Hope to Die is the sixth outing for DI Adam Fawley and this series has become a must-read series for me. Initially a clear-cut case of a burglary at a remote property, it soon becomes clear that there's a lot more to it than first seemed and the case appears to be linked to a previous case in which a woman was convicted for killing a child. It’s a fascinating plot which kept delivering curveball after curveball.

Plot aside, I always know I'm onto a winner with these books because of the characters. I love Adam Fawley and was pleased to see his home life on more of an even keel this time round. His team are just as important to the story though and I enjoyed the dynamics between them all, old and new. What I also really enjoy is the format with a mixture of news reports, websites, police interviews, and in this case a transcript of a Netflix series, being woven into the narrative. It makes it so much more interesting and fast-paced, offering different ways to view the investigation.

Cara Hunter has once again produced a brilliant crime thriller/police procedural which kept me glued to the page. I do hope more Fawley is on the way, especially as some possible future developments were hinted at for him. Hope to Die is intelligent and exciting with a complex case at its heart and regular characters that I love to read about. I loved it. ( )

It seems straightforward, a man is shot dead by the aged owner of an isolated house, he claims it was a burglar. However DI Fawley is not so sure and when DNA links the dead man to a notorious case about a child killer and then he discovers that the householders were also involved in this case it all blows up. Now Fawley and his team are fighting to find the truth, both for the dead man now and the lost child in 1997, and all in the spotlight of the media.
Hunter is a consummate writer of very modern police procedurals which draw on classic plotlines but are firmly embedded in the here and now. I love the use of social media references and excerpts from tweets, comments etc as they round out the plot. Here not all the ends are completely tied off, there are gaping holes that are not filled, but the story is very clever with a breathless final set of scenes. ( )

This was intriguing and gripping. I'm deducting the half-star for the ridiculously tiny print used for the Netflix script sections and for the unanswered questions at the end.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Who was the father of the other babies? Why didn't Camilla get Noah adopted rather than abandoning him? Why did no one notice she was pregnant? - I can believe a first full-term pregnancy might hardly show, but a third??? - Was her father abusing her? ( )