A 4-star crime fiction from the author we all know and love, The Whole Truth by Cara Hunter might be for you.

The plot:

An attractive student. An older professor. Think you know the story? Think again.

She has everything at stake; he has everything to lose. But one of them is lying, all the same.

When an Oxford student accuses one of the university’s professors of sexual assault, DI Adam Fawley’s team think they’ve heard it all before. But they couldn’t be more wrong.

Because this time, the predator is a woman and the shining star of the department, and the student a six-foot male rugby player.

Soon DI Fawley and his team are up against the clock to figure out the truth. What they don’t realise is that someone is watching.

And they have a plan to put Fawley out of action for good…

Hunter takes something which is topical and just runs with it

Although this is the fifth book in the series, it can definitely be read as a standalone – and I actually think this book was intended for new readers, over those returning.

I read the fourth book, All the Rage (my review here) in January 2020, and around 15 months after, I read The Whole Truth. Now, the reason I love Hunter’s books so much is because of how memorable they are – All the Rage finishes on a stunning revelation which literally left me pining for this book. I don’t want to say much on this topic, but if you’re a new reader, and The Whole Truth is the book you’ve read first, you’ll been mind-blown by the plot, but I feel like for returning readers, it’s not the best reading experience.

It’s genuinely with a heavy heart I say that, as I’m SUCH an advocate for this series and have been featured in my Top Books of the Year – twice!! – despite this reading experience, I did still rate it a 4-star.

You have the main plot of the story – in the synopsis above – which is fantastically done and highly relevant. The second part of the synopsis, i.e “Fawley out of action” is what I’m referring to, so I won’t touch on that anymore to avoid spoilers.

Hunter takes something which is topical and just runs with it, creating realistically horrifying crimes which’ll make you never want to step foot outside again. As always, the books keep you guessing, with unpredictable aspects and shocking findings.

You have so many fantastic characters here – honestly, they’re all so well built, and I LOVE seeing them back on the page. Alongside this, you have the quirky excerpts added into the talented writing style – this includes tweets, phone messages and interview statements, alongside something extra special – but I’ll let you find out about that, and existing readers may know what’s coming. There aren’t as many social media inserts in comparison to previous books, but they’re included where relevant, and I loved seeing how things played out in this sense.

It’s definitely a busy read, as you have quite a few things going on at once – it’s also not as gripping as the previous, and I didn’t get the same rush (possibly because I saw where it was going and was a bit peeved) – however, I appreciated the longer discovery, and there are a couple of twists at the end, in true Hunter manner, which were wow!

I hold this series to an incredibly high standard because the books are just so great, so take what I say about the second part of the plot with a pinch of salt – is Cara Hunter still an auto-read, auto-buy and auto-recommend author? Absolutely, but I am slightly gutted about the way this played out – in a way, I wish this was a novella to complement All the Rage, and having another book focused around the student-professor plot.

A fantastic crime fiction where you’re manipulated as a reader, up until the very end.

The Whole Truth, Cara Hunter, RRP £7.99 (paperback); Book Depository

Pages: 416

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Genre: Crime Fiction

Close to Home is book 1 in the DI Adam Fawley series, In The Dark is book 2 (very, very good), No Way Out (which featured in my top books of the year for 2019) is book 3. Close to Home also featured in my top books of 2018, which you can read here.

Gifted in exchange for an honest review.