I didn't realise this was halfway into the series otherwise I wouldn't have requested to read. It was ok but I definitely felt I would have benefited from reading the previous books

I didn't realise The Whole Truth was book #5 in the DI Adam Fawley series when I requested it. I haven't read the previous books in the series and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to pick up the story as well as if I had done, but I needn't have worried. There's a short chapter at the start which catches the reader up on all necessary information and from then onward, the plot was very easy to follow.

The prose was absolutely sensational. The characters were all very well-rounded and nuanced, the plot was fast-paced and exciting and the twists were brilliant. There wasn't a single character who annoyed me, no one behaved stupidly just to advance the plot, and although there was slight mention of political issues occasionally in the book, I was very happy that there was no lecturing and the author remained neutral on the subjects. I don't usually enjoy police procedurals as much as other thriller subgenres, but this author has such a great talent with storytelling that I now want to read the entire series from book 1.

I can't praise this book enough. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read an ARC, thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

5*

It was a ok book.
I liked all the investigation and the final pages but I think that this book have so many pages that don't need to be there.

I chose this book as I was drawn to the big glass of fizz on the cover! 🥂 It certainly caught my eye.

I didn’t realise it was part of a series, but the introduction to the main characters at the beginning was great and not something I’ve seen in many books before.

The story begins with a student at a prestigious Oxford college, accusing a professor of sexual assault. The professor is a huge asset to the college.
DI Adam Fawley is tasked with investigating the case.
Something isn’t adding up, who’s telling the truth?

Adam’s station are also investigating a missing persons case, which unfortunately turns into a murder investigation.
Adam’s wife thinks she’s being watched. She’s worried that the person watching her is a recently released rapist, and she was one of his victims. Adam helped to convict him, so he definitely has motive to want to go after the family.

There’s a lot going on in this book and at times it was a little confusing to keep track of what was going on.
I’m not sure if there’s maybe just a little bit too much happening. At one point, I had almost forgotten about the sexual assault case as the book was focused on what was going on with Adam.

The format of the book is a little different to normal and includes podcast transcripts, texts, notes etc. I thought this broke it up a bit and made it more engaging. The only downside was it was difficult to read some of it on my Kindle, even zoomed in.

I quite liked the characters but felt Adam didn’t feature as much as I would have expected. Maybe if I had read the other books in the series I would have a better idea of his character.

I enjoyed the story and found it easy to read. It’s certainly a page turner and I wanted to find out what was going to happen. The plot is quite twisty and just when you think you have it sussed you’re proved wrong.

Now I’m going to add the other Fawley books to my TBR list!

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for my copy to review.

A welcome fifth outing for DI Adam Fawley and his team, in this Oxford based police procedural series. A university student accuses their professor of sexual assault. But the victim is a six-foot male rugby player and the accused, an older woman. A clever twist on #MeToo.
Fawley's past is also coming back to haunt him when a convicted rapist is released from prison still pleading their innocence. The two plots interweave seamlessly. With no proper chapters, the inclusion of podcasts, online articles and social media make for a compulsive read. With plenty of twists and turns right up to the final paragraph.

Cara Hunter’s DI Fawley series are excellent crime procedurals with interesting characters, satisfyingly intricate plots and modern twists, such as including social media comments on crime cases and covering important contemporary issues. Here we have a take on #MeToo and the abuse of power sexually by someone in an influential position, in this case a university professor accused of assaulting a student. Meanwhile, a malevolent figure from Fawley’s past threatens to destroy his chance of happiness. Although it can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone book, much of the background to this latter plot strand was set up in Hunter’s previous novel, “All the Rage,” itself another cracking thriller. There are many twists and turns as the team slowly uncover what happened piece by piece, and the pace does not slacken as more details come to light. As well as continuing the story of Fawley, his wife Alex and their tragic history, Hunter continues to develop the other characters on the team and their preoccupations- each is realistic and well-rounded, and we care about them. A great read from a talented crime writer.

Essentially two mysteries to solve in one book. A murder and an accusation of rape by a university professor on one of the students. There was much to like in this but also quite a bit that I didn’t. There was lots of jumping around, plenty of characters (probably too many if like me this is your first Adam Fawley story). The constant “interruptions” of various kinds were a huge distraction and not a great success on a kindle. I did like Adam and some of the team and of course the Oxford setting. Despite the above it was an engaging novel with some interesting twists and worth the time invested in it.

Very good this book.
I highly recommend for everyone.
It's very intense and interesting
Thanks a lot netgalley

I do love a police procedure crime novel and this one did not disappoint. A cracking tale of two stories with brilliant twists at the end. Perfect summer (or anytime) reading. Highly recommended.

Absolutely loved this book!!! Couldn't put it down. Would highly recommend!! Thank you for the advance read!! Can't wait to read future books from Cara!!!

I have read a few of Cara Hunter’s books which are in this series and I do feel they need to be read in order to appreciate how the dynamics between all the characters work.

This was yet another excellent, well written chapter of the investigations and procedures That Adam Fawley becomes involved in

This is the fifth outing for DI Fawley and his team, and possibly the best so far. It could be read as a stand-alone novel but to understand the intricacies of the relationships between characters it's probably better to have read the series - in my opinion this would be well worth the time if you enjoy police procedurals.

I really enjoy the multiple points of view as you get an insight into the characters' personalities, their jobs, worries ambitions and their lives outside of work. As always with Cara Hunter, there are lots of surprises and a blockbuster ending (and it's clear cut - nothing ambiguous!)

The only tiny criticism is in the use of text messages and whatsapp screenshots - they were very difficult to read on my kindle as I couldn't enlarge them so felt I might have missed out. Also the messages had perfect grammar and punctuation which doesn't accord with my experience. Apart from that the book was gr8 (urgh!)

This was my first book by Cara Hunter. I did not realize that however, this is the fifth in a series until I began it. The mystery plot is pretty standalone, there was a lot of the characters' personalities and backstories that was lost on me. It took me a while to work out the characters and their relationships, though the author thoughtfully included a cheatsheet in the preface. Still, I think it would be best to follow the series in order, especially as there are multiple POVs to follow within the book. I thought the first part of the book was slow, though it picked up later. The inclusion of other materials, such as podcast excerpt, emails and articles was an interesting twist that really added to the telling of the story. I'm looking forward to reading more of the DI Frawley series. I'm so grateful to NetGalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read and review Flesh and Blood.

This is a police procedural centring around DI Adam Fawley, it’s the fifth book in the series and I do think it needs to be read in order or at least to have some experience of the previous books just for background.
I myself have read two of them so did have enough of an insight to follow along as there’s a lot of subtle nuances and internal dynamics that you may struggle with without this prior exposure to the series as a whole.
It’s also told from multiple POV’s which at times can get a bit confusing keeping them all straight.

So I’ve read a couple of this authors books previously and have always enjoyed them and rated them highly but this one for me didn’t measure up to anywhere near what I’ve come to expect from this author.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a slog and I struggled to finish.
The first half was very slow and failed to capture my attention I also found all the extra personal dynamics contributed by all the different perspectives that veered away from the central story threw me out of my zone, I just wasn’t that interested in all the secondary fluff included.

I’m aware that this is a style this author adopts and usually it doesn’t bother me as it’s always been balanced fairly evenly in previous books.
But here it just seemed there was a lot going on more so than usual and it didn’t seem that relevant to me as a reader.
I was having to overthink to connect all the dots and this then made this hard work and not the easy read I was anticipating.

This did pick up in the second half and things became a lot more interesting from there, but without this, I think this would definitely have been a DNF from me.
I persevered with this mainly because I do usually rate this particular author very highly so I wanted to see if it would get any better.
On a side note that epilogue definitely threw a whole lot of shade on things that’s for sure.

Overall the writing itself was fine but I just didn’t really enjoy it I’m definitely not averse to reading other books by this author in the future as I have mentioned earlier I’ve liked past stuff of hers unfortunately this one for me was not up to her usual standard and I was largely disappointed.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Whole Truth.

This is one book in a series about the life of Detective Inspector Adam Fawley. I haven’t read any of the others but found it easy to begin reading. There are two plots running side by side and I didn’t understand why there were two. The first is the allegations made against a prominent college faculty member but the more pressing issue is whether a recent murder linked to DI Fawley is actually about a former case of Fawley’s and a newly released convict.
I enjoyed the way the book was written and read it quickly which is a good sign, but just felt it tailed off at the end and didn’t do the book justice. It read like an exercise in tying up the loose ends and the way the murder was ‘ solved’ just didn’t seem plausible. I also felt Marina’s character was just sort of left hanging and her case was a damp squib. I felt there were unanswered questions with several of the characters but maybe there will be another in the series and maybe these books need to read as a whole, rather than individually.

This is my first book by Cara Hunter & I actually didn't realise it was part of a series until I started reading! Thankfully you can read it as a standalone book & there's a really handy guide to who's who at the beginning which was a great touch & a nice introduction to DI Fawley & his team!

This is absolutely my kind of book & I thought it was brilliant! The story had me hooked straight away & had a storyline where I was desperate to find out what actually happened! There's no proper chapters in this so at times it was a bit hard to keep up with, but I loved the post cast sections & the text messages/notepad images in. This it was something different & worked really well!

The storyline itself is really good. There's actually 2 storylines running alongside each other & it just works so well! I find all the police investigative work really interesting anyway so that was an added bonus! You're not sure what to believe & its very unpredictable! There's a few twists thrown in which were so good (no spoilers though!)

The characters are all great & I feel like you really get to know the team. It says in the acknowledgements that this is being made into a tv series which I hope happens! The team gave me major AC12 vibes with their relationships with each other & their banter 🙌

Off to add the rest of the DI Fawley series to my Amazon wishlist 🤣🙌!

I always enjoy the Adam Fawley stories so was looking forward to this one. I was intrigued but slightly irritated that there were two stories within the book, which I know probably reflects real life, but I prefer not to chop and change from chapters about an alleged rape to ones about a murder. I liked the inclusion of the podcasts but unfortunately for me as I read on a kindle I couldn’t read the texts or handwritten notes as I couldn’t enlarge them, which obviously left me a little in the dark. I don’t think this is the best in this series but I liked it anyway.

This is the fifth book in the 'DI Adam Fawley' series by Cara Hunter set in and around Oxford. I have now read all of the instalments except book two - In The Dark - which I hope to get around to soon. I think there is some benefit in reading at least one of the other books first for character development and to maximise the enjoyment of the story, however, each of the stories has its uniqueness.

The Whole Truth was a compulsive read with plenty of twists and turns, many of which were a surprise. The story followed the format of a single timeline as it developed through changing scenes, told mainly from the points of view of Adam and various others, who each had their troubles, personal problems, dilemmas, and difficulties to bear. Everything was all so well executed by Cara Hunter and it kept me reading enthusiastically.

Cara Hunter's writing style continues to be very natural, realistic and absorbing. Similar to previous instalments, the author has effectively peppered the tale with the inclusion of newspaper articles, emails, voicemails, podcasts, suspect interviews, phone calls, and even more. The crimes committed made this book a disconcerting read but I appreciated the author’s sensitive handling of the plot lines. The plot was clever and it was impossible to predict what was coming next, making The Whole Truth all the more compelling right until the shocking ending.

Cara Hunter's characterisation was tremendous and certainly not neglected in favour of the plot or anything else. I love this team of characters and cannot wait to read more in the series.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Penguin Books (UK) via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I’m a big fan of the author’s books and this one was an impressive addition to her DI Adam Fowley series. 

Interesting plot stories with characters that you think you know everything about them from the beginning and just like any police procedural book, all the clues give the impression of an easy catch. But the author intertwined different layers into a page turner twisted novel. 

It was hard to keep up with some parts but everything comes together in the end and makes it a must read story overall.

Wow wow wow! I had high expectations for this crime procedural and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The fifth instalment in the Fawley series, however can definitely be read as a stand-alone thanks to a handy summary at the beginning of the book of the key members of Fawley’s team. I would urge you to start from the beginning though, as the whole series is excellent.  
 
I looooved the layout of this one! Snippets of a podcast, tweets, interviews and investigative reports. It’s a very fresh and contemporary take on a crime novel. I sometimes find crime series can be quite samey, yet Cara manages to ensure every book is different and The Whole Truth certainly is unlike any of the others in the Fawley series. You’re taken on a wild ride full of twists and surprises, with no idea where the story is heading. The book begins with a sexual assault complaint, and running alongside that, a young woman is reported missing after failing to turn up to work. I don’t want to say too much without spoiling it, so GO AND READ IT!  
 
In fact, go and read the entire series. You won’t be disappointed, Cara has become one of my favourite authors for very good reason! It blows my mind how such a masterpiece can be created with everything intertwining perfectly and all ends being tied up.