Cara Hunter
IF YOU thought Cara Hunter’s DI Fawley series couldn’t get
any better after last year’s pulsating No Way Out, then get your hands on All
the Rage and enjoy a writer at the peak of her powers. From a leafy corner of Oxford, Hunter is fast finding a
comfortable perch on the upper branches of the flourishing crime-writing tree,
penning chilling, thrilling and gripping novels set in the city that spawned
the unforgettable Inspector Morse.
Steeped in gritty reality, spine-tingling tension and
clever, complex detective work, rendered so authentic that you feel like you
are tagging along with the murder squad, Hunter’s crime series has won
widespread acclaim for its artful plotting and an original narrative device
which features news reports, social media posts, police interviews and
scene-of-crime reports, allowing readers intriguing insights into a police
investigation.
The result is superbly crafted, fast-paced mysteries
starring a cast of compelling characters from all walks of life, contemporary
issues that are often hard-hitting and deeply emotive, and stories with more
twists and turns than a snakes-and-ladders board.
In this new outing for DI Adam Fawley, a taxi driver finds a
dazed and distressed teenage girl wandering down a road on the outskirts of
Oxford. The story she tells is terrifying… she was dragged off the street, a
plastic bag pulled over her face and her wrists tied, and then driven to an
isolated location where she was subjected to what sounds like a serious
assault.
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| DEVILISH TWISTS: Cara Hunter |
The victim is 18-year-old fashion student Faith Appleyard
who, despite her ordeal, initially refused to report the incident to the police
and, with her mother’s support, is now refusing to press charges, claiming it
was just ‘a prank.’
Despite Faith’s reluctance to co-operate, Fawley and his
detectives are doing their best to investigate, but is the teenager hiding
something, and if so, what? And why does the inspector keep getting the uncomfortable feeling
that this case has similarities to the 1999 conviction of a man called Gavin
Parry, known as the Roadside Rapist, who Fawley was instrumental in putting
behind bars on a life sentence, but who always vehemently claimed he was innocent.
When another teenager goes missing, Fawley knows his time is
running out… because if he ignores the past any longer, this girl may not be
coming back.
Reading Hunter’s new thriller is an electrifying, utterly engrossing
experience. Information drip-feeds into the story like a constantly flowing stream,
unloading explosive revelations like scatter-bombs, and turning all
expectations on their head right up until the final, jaw-dropping page. As always the resourceful Fawley, and his eclectic team, including
intriguing new face DC Anthony Asante, are at the beating heart of the
investigation with their personal and professional lives perfectly balanced
against the unfolding of a fascinating mystery which abounds with red herrings,
devilish twists, and witnesses and suspects whose guilt or innocence seem to
fluctuate at every turn.
It’s a testing time for Fawley on every level as he and his wife
Alex – still haunted by the death of their young son – discover that she is pregnant
again, and he tackles a baffling crime that leads him into the dark recesses of
social media, and throws up serious questions over his handling of a
20-year-old rape case. With its masterful plotting, superb police procedural, rich
characterisation, tension that bristles like a coiled spring, and Hunter’s
brand of leavening dark humour, All the Rage is about as good as crime writing
gets.
(Penguin, paperback, £7.99)
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