Cara Hunter:  Into the Dark, Penguin Random House UK, 9780241283202, paperback,  Publication date: July 2018

 

 I read Cara Hunter’s “Close to Home” last year, the novel was chosen by the Richard and Judy book Club giving it a high popular rating. Her second novel due to be published in July was sent to me as a proof. Using the same set of Oxford detectives around DI Fawley , “Into the Dark” is even better than the first novel, superbly spun with many unexpected turns; I was completely hooked. A very fine, non bloody psychological thriller I can wholeheartedly recommend. 

A woman and child are discovered locked in a basement of a posh Oxford neighbourhood when a wall collapses that builders are trying to fix during renovation work on the house next door.  For the detectives involved, similarities to the Fritzl case in Austria immediately come to mind. The woman appears to have been held captive for some time and is in a very agitated state.  The little boy doesn't seem to be able to talk.  When the police arrive, they discover that the only person living in the house is an elderly academic who is in a state of neglect and seems to be suffering from dementia. Hardly the person capable of committing such a crime.

Cara Hunter is excellent in describing the detective’s step by step approach when trying to put pieces of the puzzle together. With the stress mounting in the team, all their character flaws are exposed.  Just when they believe to be close to solving the crime, previous theories start to collapse with newly discovered findings.  When the body of a missing female journalist who had been living around the corner from the crime scene is found in the garden shed, the case receives a new twist and they are forced to take a new look at suspects. I will not go into further details but some 400 pages later of this well-crafted psychological thriller the outcome is unexpected.