry is hysterical at the disappearance of ‘his Princess’ almost to a level suggesting infatuation, Sharon is purely focussed on maintaining her appearances at all times, and Leo is so drawn and uncommunicative it could be inferred that he is emotionally comatose.

As the Police investigation expands it becomes clear that this is a family built upon secret after secret. Clearly someone within the family unit knows more than they are letting on, but who this may be is being buried beneath lie after lie. The Police will have to unpick each secretive and sinister element to unearth quite how Daisy was so effectively able to disappear into thin air in such crowded company.

The story moves along at pace nicely and is littered with the social media updates of concerned friends, family, well-wishers and outright nasty internet trolling keyboard warriors. As the adverse public opinion grows as does the pressure upon the Police for a result, inevitably creating a focus upon the family which is picked up by the press, thus leading to further social media furore.

Hunter cleverly uncovers character traits throughout the plot which leads to further twists and turns revealed to keep you guessing. Generally, there is a healthy dose of realism and reality checks throughout, but this is let down by the final reveal which in my opinion was too far-fetched and a little unnecessarily obtuse.

All in all, this is a pretty decent tale of a dysfunctional family with frailties aplenty. Rather strangely, in my opinion, as the first outing in a series featuring lead detective DI Adam Fawley of Thames Valley Police you don’t get to father much of a feel for him on a personal level, other than he is a committed detective, who has himself suffered the loss of a child in circumstances which are only revealed towards the end of the story. By far throughout the story the main focus is on the characters of Barry & Sharon, which bit parts played by Leo, Adam and the rest of the investigative team.

However, this was a strong ⭐⭐⭐⭐ start to the series and I thank Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This is a promising start in a new police procedural from Cara Hunter. It has everything you would want really with it's excellent characterisation, good plotting and plenty of suspense as the team investigate a missing girl. The ending surprised me and the book travels at a good pace which left me wanting more. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I really enjoyed this book, a thriller with a twisty plot which also happens to be set locally to me so that helped me visualise even more.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys police procedural books and crime thrillers, I will be reading more by this author for sure.

Utterly brilliant.
From start to finish, as always, I was totally gripped and read in one sitting.
I will never get bored with Hunter's books. She's a fabulous writer.
Loved it and will be recommending it to the whole world!

As enjoyable as this book was, it was nothing new and read like a look of Detective Inspector trying to solve the mystery of a missing/murdered child, and for that reason it did not impress me that much.

This started off really well, the police team are likeable and the lead knows what he's doing. The case was intriguing and I found it flowed well. It was a relatively gripping read that I read in 24 hours. However I felt the ending didn't tie everything up, it left a number of lose ends that I felt was a bit lazy. Also this reads like a police procedural but then the culprit didn't line up with that. Yes it was a twist as to who had committed the crime but that's because we knew barely anything about them. Which is in line with a thriller maybe, but that wasn't really what this was when we were following the police so closely it felt a bit half-baked. Then one page at the end with a very vague reason as to why the crime had been committed and it all seemed a bit far fetched and silly. So therefore the 'major twist' fell a bit flat for me as I felt it was almost too left field. I'm keen to see where the rest of the series goes but I hope it makes up it's mind to what it actually wants to be.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read a copy of this book. I enjoyed this book, it had lots of twists and a very believable story, I would recommend this book.

I wasn’t aware this was part of a series of books, however I still really enjoyed this and would recommend it to others as it’s a gripping read and very well written

This was one of those books that everyone was talking about and I really enjoy a thriller so I really was hoping I would like it. Unfortunately, the plot was just not believable, and the ending just seemed like it had been conjured up to wrap the plot up quickly.

This story is the 1st in a new detective series, a young girl goes missing, plenty of twists and turns. Worth a read

8 year old Daisy disappears and there are two suspects - her parents. The dad is one who is full of concern, wanting to know where his child is, the mother, oddly relaxed and doesn’t give off any signs of despair.

As the novel takes us on a journey of investigation of finding Daisy, all is not as it seems and admittedly the ending gave me quite the surprise I wasn’t expecting.

This was one of my first Cara Hunter novels to read and it won't be my last now I've finally got around to putting a review on. Great story and great plot and would recommend to anyone.

A thriller which will resonate with all parents - the disappearance of a child. Unusually the child was wearing fancy dress which matched her name, Daisy, when she vanished from a family party. Well worth a read.

This book has stolen all of my words from me. I am speechless. Wonderful writing that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. I couldn't put it down,there were so many twists and turns.Kept me guessing till the very end. Loved it.

This is the first in a series of novels starring DI Adam Fawley and his team and what a start to the series this is. I actually missed this first time round and was only reminded I had it when I was sent book 4!

Packed with fantastic characters not all of which are particularly likeable but all of whom are well developed and with interesting stories to tell in their own right. The story line is a difficult one to read being that of child abduction and exploitation however this is not written in a gratuitous way but with care and attention although not is all as it seems and so begins DI Fawley's task of unravelling just what has happened to young Daisy.

This is a fast paced, gripping and absorbing story that had me reading it in quick time in order to discover the secrets and lies contained within the twists and turns of this excellent book and I highly recommend this to those of you who love a great police procedural.

Thank you to Penguin Books (UK) and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

I have no idea why it has taken me so long to read this book! Close To Home is the first book in the Detective Inspector Adam Fawley series and if the rest of the series is half as good as this, we are in for a treat.

Cara Hunter has an original writing style and Close To Home does not have a linear narrative. I loved the snippets from newspapers and tweets and Facebook comments, which gives the reader an insight into the public reaction at the outbreak of a major crime and how this affects the investigation.

Close To Home is narrated by Adam Fawley, which makes the novel stand out from other books in the same genre. I really appreciated the insight we gained into Adam's life. He has a heartbreaking back story and I am really intrigued to know more as the series continues. There is also a strong relationship between Adam and his team and I would also love to know what happens in these subplots.

I did not want to put the book down. It is really cleverly written, and although little clues are planted throughout the novel, I missed them all! I was transfixed by all the wonderful twists and turns that kept me on my toes. The epilogue is truly shocking!

I can't wait to read the next instalment!

Oh my word this book was brilliant. It had everything I enjoy in a good book , brilliant storyline and great characters. Loved every single chapter and what a fantastic ending.

This fast paced extremely well plotted crime story was fantastic! Extremely well written keeping you guessing right to the end. Highly recommend this.

Close to Home is the first in an exciting new police procedural series which introduces us to DI Adam Fawley, a detective with a lot of his own personal history although the details are initially unknown to the reader. When a report comes in about a missing eight year old Daisy Mason who disappeared from a family party, DI Fawley knows that it's a race against time to find out where she is.

From the outset there was something a little off with this case and the more that we discover about the family, the more everything and everyone seemed a little sketchy. As with most missing people cases, those closest to them come under close scrutiny and the parents in particular seemed to have plenty of secrets to hide. I had my suspicions as to what had happened to Daisy but there were so many red herrings thrown in that at some point or other everyone became a suspect in my eyes.

The use of social media, flashbacks and police transcripts was an interesting concept as it gives us a background into the characters and a birds eye view into the investigation and makes us feel a part of it. The timeline plays out before our eyes and the reaction from users, as to how they interpret the information and how they voice their personal theories as to who was involved and what happened to Daisy, all add to the drama.

A missing child case is always a sensitive subject matter, and there were also a few aspects of the storyline that made for some uncomfortable reading, but thankfully it wasn't too explicit and was all handled with care and sensitivity.

Thankfully because of the delay in reading/reviewing I've already read the next couple of the books in the series so am eagerly awaiting the publication of All the Rage later in the year to see what's in store for DI Fawley and his team next.

This was a really interesting book, and very gripping. I couldn't turn the pages on my kindle fast enough. I was really surprised how it all turned out and didn't see the outcome coming at all. I suspected everyone and didn't trust anyone. It's strange but all through the book I kept having to remind myself that the main detective is a man, I'm unsure why I kept thinking it was a women. possibly because of the author been an women. The twists and turns just kept coming and I look forward to the second book.

Thanks goes to net galley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.