Murder in the Family

Cara Hunter

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

The first ever stand-alone from author of the DI Adam Fawley million-copies-sold series

It was a case that gripped the nation.

Luke Ryder’s murder has never been solved.

In October 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything.

Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.

Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show - with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?

Or does the truth lie closer to home?

Can you solve the case before they do?

The truth will blow your mind.

Murder in the Family was a #7 Sunday Times bestseller for week ending 3rd September 2023.

'Unique and hugely enjoyable'

'An addictive, unusually interactive novel.'

Review by Ben Macnair (150725) Rating (7/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 7/10
In 2003 Luke Ryder was murdered. He had a much older, richer wife, and three young step-children, but the murder was never solved.

In 2023 a small team was put together in a podcast, a live-action podcast that would dig over old ground, and re-interview old suspects, and family members, not in the interests of justice, but in the interest of entertainment. One of the producers is Guy Howard, Ryder’s young stepson, looking into the mystery that defined his childhood and of, his two older sisters and their mother, only just reeling from the untimely death of her first husband.

Luke comes into the orbit of the family, he is charming, much younger and has surface attractions that prove to be irresistible. As the investigation begins it soon becomes obvious that Luke Ryder is not who or what he claimed to be. He stole identities and found himself in trouble with the law. He claimed to be Australian, but his floating accent never convinced anyone of his claims' veracity.

Over 10 months, from the beginning of the crime series, and its research, the reader is introduced to a lot of people. The Howard family, people who knew Ryder in his previous identities, people who knew the family, and felt for the children, the police who investigated the crimes, and the production team, many of whom have their rivalries, and secrets from the past that they would hope to remain hidden.

The tragedy that unfolds in the final chapters is surprising, but it is also highlighted at some points in the novel. The interesting way of telling the story, using emails, exchanges between production staff, using podcasts as a way of digging into the past is new, but in a few years, it will probably feel dated, to cast a new and evolving murder mystery around a cold case it certainly a novel way to tell a crime story, and making it modern.
Ben Macnair (15th July 2025)