Opening this book deep into hot strike summer (now fall) and seeing a fake call sheet nearly made me cry. BUT once I got over how much I miss the sight of a call sheet, I was fully invested in Cara Hunter’s Murder in the Family from chapter 1.
GoodReads Synopsis: A shocking thriller about a cold case, a fictional true crime series, and the family caught in the middle.
SIX EPISODES. ONE KILLER.
It was a case that gripped the nation. In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard (then aged 10), was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home.
Luke Ryder's murder has never been solved. Guy Howard's mother and two half-sisters were in the house at the time of the murder--but all swear they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged.
But some murder cases are simply too big to forget...
Now comes the sensational new Netflix series Infamous, dedicated to investigating--and perhaps cracking--this famous cold case. The production team will re-examine testimony, re-interview witnesses, and once again scour the evidence. The family will speak. The key players will be reunited--on camera. The truth will come out.
Are you ready to see it?
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A mix of call sheets, production notes, emails, interview transcripts, reddit threads, voicemail transcriptions, and texts this multimedia format was so well done and fun that I was never distracted by it and instead was fully drawn into this engaging thriller. It truly felt as though I was watching the production of a Netflix true crime series unfold. Some will say it’s gimmicky, but I was not put off by the clever format at all.
Every time you, or the fictional viewers at home think they know who did it, you’re all dead wrong.
Are the twists and turns absolutely bonkers? YES. Did I want to throttle a few characters? YOU’RE DAGGONE RIGHT I DID!
Honestly, I saw the final twist coming but the meatier middle of the story WTF moment, I absolutely was blindsided by, and had put my kindle down to regroup.
This was clever as heck, and well executed. I highly recommend reading a physical copy if possible or on your chosen e-reader. I was reading some of this via my Kindle App on my phone and nearly had to pull out a magnifying glass to catch some of the details.
⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/6 for a truly a fantastic thriller from Cara Hunter!