REVIEW: Close to Home by Cara Hunter

Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley #1) by Cara Hunter

Genre: Crime Fiction, Domestic Thriller, Psychological Thriller

Read: 6th August 2018

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

★★★★★ 5 stars

CLOSE TO HOME is a book that's been on my TBR list for a while so I finally got around to it...and I am impressed. Another debut thriller that intrigues and grips you right away.

"Someone took Daisy Mason. Someone you know."

When eight year old Daisy Mason disappears during a fancy dress summer BBQ, the race is on to find her. She appears to have vanished without a trace beneath everyone's noses and no one noticed a thing. Her parents Barry and Sharon Mason appear to be cold and distant, and very unco-operative - a sign that they are hiding something. When making a TV appeal, social media comes alive and begins a hate campaign against the parents. Barry doesn't make eye contact, is hostile and clearly hiding something. Sharon is obsessed with appearances with freshly painted nails, perfect hair, a knock-off designer hand bag and stiletto heels. It is clear from the get-go that something is not right with this family.

DI Adam Fawley is tasked with the investigation of finding Daisy before it's too late. We learn from early on in the story that he too has lost a child, though it isn't revealed until near the end how or why. I like the fact he remains married, despite his loss, as all too often the "divorced cop" cliche is a common theme throughout many police procedurals. I liked DI Fawley right away and the fact there was no in house bitching and squabbling between the ranks of his team. They made for strong characters and I look forward to getting to know them in the future.

The main focus is on Daisy's parents and her brother Leo as Fawley and his team dig deep into their stories and ultimately their pasts to try and make sense of what lead to the disappearance of their daughter. We see from the beginning that Sharon is more concerned with appearances than her daughter's disappearance and that Barry appears aloof and secretive. At the heart of this sad story is Daisy's brother Leo. Where does he fit in? And what has happened to him? It appears no one seems to care about little Leo at all!

Then comes the shocking revelations from Daisy's friends that she had a "secret friend" and that it was a "secret". Combing through the school CCTV footage, the team discover Daisy at the edge of the school playground and at the school gates, with a big smile on her face as she disappears from view with a teenage boy no one seems to know. Who was this boy? What did this mean? And now does it relate to her disappearance? All children have what they deem as "secrets" but as the team pull back the layers of Daisy's life, it seems that she is not all that she appears.

Written mostly from DI Fawley's perspective, with additional POV's shared throughout, CLOSE TO HOME is a fast paced thriller that shifts back and forth in time from before and after Daisy's disappearance. I loved how the mystery kept me guessing throughout and I wasn't even close to figuiring out the culprit until right at the end in the final reveal.

My only complaint is that (and I don't know if it was just my copy) I didn't like the fact there were no chapters. Yes, there were "breaks" between scenes and different parts of the story but there were no chapters. Just Prologue, Close to Home and Epilogue, as listed in the contents on my Kindle.

CLOSE TO HOME is half police procedural, half domestic thriller. The pace was electric, never letting up throughout with the reader given loads of information to digest - clues, red herrings and innuendoes that keep you guessing. I definitely recommend to those who enjoy this genre and who like "who did it?" missing child stories.