CARA HUNTER DI Fawley Series
The DI Fawley series takes place in modern-day Oxford, and while there’s a nod to the University, the books are much more concerned with the places and people living in the shadows. So, the novels take us into a variety of modern settings that speak to an international readership: from the heart of a housing estate full of aspirational young families who know everything about each other, to a prosperous neighbourhood where a vulnerable old man with dementia lives all alone.
At the heart of each new Cara Hunter thriller is a domestic tragedy or crime that demands answers from the family and friends of the victim. With echoes of real-life crime stories, Hunter toys with the readers’ implicit expectations of what may have happened, and is brilliant at coming up with surprising, fiendishly plotted storylines.
Heading up the team of investigating police officers is Adam Fawley, an understated, intelligent Detective Inspector known for keeping his cool under pressure. He’s also coping with the emotional repercussions of losing a young child, with all the strain that puts on his marriage to Alex Fawley, a formidable lawyer, who is overwhelmed by her loss. These relationships are closely followed and developed across all the novels.
Th other focal members of the police team include Detective Sergeant Gareth Quinn (known as GQ) who’s cocky, confident and ambitious, and needs to be brought down a peg or two. DC Verity Everett is easy-going personally, but a tenacious and talented police officer. She trained as a nurse beforehand but keeps that quiet. Then there’s chirpy, hard-working, decent DC Chris Gislingham whose wife has just had a baby, and finally, Constable Erica Somer (an anagram ofMorse!), an English graduate who’s very attractive, with all the unwelcome attention that brings.