Book Review: All The Rage

I am afraid I am running short of words, but Cara Hunter has done it again. Yet another impressive addition to the DI Adam Fawley series, All The Rage is a humdinger of a murder mystery, richly characterised and crackling with a thrilling unpredictability — the way the plot keeps zigging when you expect it to zag. A beautiful fashion student is abducted and assaulted, and just when she thinks she is about to die, the perpetrator runs away upon hearing police sirens in the locality. Strange enough, she refuses to press charges. Then another girl disappears, this time for good. And it soon becomes evident the two abductions are connected. Enmeshed somewhere in the tangled web of deception prevails many a tantalising truth. For Adam, this investigation hits a little closer to home than the others as the modus operandi bears marked similarities to a rape case he worked on several years ago, throwing up serious questions over his handling of the case, not to mention resurfacing the events that led to him meeting his now-pregnant wife, Alex. Interspersed with news reports, social media chatter, police interviews, and courtroom transcripts, Hunter crafts an original police procedural that's steeped in gritty reality and goes beyond the written line, while maintaining a masterful sleight of hand, packing the story with misdirection at every turn and succeeding in pulling the rug from underneath us time and time again.