Close to Home by Cara Hunter

DI Adam Fawley, Book 1

Synopsis: They know who did it. Perhaps not consciously. Perhaps not yet. But they know. 

When eight-year-old Daisy Mason vanishes from her family’s Oxford home during a costume party, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley knows that nine times out of ten, the offender is someone close to home. And Daisy’s family is certainly strange—her mother is obsessed with keeping up appearances, while her father is cold and defensive under questioning. And then there’s Daisy’s little brother, so withdrawn and uncommunicative . . .

DI Fawley works against the clock to find any trace of the little girl, but it’s as if she disappeared into thin air—no one saw anything; no one knows anything. But everyone has an opinion, and everyone, it seems, has a secret to conceal.

Review: This is a new detective novel that I really enjoyed. The topic, which is really relevant, intrigued me a lot and I was curious to discover how the survey was conducted.

A little girl has disappeared at a party. Nobody knows how, by whom or what happened. No, nobody saw a thing. Then a race against the clock begins to try to find the 8 years old girl, but when the characters lie to keep their secrets, everything gets complicated. New elements are added continually and posing great doubts about the course of the events.

I really had a good time with the story and I was completely carried away by the investigation. The author manages to surprise us continually and I admit that I really had not seen this end coming! There are many reversals of situation and doubt arises on many of the characters.

The novel is divided between present and past narration, allowing us to understand in what context Daisy has disappeared. We discover the family life, not a simple one, with Sharon, Barry and their two children Leo and Daisy.

You can understand that this first novel is a good discovery and the investigation is very interesting. I wonder what the author will propose later.