I was totally gripped by this from the first page. I think it does help if a reader has some of the back story , in this case the history of the relationship between Inspector Alex Fawley and his pregnant partner, and their haunting loss, and their intertwined past with convicted serial rapist Gavin Parrie.
The main plot is a surprising twist on the theme of the sexually predatory academic and the attractive talented student,, who is in this case a male 6ft rugby player.
I agree with some of other reviewers who felt that the two plots were rather tangential. My other difficulty was that the devices that the author uses to push the narrative on, including transcripts of emails were very difficult to read on my Kindle edition.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, I loved the book and devoured it in a couple of sittings.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from Netgalley and this is my honest review.

I enjoyed this book, it’s a good police procedural and it tackles a lot of stereotypes about the he said/she said accusations that can happen. That being said, I don’t think it works very well as a stand-alone, I have read one of the previous books so I had some idea of the characters but there was a fair bit of the interactions with some of the regular characters that just went over my head. It doesn’t detract from either of the main stories but it is slightly frustrating even with the character explanations at the start of the book. The other thing that bothered me a bit was that there seemed to be two main stories going on that didn’t really tie in with each other, it felt like the story advertised actually ended up being more a sub plot, I think maybe that’s a problem with the synopsis rather than the story itself but I would have preferred a bit more interaction to bring it all together. Perhaps if that had been there I would have given this book a 5 star, it has all the right ingredients with character and story but didn’t mesh as well as it could have for me.

Ah, another great one by Cara Hunter! Since I read her first book, Close to Home, I've been hooked and The Whole Truth was another fantastic novel.

It was great to spend time with Adam Fawley and his team again and the twists in this book are amazing, I don't think I was expecting any of them! I had to stay up till 1am yesterday to finish it because I couldn't sleep without knowing what was going to happen. Even though the beginning was a bit slow, it was a great read and I highly recommend it!

This is the fifth book in a popular detective series and it maintains it's grip as we begin with a sexual assault accusation that's a bit different than one might expect. Then, there's a possible miscarriage of justice from a previous conviction that's been picked up as a podcast.

In and amongst this, is the relationship of DI Adam Fawley and his pregnant partner, Alex.

It moves along well and for me what added to the interest were the insertion of things like; A screenshot of texts / Tweets / A page showing details of injuries sustained / Clips from the podcast. All these things maintained my interest and gave a 'different' flavour to what could be a run of the mill, police procedural. This isn't that.

The police team involved all have separate back stories and are interesting characters in themselves.
Overall, this is a cleverly constructed, riveting read and if you're interested, I'd urge you to start with the first book, although, this one can definitely be read as a stand alone.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin UK and the author for the opportunity to preview.

I had read her previous book and my comments on that one are similar. although this one kept my interest a little more. The problem with this series is that they are not really stand-alone; you ned to know the background of the main characters to appreciate them fully. She gives a brief biography at the beginning but there are a lot of detectives to keep track of and I found it difficult to empathize with any of them. The story is two-fold - a serial rapist just out of jail and a sexual assault accusation from a male student by his female tutor. As the focus is on the detectives, the criminal characters are not well rounded - in fact they range from evil to just plain nasty, as are the crimes which are too graphically depicted for me. I have no way of knowing if the detection procedures are accurate but they seem to depend on luck and intuition rather than careful slogging investigation. The writing is quite pacey but the plot switches from one case to another which is confusing.
In her acknowledgements the author says tells us that a TV series will be made of the books. I can imagine a more violent kind of Midsomer Murders but I don't think Adam Fawley will be the new Morse or Frost.

I read this in one day - a really good read. I have read all the DI Fawley novels and have enjoyed getting to know his team over the series so far. Here there are two investigations going on - one a sexual assault case of a male student by a female professor. Secondly the murder of a social worker where the chief suspect is the DI.

Fast paced with twists throughout - compulsive reading.

Cara Hunter can count me as one of her fans by now; this is her fifth book in the series set around the Oxford police team headed by inspector Alex Fawley which gets better with every book. It happens rarely that I am left so completely in the dark about whodunit and Cara Hunter manages it perfectly. Hunter’s mysteries usually have two crimes going, the prose of the plot is interwoven and spiced up with emails, twitter snippets, WhatsApp messages and police investigation reports. In “The Whole Truth” Fawley’s team is called in to look at an unusual accusation: a male student for a change, Caleb Morgan, accuses his female professor Marina Fisher, a leading expert on Artificial Intelligence and rising star of his college, of assaulting him sexually while babysitting her son. The second crime is a murder which derails the Fawley team completely; I will not reveal more as it would ruin the nail biting part of the novel. If you are in the mood for a very clever British crime novel set in Oxford with plenty of twist and turns that will keep you guessing how on the earth the author is going to resolve this one, ”The Whole Truth” is a very good pick. Hats off to Cara Hunter for creating such a terrific, tense crime story. A tiny piece of critique: I like my crime novel endings very tidy and this one felt a bit too lose for my taste but perhaps just right for others.

This is 5th book in the DI Fawley series, I have read all of them and have loved every single one. I was itching to read this one when I read the description.

Cara Hunter's style of writing is gripping, thrilling and also original. I say it is original because of the news clippings, the podcast that runs throughout the book and interview transcripts. Each of these items make the plot feel real and give more of an explanation into what is happening. The way in which Cara's writing style is gripping is the fact that the book is not set out in chapters, more like diary entries and media articles.

I love the team of detectives and I feel i empathize with them especially the protagonist DI Fawley.

I could not put the book down as I wanted to the plot to unfold and develop.

I am looking forward to reading more of Cara's books - I hope she brings out more soon!

The latest Cara Hunter book - yes please!

This is the latest in the DI Adam Fawley series, which is such a brilliant series it is going to be made for TV.

DI Fawley is investigating allegations of sexual abuse. It is alleged a female professor has sexually assaulted her male student at Oxford. During the investigation another crime is committed needing DI Fawley’s attention. The body of a woman has been found on railway tracks. Luckily two railway workers spotted the body falling from a bridge and were able to stop the train which would have hit it. It looked like a suicide but the police are not so sure.

DI Fawley’s wife is heavily pregnant and very concerned for her safety as the ‘Roadside Rapist’ has just been released from prison. Alex was his third victim and the only one to have had DNA evidence found. This is how he was finally caught. The rapist had always said he was innocent and he vowed he would get his revenge when he was released. Now Alex sees him watching her outside her home from his white van.

We have many twists and turns along the way to keep the interest of the story going and an ending you won’t see coming! It is not a grab you immediately book but more of a slow burner which reels you in until you can’t put it down.

I enjoyed the way the book was written as there are various text messages, interviews, emails and newspaper articles along with the text of the book to make the story more authentic.

As always with Cara’s books I would highly recommend this.

An attractive student. An older Professor.
Think you know the story? Think again.

I was lucky enough to be approved to read this on @netgalley

I've not read any @carahunterauthor before & this was a great read.

I felt captivated by the storyline & had no idea how it was going to turn out.

The descriptions helped me visualise the characters & their surroundings.

Twists & turns along the way kept my attention.

Instagram @whatkelreads

Cara Hunter does it again! This is the fifth instalment in the DI Adam fawley series and this one was equally as good as the rest.

Thank you to Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for sending me an advance kindle edition in exchange for an honest review. I was delighted that I got to read this book early as Hunter is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.

Hunters' writing style is so easy to read although I have to admit I had to remind myself of previous storylines in order to make sense of this one. If you haven't read any of the DI Fawley series, I would urge you to at least read book number 4 prior to this one, as it will make this one much easier to follow.

I really like the way that Hunter uses multi media elements. Newspaper accounts, podcasts, WhatsApp and Twitter feeds all feature in this book as they have done in previous Fawley books. Their inclusion is great, makes the story contemporary and really adds to the feel of the book.

Cara Hunter is incredibly clever at making sure everything fits in the end. Although I guessed the ending in the Fawley storyline, I didn't guess the twist in the sexual assult storyline, and Hunter had me gripped till the very end for that one.

The only disappointing thing about this book is that I have to wait another year for the next one!

I can't recommend this series enough - The characters are so believable and have developed as the books have. As a reader you are invested in what happens to them, which is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster in book 5!

This was incredible! I haven’t read any of the other books in the series but the introduction to this book gave me enough information to proceed with this story without any prior reading. Having said that, I would love to now read the previous titles. This is an extremely gripping story and I really look forward to being able to watch it as a TV series in the future!

This is the fifth book in a crime series featuring DI Fawley. I hadn't read the others but this works well as a stand alone novel as there are enough references to past events for the reader to be able to engage. The author uses a range of devices to drive the narrative including diary entries, transcripts of interviews and podcasts, and mobile phone messages. While this is an interesting way to approach the plot, I found it rather distracting and disjointed. Despite this the book is well plotted.

Captivating! Sexual assault, murder, miscarriage of justice, corrupt policeman - its all very mysterious and just when its all starting to make sense, there are so many twists and turns, nothing is what it seems.
Cleverly crafted, I normally break at the end of each chapter but this isn't written in chapters! It comes in a series of reports, diaries, social media accounts and as a result I was completely drawn in and read it in a couple of sittings. Can be read alone but probably best read as a series.
Interesting and intriguing. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it.

This is the fourth book in the police series, and references a previous case throughout, so maybe best to read the books in order. Having said that, the book starts with a profile of the main characters so you can dive straight in. It’s a great read, mixing up a few different cases with no one really sure of who is the injured party. I also like the way it is a mixture of prose, transcripts from interviews, pages from notepads and text messages. A recommended read.

WOW!! First of all the title alone should give you the clue that whatever the truth is we can never see the full picture.
DI Fawley and his team find all their preconceptions turned upside down in the case of an accusation of sexual harassment by a student against a professor, what are they to think when the student in question is a strapping rugby player and the harasses is a female professor? This has echoes of the real comments made by police at the time of the Mary Kay letourneau case and shows that realistically we have not come very far as a society in the way we view men as victims.
However the truth is a tenuous thing and the book cleverly leads the reader down one set of ideas and thoughts before flipping over to another. Using visuals such as newspaper headline, tweets, text messages on phone screens and the script of a podcast concerning Fawleys own family the reader is kept stimulated and off balance until the end.
Fawley faces a reckoning of his own which again plays with the trope of truth - what are you to believe, your eyes or the small voice in the back of your head that tells you this cannot be true??
Fantastic read, I would recommend to any fans of Colin Dexter, Claire Mackintosh, Sally Hepworth and anyone who enjoys multiple narrator POV

I absolutely love this series! If you've not come across this author before don't start here, start at the beginning with close to home.

Great characters, a believable plot line, told in an interesting way, with snippets of news and online content. Crime fiction doesn't get much better than this.

More please...

This was fresh, intriguing and a real page turner. It’s part of a series but works just as well as a stand-alone book, I will be reading the other though. I liked that there was more than one case being investigated and that there are quite a few twists. I’d highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for an advance copy to review.

You had better make sure you are not interrupted, if at all possible, because this is a gripping read, and I couldn't put it down until I was finished, and then I could not guess the ending. Magnificent crime writing from the author, I will be getting more of her books!

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin General UK and especially Cara Hunter. All opinions are my own.

'Could he, in fact, be so unstable, under such intolerable pressure, that he actually did this?'

Oh.... my......God!!! This was utterly fantastic!
Its the first I have read by Cara and it certainly won't be the last.

Following two storylines one of serial assault between a teacher and a student that keeps getting flipped on its head. You have no idea who to believe then when you think you know, you really really don't.
The other a rape and murder case involving DI Fawley linking to an old case of a serial rapist, another storyline brimming with twists!

Several things I loved about this are the character bios at the start, this really helped me as a first time reader of the series so thank you for that Cara.

The whole team get their lives, their actions all told in their own perspective which made this feel like it had layers upon layers of intricately crafted story. So much so they felt more real than anything I have ever read.

The podcasts throughout where a welcome addition to the overall story and brilliantly done.

Then the last quarter had my heart pounding, the whole section felt so urgent, I was completely hooked.

What a fantastic bit of writing and it truly deserves the 5*

'Standing next to me in this lonely crowd
Is a man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shout so loud Crying out that he was framed I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now I shall be released.'