
About the Book…
Midnight. A callout to an isolated farm outside Oxford. A body, shot at point blank range in the kitchen.
It looks like a burglary gone wrong, but DC Adam Fawley suspects there’s something more to it. Who exactly was the aggressor here?
When the police discover a connection to a high-profile case from years ago, involving a child’s murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice, the press go wild.
Suddenly Fawley’s team are under more scrutiny than ever before. And when you dig up the past, you’re sure to find a few skeletons…
My thoughts on Hope to Die
I first tried reading Hope to Die last year. I’d requested it from NetGalley because it sounded right up my street (we all know I’m a sucker for crime fiction). Unfortunately, it landed right in the middle of one of my increasingly frequent reading slumps and, after picking it up excitedly, I just as quickly put it down. It just wasn’t grabbing me.
Now I’m reading regularly again, I wanted to give it another go. This time, it was much easier going and I quickly fell into the rhythm of the writing that I’d struggled with before – the book jumps from first to third person and between multiple characters as well as throwing in emails and newspaper articles. In fact, I actually started to enjoy it as something that I don’t come across very often. It made things feel fresh. And it made things feels interesting.
The story itself was interesting too because it wasn’t your typical ‘who dunnit’ but more an unravelling of decades of lies told by some very unreliable narrators. I really enjoyed this aspect. What I didn’t enjoy as much – and I’m being careful here because of spoilers – was the final chapters that sought to tie everything up in a neat bow. It all felt too forced and I’m not sure I ‘got it’. I still can’t figure out what the police were trying to achieve, or whether justice was really done.
As a result, the high I had been on through most of the book fell flat and I ended up disappointed. Which is a real shame. It means I feel I can only give the book three stars. However, I would be interested in reading more in the series to find out if the ending was a blip.
Emma
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Please note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. All thoughts, feelings, and opinions are my own.