You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

bumblemee's profile picture

bumblemee 's review for:

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
4.0
dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book had me hooked, I read it within a few days, which is unusual for me when reading a book like this. It was just so engaging! I do think that one has to like this rather uncommon way of storytelling - if you want action scenes and stuff like that, you should skip this one. But otherwise, if the setting of a fictional true crime documentary/reality tv show interests you, you will probably like this one. 
The characters aren't that deep, but that is okay since this is a very plot driven story and they still have distinct personalities that shine through and get their moments. 
Due to this being written as a script, I could picture all of it very easily and I think the author did a great job at making this feel like an actual true crime show.. mixed with reality tv aspects, which was interesting, because it raised an unexpected aspect around the ethics of this way of making tv.

I did like the story and was on the edge of my seat with every new discovery - but I must say that I guessed the direction this would take realatively early on. (Following spoiler includes the cases solution.)
I was confused that nobody questioned the alibi of the children and that everyone was so focused on finding someone external who came to the house instead of questioning whether the people who lived there might have had something to do with it, especially because they didn't like Luke that much. It seemed likely to me that the siblings were covering for one another in some way. When it was mentioned that Guy destroyed the wedding cake, I was relatively sure that it was him. Since he was the one who initiated the filming of this series, I also thought he probably couldn't remember (or wanted to use this series to get it off his chest, but I thought that was unlikely, because it would probably not help his career to announce something like this in such a way and would also be way too personal).
Still, everything else coming out and the way the case came together was really interesting and well done in my opinion.