Cara Hunter has beautifully created the narrative of Luke Ryder's 2003 strange murder in his own backyard garden is told in this gripping and captivating thriller. Although the case made headlines, it was never resolved. His stepson is currently collaborating with the cast of the popular Netflix series Infamous to try and find out what actually happened to Luke. Bringing in a top-notch team of specialists, they will speak with the family, question long-standing suspects, and maybe even discover the truth.

I started this book too late at night, thinking I would read a couple of pages and then turn in for the night. I was engrossed in this novel from the beginning and stayed up until the early hours of the morning due to its intriguing nature. There are papers, newspaper clippings, transcripts, and interviews in this mixed-media tale. This storytelling technique was incredibly enjoyable, and I believe it made me turn the pages more quickly. I couldn't take my eyes off the page because of how quickly the tale moved along and how tense it was.

I adored how Hunter told this tale. I had no idea who to trust as we got to meet the many professionals and family members, and I remained in complete ignorance until the very end. The surprising turns that I never see coming are one of my favourite things about the DI Fawley series, and Murder in the Family was no exception. The interactions between the experts also piqued my interest, particularly when more about the murder came to light and it became apparent that some of the specialists weren't who they initially appeared to be. Naturally, the conclusion was shocking, but it was also really well done.

One thing I especially enjoy about Cara Hunter's Adam Fawley books is how she interweaves media excerpts into the story to provide readers with information and insights that the protagonists' point of view is blind to at that particular moment. When I first came across this stand-alone work from the same author, I was unaware that it went so far as to completely do away with typical prose narrative—something I just learned about from reading the synopsis. 

In its most recent season, the well-known true crime programme "Infamous" is taking things a step further by including a reality component in the investigation. Twenty years after his stepfather was brutally murdered when he was ten years old, the show's director is getting a panel of specialists to examine the case, though without the involvement of the official police, at his former home, which is now owned by his half-brother and is being watched over by one of his sisters from an annexe. With two former police detectives (one from the UK and one from the US), a prominent lawyer, two forensics experts from very different professions, and a freelance journalist who covered the initial police probe, the investigative team appears to have a wide range of expertise at first glance. 

But as the narrative goes on, it appears that every one of them is connected to the victim or other people living in his home.

The narrative is conveyed by a combination of newspaper clippings (which include additional episode reviews from The Times for every episode), emails between the investigators and other witnesses or suspects, texts between Guy's sisters, threads from a true crime message board, and shooting scripts/transcripts from each episode. Readers and characters gradually discover that the victim was not who he had claimed to be and that everyone connected to the case or the play is concealing personal information. Even though I knew the killer quite well by the end, I was nonetheless taken aback by a few of the shocking revelations.

It goes without saying that binge-reading does exist. After you settle into the presentation, episode cliffhangers captivate you and force you to keep reading. It was really simple for me to understand, and I valued the additional components. A newspaper columnist's evaluation and the most recent comments on social media discussion forums accompany each episode. This storyline just kept getting better. The trajectory would shift just when I felt like I was making progress towards understanding things. We are therefore kept in suspense until the very end. If you're not attentive, though, you might overlook a further twist tucked away in the final two newspaper clippings. Murder in the Family offers a novel viewpoint on mysteries and paves the way for a novel strategy for maintaining reader interest.