Making a Killing

Making a Killing by Cara Hunter
5/20/25; 368 pages
HarperCollins
DI Fawley series #7

Making a Killing by Cara Hunter is a highly recommended, intricate police procedural and the seventh book in the DI Fawley series. This novel continues the story of a missing child, Daisy Mason, from 2017's Close to Home, the first book in the series.

Nick Vincent, producer of true-crime show Infamous, learns that there may be questions about the Daisy Mason murder case. Her mother was convicted but has always claimed to be innocent. He sends a researcher to look into the claims. Two months later a woman's body is found in a shallow grave in the woods. Forensic evidence can't verify the body's identity, but did find evidence which is identified as belonging to Daisy.

DCI Adam Fawley, the original investigating officer, is called in with his team to run the case. He now knows that Daisy is still alive and her mother is innocent. Daisy would be 16 now, but what really happened 8 years earlier and who is the dead woman?

The well-written, compelling narrative follows a complicated set of clues and information trying to discover the identity of the dead woman and find out what really happened to Daisy, as well as where their mistakes were made years previously. The premise of the plot is attention grabbing, but the pace felt a little slow at the start, or perhaps it didn't grab my attention immediately. This resolved itself later, but initially it was a struggle. Once I connected with the rhythm of the writing it held my attention to the end.

Hunter includes notes on all the characters at the beginning of the novel to provide background and refresh readers recollection of the team. Also are all the newspaper articles, website pages, documents, phone call transcripts, emails, pictures, etc. in the multi-media format Hunter uses to show the evidence collected during the investigation. Alas, it doesn't work well with the e-book reader I prefer, so get this in a hard copy or perhaps use a tablet. 

Making a Killing is for those who love procedurals which include a multi-media format. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.