Making A Killing by Cara Hunter - Review

As you may know, I really like Cara Hunter's books, especially the DI Adam Fawley series. In fact I've read all of them, and periodically I check Netgalley to see if another book has been put there. For ages there hasn't been any, sadly. But then I got an email from HarperCollins offering me the chance to read this brand new book in the series. I was so pleased and of course said yes immediately, and then picked this up just a couple of weeks later. 

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

When I read the premise for this book I couldn't believe what I was reading! Way back in the first book, reviewed here on this blog, Daisy Mason went missing. She was eight years old and her body was never found, but her mother Sharon is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of her daughter. The next few books took place over only a couple of years. We were last in Oxford with Adam in 2018, when his new baby daughter Lily was only a few months old. I did wonder at that time what Cara would do to jump forward in time, as that book was written in 2022. Well, wonder no more. 

It's 2024. Adam's team has been disbanded; he is working in counter terrorism or something. Quinn is in uniform high up somewhere. Erica Somer is working with young victims in the court system. But the gang is getting back together, because... 

There are new cops around too, in Gloucestershire. They include Triona Bradley, who I really liked - I would like to see more from her in future for sure. A dog walker (it's always the dog walkers) finds a body in a shallow grave near an old oak tree that has a gruesome history to do with witchcraft. The police don't know who the woman who has been killed is, but the duct tape that has been used to tie her up contains a hair. And that hair belongs to Daisy Mason. 

She is therefore still alive, and would be now sixteen. Adam is called to Gloucestershire to head up reopening the case and going back over everything that the team thought they knew back in 2016. (Cara acknowledges herself that this would never have been allowed to happen, but let's go with it for the sake of storytelling). Quinn and Everett are back. They have to find out where Daisy has been and of course, they have to tell Sharon that she's innocent - as she's always protested - and release her from prison. 

Meanwhile Bradley and co are on with finding out who the body in the grave is, as well as trying to find out how she is related to Daisy and Daisy's case. I liked the story but found Daisy a little bit OTT in some ways. I did have to suspend my belief a few times, but I found it compelling. I did also think there were just a couple too many characters which made it sometimes hard to keep track of who was who. But in all I liked the book and am giving it four out of five.