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A review by litwithleigh
No Way Out by Cara Hunter
5.0
One sentence review: More red herrings than you could shake a fishing rod at
SYNOPSIS
DI Fawley and team are called the investigate a fire at a family home that leaves on child dead and the other in critical condition. But wait, where are the parents??? Are they lost among the rubble or is something more sinister afoot?
MY OPINION
I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT: I COMPLETED AN ENTIRE BOOK SERIES THAT I STARTED FROM BOOK #1. I skipped #3 (didn't interest me at the time) but read the rest in chronological order. Ironically, #3 ended up being my fave. What a bangerlicious book. I'm so excited for Hunter's standalone coming out in April and hopefully there is more Fawley in store.
Anyways, this book was teeming with red herrings. There's so many viable suspects, it had me guessing until the end. Hunter is a master at a thicc plot. She deftly weaves together several storylines. My rich homie qualm is sometimes she can go OTT in the end or "Sharon Bolton it", but this one kept its shit together rather nicely.
Again, Hunter's use of mixed media is top two, and it's not two. She goes above and beyond when drafting report excerpts, blogs, transcripts, etc to create an authentic feel for the reader. I do find that the mixed media is difficult to read and the formatting is mad janky when reading on Kindle, so I highly encourage you to buy the physical books for the full experience. They're a bit difficult to find on the traditional sites like Amazon, B&N, Indigo, but Book Depository has them all (plus free worldwide shipping). It's worth the wait!
There are a lot of characters, so jumping in midseries might be difficult. This book doesn't include the "Fawley Files" as books 4-6 do (very helpful). Despite the wide cast of characters and short scenes (no chapters in any of her books, just scene breaks), you get a great sense of all the different personalities at play. Hunter has a way of getting you invested in the glimpses of backstories, from Fawley's marriage, to Verity's family drama, and Somers' love life. Tbh if DC Twatface aka Quinn fell off the face of the earth, I wouldn't blink twice. Throughout the series, I couldn't really see the value he brought to the team other than creating drama. Perhaps that's his point as a character. But for someone as pragmatic as Fawley, I didn't see why he kept Twatface around.
Anyways, a strong ass police procedural that you can blitz through in an afternoon. Plus it takes place around Christmas so the perfect holiday read if you're not into romcoms ;). Nothing like a lil arson to get you in the holiday spirit! Remember to turn your Christmas tree lights off people!!
PROS AND CONS
Pros: wonderfully written, top tier use of mixed media (never read a book that does it better tbh), thicc ass plot, kept me guessing with all the red herrings, fast paced
Cons: nada! So glad I ended the series with this one :P (on my old laptop that doesn't have emojis... the ghetto)
SYNOPSIS
DI Fawley and team are called the investigate a fire at a family home that leaves on child dead and the other in critical condition. But wait, where are the parents??? Are they lost among the rubble or is something more sinister afoot?
MY OPINION
I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT: I COMPLETED AN ENTIRE BOOK SERIES THAT I STARTED FROM BOOK #1. I skipped #3 (didn't interest me at the time) but read the rest in chronological order. Ironically, #3 ended up being my fave. What a bangerlicious book. I'm so excited for Hunter's standalone coming out in April and hopefully there is more Fawley in store.
Anyways, this book was teeming with red herrings. There's so many viable suspects, it had me guessing until the end. Hunter is a master at a thicc plot. She deftly weaves together several storylines. My rich homie qualm is sometimes she can go OTT in the end or "Sharon Bolton it", but this one kept its shit together rather nicely.
Again, Hunter's use of mixed media is top two, and it's not two. She goes above and beyond when drafting report excerpts, blogs, transcripts, etc to create an authentic feel for the reader. I do find that the mixed media is difficult to read and the formatting is mad janky when reading on Kindle, so I highly encourage you to buy the physical books for the full experience. They're a bit difficult to find on the traditional sites like Amazon, B&N, Indigo, but Book Depository has them all (plus free worldwide shipping). It's worth the wait!
There are a lot of characters, so jumping in midseries might be difficult. This book doesn't include the "Fawley Files" as books 4-6 do (very helpful). Despite the wide cast of characters and short scenes (no chapters in any of her books, just scene breaks), you get a great sense of all the different personalities at play. Hunter has a way of getting you invested in the glimpses of backstories, from Fawley's marriage, to Verity's family drama, and Somers' love life. Tbh if DC Twatface aka Quinn fell off the face of the earth, I wouldn't blink twice. Throughout the series, I couldn't really see the value he brought to the team other than creating drama. Perhaps that's his point as a character. But for someone as pragmatic as Fawley, I didn't see why he kept Twatface around.
Anyways, a strong ass police procedural that you can blitz through in an afternoon. Plus it takes place around Christmas so the perfect holiday read if you're not into romcoms ;). Nothing like a lil arson to get you in the holiday spirit! Remember to turn your Christmas tree lights off people!!
PROS AND CONS
Pros: wonderfully written, top tier use of mixed media (never read a book that does it better tbh), thicc ass plot, kept me guessing with all the red herrings, fast paced
Cons: nada! So glad I ended the series with this one :P (on my old laptop that doesn't have emojis... the ghetto)