Cara Hunter
THE WHOLE TRUTH
Contents
Previously … in the Fawley files
Prologue
The Whole Truth
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels Close to Home, In the Dark, No Way Out and All the Rage, all featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019. No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara’s novels have sold more than a million copies worldwide, and the TV rights to the series have now been acquired by the Fremantle group. She lives in Oxford, on a street not unlike those featured in her books.
What readers are saying about
THE WHOLE TRUTH
★★★★★
‘Mind-bending brilliance’
Kath, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Wow, what a book! This series just gets better and better’
Tina, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘A real page-turner’
Lucille, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Captivating: full of mystery, tension, moral dilemma … outstanding’
Peter, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Keeps you guessing until the very end’
Tessa, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘This book and this series is fantastic and I can’t wait for more’
Sarah, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Great characters and a fantastic storyline that will have you unable to put it down’
Tracy, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Definitely for fans of Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter and the like’
Fiona, Netgalley
★★★★★
‘Packed full of twists: impossible to predict what will happen next’
Gary, Netgalley
To Judith
A very special lady
Previously … in the Fawley files
This is the fifth book in the Fawley series, so if this is the first one you’ve picked up you might like a quick summary of the key members of the team, so you can hit the ground running. Starting, of course, with the man himself …
Name
DI Adam Fawley
Age
46
Married?
Yes, to Alex, 44. She’s a lawyer working in Oxford.
Children?
The Fawleys’ ten-year-old
son Jake took his own life two years ago. They were devastated and thought they’d never be able to have another child. But now Alex is pregnant again …
Personality
Introspective, observant and intelligent, outwardly resilient, inwardly less so. He doesn’t care that Alex earns more than he does, or that she’s taller than him in high heels. He’s good at lateral thinking and bad at office politics.
He’s compassionate and fair-minded, but it’s not all positives: he can be impatient and he has a short temper. He was brought up in a dreary North London suburb, and he’s adopted, though he only discovered that by accident – to this day his parents have never discussed it.
He doesn’t watch crime on
TV
(he has enough of it during the day); he listens to Oasis and Bach and Roxy Music (Alex once
told him he looks like Bryan Ferry, to which he replied ‘I wish’); if he had a pet it would be a cat (but he’s never owned one); his favourite wine is Merlot and his favourite food is Spanish (though he eats far too much pizza); and surprise, surprise, his favourite colour is blue.
Name
DS Chris Gislingham
(recently promoted from
DC
)
Age
42
Married?
Yes, to Janet
Children?
Billy, nearly 2
Personality
Chirpy, good-humoured, hard-working, decent. And a serious Chelsea fan.
‘Always described as “sturdy” and “solid”, and not just because he’s getting a bit chunky round the middle. Every CID team needs a Gislingham, and if you were drowning, he’s the one you’d want on the other end of the rope.’
Name
DC Gareth Quinn
(recently demoted from
DS
, after getting involved with a suspect)
Age
36
Married?
No chance
Personality
Cocky, ambitious, good-looking. Fawley describes him as ‘sharp suit and blunt razor’.
‘Quinn took to DS like a dog to water – zero hesitation, maximum splash.’
Name
DC Verity Everett
Age
33
Married?
No. But has a cat (Hector)
Personality
Easy-going personally, ruthless professionally. Lacks the confidence she should have in her own abilities (as
Fawley is well aware).
‘She may look like Miss Marple must have done at thirty-five, but she’s every bit as relentless. Or as Gis always puts it, Ev was definitely a bloodhound in a previous life.’
Name
DC Erica Somer
Age
29
Married?
No. But she’s just started seeing a
DI
in Hampshire Police, Giles Saumarez.
Personality
English graduate and worked as a teacher before joining the police
(in the first book she’s still a
PC
). Her surname is an anagram of ‘Morse’ – my nod to Oxford’s greatest detective!
‘I watch men underestimating her because she’s attractive and in a uniform, and I watch her registering that fact and using it to her advantage.’
Name
DC Andrew Baxter
Age
38
Married?
Yes, but no children
Personality
Stolid but dependable. Good with computers so often gets
lumbered with that sort of stuff.
‘A solid man in a suit that’s a bit too small for him. The buttons on his shirt gape slightly. Balding, a little out of breath. Halfway to high blood pressure. He looks forty but he’s probably at least five years younger.’
Name
DC Anthony Asante
Age
32
Married?
No
Personality
A fast-track graduate entrant to the police, he’s new to the team, having recently
transferred from the Met. His parents are very wealthy, and his father is a former Ghanaian diplomat.
Fawley describes him as
‘Diligent, intelligent, technically excellent. He does what he’s asked and he takes the initiative when he should. And yet there’s something about him I just can’t get a handle on. Every time I think I have him worked out, he manages to wrong-foot me.’
The other members of the team are Alan Challow, Nina Mukerjee and Clive Conway, in the CSI team, Colin Boddie, the pathologist, and Bryan Gow, the profiler.
Prologue
So you
