Stevie‘s review of In the Dark (DI Adam Fawley, Book 2) by Cara Hunter
Contemporary Police Procedural published by Penguin Books 19 Feb 19
I’m always pleased to find a new-to-me detective series close to the beginning of its run, particularly when the setting is familiar but the premise of the story is a little different to the norm. In this case, I was offered a book to review that was set in Oxford – a city I know well both personally and as the backdrop to other crime sagas – and looked to be taken from a couple of recent news stories but giving them an unexpected but signposted twist. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get hold of the first book in the series straight away, which again appeared to be putting a new slant on a story we think we all know, but the longish waiting list at the library a year after its original UK publication gave me high hopes for the quality of this second book in the series.
Builders are hard at work renovating a Victorian house in an affluent area of Oxford, when they accidentally break through a wall into the cellar of an adjoining property. On the other side, they are horrified to discover an emaciated and dehydrated young woman and her toddler son, apparently locked in and abandoned. When the police arrive, they try to question the owner of the house where the pair have been found, but he appears to be suffering from advanced dementia and has no idea who the woman is or how she came to be in his cellar. A team is quickly assembled to investigate, led by DI Adam Fawley, who has not long finished wrapping up another case of child abduction.
Fawley is a fascinating character, both in the first-person narrative sections told from his point of view and in the third-person narrative sections told from the point of view of others involved in the case. On the surface an old school detective, behind the facade he is grieving for the death of his own son the previous year and fears that his marriage will never recover, since he and his wife – in spite of living together – seem increasingly estranged by their shared loss.
As the woman and her child are initially unable to provide any information, Fawley has to search elsewhere for clues to their identity and the exact nature – and culprits – of the crime committed against them. Struck by the similarities to the case of a missing woman and abandoned child that he was never able to solve, Fawley looks for connections and discovers that although the first missing woman lived on a different street, the garden of her house shared a boundary with that of the house they are now investigating, Fawley orders the team into the outbuildings, and it’s not long before a body is uncovered.
Meanwhile, Fawley’s wife has persuaded her husband and the powers-that-be to let her be a temporary foster-carer to the boy found in the cellar. While she is given detailed preparation as to what to expect from a child born in captivity, she is soon able to draw Fawley’s attention to the fact that the boy’s behaviour doesn’t quite tie in with his supposed history. When Fawley figures out the reasons, the true crimes committed turn out to be more shocking than he could have ever forseen.
I loved this book so much. Not just for the twisty plot and for Fawley and his complex personal life, but also for all the other characters who make up his team and the wider cast of witnesses and suspects. I was also greatly taken by the storytelling aspects. Not only do we get the close-up views of Fawley’s thoughts, and the more distant views of the other character, we also get to see how the case is viewed in the wider world of Oxford and beyond, through Twitter feeds, newspaper cuttings, and other aspects of (social) media. I’ve now got hold of the first book, and it’s just as riveting. A highly recommended series whose US release is lagging slightly behind that in the UK, but it is out there if non-British readers care to search for it.
Grade: A
Summary:
Do you know what they’re hiding in the house next door?
A woman and child are found locked in a basement, barely alive, and unidentifiable: the woman can’t speak, there are no missing persons reports that match their profile, and the confused, elderly man who owns the house claims he has never seen them before. The inhabitants of the quiet street are in shock—how could this happen right under their noses? But Detective Inspector Adam Fawley knows nothing is impossible. And no one is as innocent as they seem.
As the police grow desperate for a lead, Fawley stumbles across a breakthrough, a link to a case he worked years before about another young woman and child gone missing, never solved. When he realizes the missing woman’s house is directly adjacent to the house in this case, he thinks he might have found the connection that could bring justice for both women. But there’s something not quite right about the little boy from the basement, and the truth will send shockwaves through the force that Fawley never could have anticipated.
No excerpt available.
Other books in this series:
