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?
- Title: Murder in the Family
- Author: Cara Hunter
- Publisher: William Morrow
- Publication Date: September 19, 2023
- Genre: Mystery/Thriller
- Targeted Age Range: Adult
- Content Warnings: death (heart attack, car crash, breast cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, breast cancer), murder, dementia, racism, use of the f slur (recounting an experience), sexual relationship between an adult and minor (past, 21 and 15), adultery (past)
- Rating: ★★★★★
I’m a huge fan of mystery books that involve reopening a cold case, so obviously, I had Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter on my radar, and then I found out it was mixed media and…we all know my feelings on mixed media mystery stories!
Murder in the Family follows the True Crime TV series Infamous as they reopen the 20-year-old cold case of Luke Ryder. In 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of his home in London. The only other person home that night was his 10-year-old step-son, Guy Howard, who was asleep in his room at the time of the murder. No suspect was ever charged, and the family hasn’t been the same since. Now, Infamous has gathered a group of expert crime investigators and journalists to try and solve the case — and the series will be directed by none other than the victim’s step-son. Guy Howard says that he doesn’t care what they uncover about Luke’s murder as long as they solve it, but nothing could’ve prepared him for the truth.
I don’t think I’ve had this much fun reading a book in a LONG time! I loved all the mixed media elements in the book, by my count there were ten different kinds used to tell this story and I thought it worked perfectly. For me, the mixed media form of storytelling helps me fly through a book — that’s not to say that there wasn’t a lot of text in this book, because the episode transcripts were quite long, but something about the mixed media makes it practically impossible for me to put the book down. These elements really allow the reader to feel like they’re part of the story themselves.
I really wanted to try and solve the case with the investigators and my Notion page is proof. I put on my sleuthing hat (which felt very much so like a black beanie, Nancy Drew CW fans know what I’m talking about), and got to work! I had a section for general notes, the basic case information, and then what we found out during each “episode” of the show. Really, I felt like the human equivalent of this meme:
My note taking and crazy theorizing worked out though, because I did in fact guess the murderer and other factors involved fairly early on, but Hunter definitely made me second guess a lot of my theories. The end of a few “episodes” left me gasping and really took me by surprise.
Murder in the Family had so many twists and turns, and in some books it could feel like it was too much, but I think it worked really well here. I loved how Hunter wove all these different storylines and characters together and how piece by piece everything fell into place. This is one of those books where I would really love to be able to ask the author what the process was like, how the case developed as they were writing and it was always planned that the killer would be [redacted] or if that came along during the writing process.
I was left with some questions once the book ended — but if we’re being 100% honest, I didn’t even remember them until I started writing this post, so that clearly didn’t bother me too much, but I did have some questions! However, based on everything else involving the case they were solving, it doesn’t surprise me that there were some things left unanswered.
Personally, I love authors that are doing different things within the mystery genre, and Cara Hunter absolutely did that with this one. If you’re looking for a mystery that will fully immerse you in the story and take you on a wild ride while trying to solve a cold case, this is the book for you!
Links for Murder in the Family: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop
Cara Hunter is the author of instant New York Times bestselling thriller Murder in the Family as well as the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Of those novels, Close to Home was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019 and No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara’s books have sold more than a million copies worldwide. She lives in Oxford, on a street not unlike those featured in her books.
