Thriller set in Oxford

29th April 2021

The Whole Truth by Cara Hunter, thriller set in Oxford.

This is another title that has been part of my lockdown audiobook experience and very gripping it was too.

This is no.5 of in the DI Adam Fawley series and the narrative opens up with a quick introduction to the characters populating the storyline. This does tend to put me off because I anticipate an issue with understanding the relationships, but the author lays them out neatly and it is easy to negotiate the personalities of Adam Fawley’s investigating team and those in his personal life.

The novel opens at an Oxford College set outside the town, at Edith Launceleve College (what a great name!), where a muscled post grad student is accusing his tutor of sexual assault. That certainly sets the investigators aflutter and the reader is teased with the twists and turns of this case. The author captures the tension between town and gown very well.

Add into the mix the murder of a relatively young woman, where there are echoes of a frightening case that took place at the end of the 20th Century (referencing perpetrator Gavin Parrie, which has a whole load of history for both Fawley and his wife), and the author has created a tinderbox combination of storylines. She further adds quality depth by making the  mother of the victim of the sexual assault a politician; Alex Fawley is pregnant (and Adam and Alex, as a couple, have quite a sad backstory) and the murdered woman is/was Alex’s friend.

The author also feeds in podcasts, newspaper snippets and WhatsApp conversations, which cynically one might say is an easy way to fill in the holes in the story – but actually, it is done in a channel-hopping way and works remarkably well. This is a narrative that has a really good flow and pace and has the right level of snappy storytelling that keeps the reader hooked. I can really see this series on TV and as I understand it there are plans afoot, so keep an eye open!

If you enjoy this one, which can certainly be read as a stand alone, then you have another 4 in the series to catch up on.

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