If there’s one thing that comes close to the enjoyment of a new Cara Hunter novel, it’s attending the launch party for a Cara Hunter novel.
I’ve been very lucky over the years to be invited to the gatherings to mark publication of my friend Cara’s ingenious Adam Fawley crime stories, going back to the first, Close to Home, set in 2016 and published in 2017.
The seventh in this best-selling and widely acclaimed series, Making a Killing, was published this week (11 February 2025) and picks up the Close to Home story eight years on.
You may recall [SPOILER ALERT] Close to Home ended with Fawley and his team apparently solving the disappearance of little Daisy Mason, and her mother being jailed for the girl’s murder. Only for us (but not Fawley and his team) to discover she wasn’t dead at all!
In this latest case, Daisy is back on the scene and seemingly implicated in a real murder – a grisly one with potential connections to witchcraft. It’s a fascinating scenario (as you’d expect from my ridiculously clever friend Cara). The first half of the book sees the police catching up with what we already know – Daisy wasn’t killed, and an innocent woman has spent years in jail.
Our heroes were duped, not by a Professor Moriarty, but the combined criminal masterminds of a school teacher and her eight-year-old pupil. Oops! Now they aim to do a better job of solving this new mystery of the body in the woods and Daisy’s apparent involvement.
As with previous Fawley books, the story twists and turns, wrong-footing the reader (me at any rate) every time. It races along at pace, through a range of media – emails, diary entries, and for the first time a Jungian ‘shadow journal’ completed by Daisy herself and revealing some of the dark secrets which have driven her to this point.
I’ve run out of superlatives to describe Cara’s work, so please check it for yourself. Making a Killing is available as a hardback from Harper Collins and in other formats, with a paperback to follow.
But what of the all-important launch party? Well, this was another super fizz-fuelled gathering in Oxford’s stunning Lincoln College (pictured). As I’ve noted before, Cara’s friends are a splendid bunch, and she assembled a fascinating collection of guests, worthy of any classic crime fiction story.
I enjoyed chats with a yoga teacher, an architectural historian, and (rare in Oxford) even a fellow Torquay United supporter.
Among the many I didn’t get to meet that evening was a famous Emmy-awarded actress. It really was quite a cast!
Congratulations and thanks to the incredible Cara Hunter for another triumph and for inviting us to join the launch celebrations. Thanks too for kindly mentioning me in the notes and acknowledgements. But I have one quibble about these – they end with a hint about the next book and the words “All I need now is a good idea…” As if there aren’t a thousand brilliant ideas already taking shape in that incredible mind!
You can revisit my posts about Cara’s previous books here:
No Way Out (the one with PC Andy Weltch)
If you’re a writer or publisher looking for help with editing, proofreading, or other editorial services, please check out Weltch Media here.
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