Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Making a Killing in return for my honest review.
I’m really enjoying the DCI Fawley series this is the 7th in the series and the second featuring Daisy Mason, this can however be read as a standalone as at the beginning of the book there are detailed descriptions the main characters. This is a really well written story with plenty of twists and turns to keep you reading.
I only have one issue and that is the use of newspaper clippings and pictures do not translate well on my kindle.
I definitely recommend reading this book and the others in the series.

During a walk with her daughter's Labrador, Margaret Collier makes an unsettling discovery in the woods: a young woman buried in a shallow grave near a tree where a woman was once held captive and tragically died, accused of witchcraft.  A hair sample found on duct tape around the victim's wrists unexpectedly connects this case to an eight-year-old cold case involving a murdered girl.  Her mother was convicted and imprisoned, despite the girl's body never being found; therefore, how did her DNA come to be on the duct tape?

Adam Foley has returned to the case with many of his original team members. What aspects might they have missed in their initial investigation, and what could explain the girl's reappearance after eight years?

I thoroughly enjoy this series and really enjoy its cleverly crafted narrative. The story feels remarkably like a true crime account.
This book revisits the first book in the series, where we met the manipulative Daisy and her dysfunctional family.
Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

My crime book obsessed husband and son read this one as they had read the previous book that it relates to. I read it without reading the previous book but the information I needed was all contained within the book so this could easily be read as a standalone book. As it was, we all enjoyed the book.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

must admit i struggled with this one a bit.... though it was well written and thought out i can honestly say its not one of my fav in this series

when a dog walker and her dog find a body its all hands on deck to discover who the victim is... what wasnt expected was a piece of dna evidence pointing towards an already dead person with the perp in jail

and so opens an old case that had originally been thought to have been solved....

DI fawley and his crew are called back to investigate what had gone wrong with the previous conviction because as it stands the person who has been in prison for a number of years is innocent of the crimes that they were put away for...

and so begins a case that is hard to believe considering the age of the perp

This book reads well as a standalone, as I hadn't read the previous one, and has a great plot with a missing child who now may be a killer. The illustrations may not be everybody's cup of tea but they did have their place . There was also the inclusion of another team which at times did confuse the situation especially if you weren't concentrating. Overall I did enjoy the book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

4.5⭐

Making a Killing takes readers back to 2016 and the first case in 'Close to Home' where then Detective Inspector Adam Fawley investigated the presumed killing of 8-year-old Daisy Mason. Whose mum, Sharon, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. Even though Daisy's body was never recovered.

But Adam is sure justice had been done and they had caught and charged the right person.

However, fast forward eight years, and journalist Nick Vincent, host of a true crime show, has received some interesting evidence that could prove Sharon is innocent, and his team are now desperately trying to verify if that's true.

Meanwhile, in the Cotswolds, a body is discovered by a woman walking her dog and forensic evidence links it back to Daisy, which prompts a collaboration between two police forces as they work fervently to piece together the mystery.

Leaving DCI Adam Fawley and his team with the daunting task of revisiting the case and unravelling the intricate layers surrounding Daisy's disappearance. In order to finally uncover what truly happened to Daisy Mason.

And with an interesting protagonist in Adam Fawley. Not to mention a story that is dark, twisted, perplexing, nicely paced and creatively told through mixed media. This was a brilliant read and introduction to a series I can't wait to read more from, and I will definitely be reading Close to Home over the next couple of months!!

I was really glad to see the return of DI Fawley or rather DCI as he is now. He has been one of my favourite fictional characters since I read Close to Home and I’m happy to report that has not changed with the passing of the years or his promotion. This book is book 7 in the series but is effectively a sequel to book 1. Having read book 1 years ago I could remember the outline of what happened but my memory was a bit sketchy on detail. You could definitely read this without having read book 1, however I think it would be great to read them back to back. I love the character summaries for the team at the beginning and it would be great if more authors did this. I hadn’t heard of a shadow journal prior to reading this but it was an interesting way of including that character’s thoughts. I love this series and part of me can’t understand why it hasn’t been picked up for tv but then part of me is glad it hasn’t in case they ruin the characters for me. I’d be happy to see Team Fawley return in future books.

Fast paced, keeps you on edge and you never quite know what's happening even when you think you do. It's hard to say much else without giving the story away. But it's definitely a fun read, when a child who was presumed murdered turns out to be alive and embroiled in a new, current murder and you have to figure out how and why. Honestly you're left with just as many questions as were answered, and you definitely end on a bit of a cliffhanger which for me personally was a bit of a let down, I like a resolution. But overall a good book. Solid 3.5 stars.

A body is found and DNA test on a hair at the scene is found to be of a girl who was murdered 8 years earlier though the body was never found. The team investgates the new crime and the old one. A gripping story that never let's go. Full of good characters and a few red herrings. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thanks to Harpercollins and Netgalley for this review ARC

Absolutely brilliant! The last book in this series was set six years ago and it is so good to catch up with Adam Fawley and his team. A few books ago, Cara Hunter started adding a character summary to the beginning of the book and after a gap in the series, this is a great feature, whether you have read the previous books or not. And on that note, this will absolutely work as a standalone, as there is enough background to catch you up.

In the first book in the series, eight year old Daisy Mason disappeared and her mother was convicted of her murder is currently serving a life sentence. Eight years on, in "Making a Killing", the body of a young woman is discovered and a DNA test on a strand of hair found at the scene, reveals that it belongs to Daisy Mason; SHE WASN'T MURDERED! But is she now a killer?

As well as identifying the dead woman and investigating why she was killed and by whom, the team have to revisit the original Daisy Mason case from 2016. Where has Daisy been for the past eight years? was she abducted? Did she run away? And crucially, where is she now?

I was gripped from the start, as I always am with this incredible series. The writing is excellent, the character development is absolutely spot on, with the perfect balance of the main character's personal lives and the case they are working on, the plot is fast paced, suspenseful and twisty - what's not to love? The ending has some loose ends, which I hope means that there's more to come!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Cara Hunter and Harper Collins for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Oh, the excitement of having a new Adam Fawley book to read!

With this seventh book, we revisit a previous case as new information has changed things. It's been some time since we read about the disappearance of Daisy Mason and things have changed quite a bit both professionally and personally for Adam Fawley.

This is a series I've followed from the beginning and one I really love. The crimes, the team of police officers and everything else have just always gelled together. I feel I missed something in this one as the newspaper reports just don't seem to transfer to kindle and with my arthritic hands not coping with a 'real' book I'll just have to live with it. However, that is no fault of the author's and I wouldn't be so mean as to allow that to take away from the five stars that this novel easily merits. Highly recommended.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley.

You can easily read this book as a stand-alone, but the whole series is so good, I’d certainly recommend starting from the beginning so that you can get to know the characters in this excellent contemporary police procedural series. If you are diving straight in though, Cara Hunter provides a very useful thumbnail sketch of all the main characters to bring you up to speed.

Making A Killing is a follow up to the first book in this series, Close to Home in which the then DI Fawley investigated the disappearance of 8 year old Daisy Mason from her family home. Although Daisy’s body was never found, the evidence that Fawley and his team gathered was sufficient to convict Daisy’s mother, Sharon and she is currently serving a minimum of 25 years for murdering her daughter. Fawley was more than satisfied; he had no doubts about Sharon Morgan’s guilt.

One of Cara Hunter’s trademarks is to make full use of newspaper clippings, texts, WhatsApp messages and other forms of communication such as X and Facebook to throw light on a case and its characters. This makes for a great sense of authenticity as well as drawing you into the action as you read these items contemporaneously with the Police team.

The story opens with a dog walker finding a dead body in the woods. Not just anywhere in the woods, but buried near an old witching tree and the body has something resembling a bridle scold in her mouth. Spooky huh? Well, you’d think so, until forensic pathology make their really spooky discovery. There’s a red hair stuck to a piece of tape on the victim’s body. It does not belong to the as yet unnamed victim, but it does match someone on the Police database. The hair belongs to Daisy Mason!

How can that be possible? And if it is possible, how can the hair have got there? Fawley’s boss calls him and asks him to get as many of the original team together as he can. Because of his prior involvement in the case, he’s best placed to see what he missed, but he and the team will be overseen by a senior policeman to avoid any conflicts of interest.

From there, the case takes a déjà vu turn, with Fawley bringing back his old team from points afar, going over the old case, re-interviewing the original witnesses and starting to sketch out theories as to what could have happened.

There’s nothing more serious for a policeman than a miscarriage of justice and Fawley is at a loss to understand how he could have got it to wrong – if indeed he did. As the team carefully retrace their steps on the case, the impact on the team is profound and none the more so than on Adam Fawley.

It’s absolutely fascinating and all the more so if you have read Close to Home. Cara Hunter has given her readers an intricately plotted, twisty and devilishly clever murder mystery which kept me riveted for hours.

Verdict: It’s great to have D.I. Fawley, Gis, Quinn and others back together again in this really gripping tale that turns on its head everything the Police (and readers) thought they knew. Punchy, with more than one twist in the tail, this book seized me by the throat and would not let go. I highly recommend it.

Cara Hunter is a fabulous writer and wholeheartedly recommend this book. I lost whole afternoon’s as I was so hooked by this book - brilliant!

Morning guys!

Making A Killing by Cara Hunter was a pretty big puzzle, as all the members of the original police enquiry team are brought back together from different stations and job titles, in order to go over an old case. The case is about a little girl who was found to be missing, and her mother sent to prison for her murder. It turns out Daisy may well be still alive after all….
This surrounds a woman’s body found in a shallow grave and physically silenced by a shelf bracket, similar to an old fashioned contraption used eons ago to metaphorically silence women in their death. A hair was found in the tape binding the woman, and this hair belonged to Daisy.
I loved getting to know the characters, and although i hadn’t read the original story, Cara very kindly puts a summary of what happened previously at the start of the book with short facts about each member of the team too, so it’s easy to go on and read this story.
As usual Cara Hunter manages to put intrigue and excitement into her stories and this had a great twist at the end!!
Many thanks to Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley. My opinion is my own.
#Netgalley, #HarperCollins, -#CaraHunterAuthor

I was so excited to request an ARC of Making a Killing, and getting approved felt like winning the bookish lottery! Cara Hunter never misses... her writing is sharp, the twists are on point, and the pacing makes it impossible to put down. Adam Fawley remains one of my favorite detectives!!! balancing intelligence and heart in a way that keeps me invested. The case in this one was layered and full of surprises, and I loved how everything unfolded. Another fantastic addition to the series!

Another cracker from Cara Hunter and a welcome return for Adam Hawley called into reinvestigate a murder someone has already been convicted for… where did this eight year old disappear to and why has her hair been found eight years later on a murder victim?

Well... here we are... book 7 and still as fresh as the proverbial! I do love this series, and as per usual I am going to recommend you read from the start. For all the usual continuity/backstory reasons, but also, basically cos they are all cracking books in themselves!
So... this time we delve back into Fawley's past. When evidence on the body of a woman, just discovered dead, links back to one of his cases from 2016. The "death" of an 8 year old child. The mother of whom was arrested, convicted, and jailed, despite there being no actual body found. If her DNA is on this body, she can't be dead...
Coincidentally, a couple of months prior to this discovery, the producer of a true-crime show, Nick Vincent, hears about a new angle on the same old case, sending a researcher to verify it.
And so begins a rather juicy investigation. With Fawly again on the case, trying to figure out not only what happened to the woman, but also delve back in time to try and figure out what really happened to 8 year old Daisy Mason in 2016...
Those of you familiar with this series will recognise the Daisy Mason case from the series opener book - Close to Home. So, please, if you haven't already played catch-up, at least read that book first.
I am not going to say too much more as you really need to discover the rest at the author intended but I am going to say that I was completely floored and shocked when the whole truth came out. Talk about master manipulation... And, refreshingly different to anything I have read in this genre.
As with all the rest of the series, the author used multi mixed media inclusions to get information across in many different ways. I find this a very effective tool to impart a lot of information in a succinct and efficient way.
I absolutely love Adam Fawley as a character, he's everything I need from a lead character in a police procedural book. Put him together with the rest of his team, old hands and newbies, and you really have a force (pun intended) to be reckoned with. It's been a while since we last heard from them, and with the way the author left this book, I really hope it won't be that long before we reconnect to them all once again.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Daisy Mason was only 8 years old when she disappeared from the family home in Oxford amidst swirling rumours of a turbulent home life. Although DI Adam Fawley eventually arrested her mother, it now seems - shockingly enough - that he may have made a misstep.

But the true story of what happened is so complicated, who could blame the police for not getting it right the first time?

Crossing borders and behavioural boundaries, this is a complex yet believable story with multiple twists. And it is hugely entertaining. Cara Hunter does it again! Don't miss this one.

My thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Making A Killing’ written by Cara Hunter in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

In 2016 Daisy Mason was eight when she was abducted from her home in North Oxford with her mother Sharon convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Now, eight years later, a body is found buried near to Hescombe Mere and evidence is uncovered that connects it to the disappearance of Daisy. As DCI Adam Fawley knows the case better than anyone, he’s brought back from counterterrorism to lead the investigation with the assistance of many of his old team.

‘Making A Killing’ leads on from ‘Close To Home’ where Adam Fawley who was then a DI was in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of Daisy Mason. It was this novel that introduced me to Cara Hunter who since then I’ve been an avid fan of. At the beginning of ‘Making A Killing’ there’s an introduction to Fawley and the members of his team, especially helpful for those who didn’t have the opportunity to read the first book.

This has been a thoroughly enjoyable fast-paced thriller with suspense and drama that’s kept me involved as I tried to work out what had happened to Daisy and who was responsible for the body in the grave. Included in the narrative are press cuttings, phone calls, emails, etc, a clever way of keeping the reader up-to-date with an investigation that’s being run by police officers in different districts and often different countries. Once started I found it near impossible to stop reading and although I’d have liked a conclusion that tied up all the loose ends, I’m hoping that the cliffhanger on the final pages means there’ll be a third book in the future. Thank you, Cara, for another amazing novel that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

The story begins with the discovery of a body, which quickly connects to the eight-year-old disappearance of Daisy Mason – a case Detective Inspector Adam Fawley first tackled in 'Close to Home'.

While I didn't read 'Close to Home', I could follow the story just fine with the information provided by the detectives.
However, I recommend reading the first book if you have it or planning to read it, as this one will spoil it for you.

The introduction of the detective team at the beginning was very helpful, though as a reader new to the series, I found the large cast of characters – including two detective teams, police officers, victims, and witnesses – a bit overwhelming and at times felt confused when I forgot one or two characters and their connection to the case.

I love epistolary novels because they offer a unique reading experience.
The inclusion of newspaper clippings, emails, forensic test results, and pictures made me feel like I was investigating alongside the detectives, trying to unravel the mystery of a seemingly dead girl being alive and possibly involved in another homicide.

The first half of the book moves at a slower pace, but it definitely picks up as the pieces of the puzzle start to come together, leading to a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase between the detectives and the culprit.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a suspenseful ending that leaves many questions unanswered, suggesting a possible continuation.
I’ll definitely wait for the next book to continue this series, meanwhile I think I’ll pick up 'Murder in the Family', as the TV series from that book makes an appearance in this novel.

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: toxic relationship, murder