Close to home

Daisy Mason is a pretty, clever eight-year-old, so her disappearance after a summer party in her Oxford backyard engenders increasing publicity. DI Adam Fawley, leading the case, knows all too well the need for quick action, having lost a child himself, a situation that raises some concern about his leading this investigation. He also knows the high probability that the perpetrator is someone close to home. So Daisy's parents come under close scrutiny: her distraught father, Barry, obviously loves his daughter dearly, but possibly inappropriately, while her mother, Sharon, is emotionally cold, perhaps even jealous of her husband's love for their daughter. From the start, the investigation proceeds in fits and starts: the Masons aren't sure when they last saw Daisy, nor did they know that she had traded her flower costume with another child that day. Then evidence reveals Barry's unsavory activities and Sharon's compromising background, as the plot twists and turns to the final pages, detailing the results of parental love and loss. Hunter presents a fast-moving blend of police procedural and psychological thriller that keeps pages turning. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

The disappearance of eight-year-old Daisy Mason from a costume party at her home in Oxford, England, drives this insidious, slow-moving novel—as horribly fascinating as a train wreck—from the pseudonymous Hunter. Oddly, no one can pinpoint when the girl was last seen. As the hours turn to days, Daisy's vanishing galvanizes the community, with unexpected results. The lives of everyone—from her family and neighbors to the people at her school—are drawn into a web of deceit and rising tension. Det. Insp. Adam Fawley, the lead investigator, is awash in his own deep-seated troubles, while Daisy's agitated father and disaffected mother clearly have something to hide. Even Daisy's older brother, Leo, reacts strangely to the police and their questions, at times upset and other times curiously detached. The lack of clues rattles the police and public until torrents of social media accusations incite action. Hunter does a masterly job of building tension and keeping the reader guessing to the very end. Agent: Anna Power, Johnson & Alcock (U.K.). (Mar.) Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.

"She was certain it was Daisy in the flower costume. When eight-year-old Daisy Mason vanishes from her family's Oxford home during a costume party, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley knows that nine times out of ten, the offender is someone close to home. And Daisy's family is certainly strange--her mother is obsessed with keeping up appearances, while her father is cold and defensive under questioning. And then there's Daisy's little brother, so withdrawn and uncommunicative.... DI Fawley works against the clock to find any trace of the little girl, but it's as if she disappeared into thin air--no one saw anything; no one knows anything. But everyone has an opinion, and everyone, it seems, has a secret to conceal"--

Detective Inspector Adam Fawley investigates after an 8-year-old girl goes missing during a costume party and no one seems to know anything or have seen anything, including her mother, more concerned with keeping up appearances and her defensive and cold father. Original.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERA brilliantly plotted psychological crime novel about a missing child and the scandal that erupts in the aftermath with a shocking twistThey know who did it. Perhaps not consciously. Perhaps not yet. But they know. When eight-year-old Daisy Mason vanishes from her family’s Oxford home during a costume party, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley knows that nine times out of ten, the offender is someone close to home. And Daisy’s family is certainly strange—her mother is obsessed with keeping up appearances, while her father is cold and defensive under questioning. And then there’s Daisy’s little brother, so withdrawn and uncommunicative . . .   DI Fawley works against the clock to find any trace of the little girl, but it’s as if she disappeared into thin air—no one saw anything; no one knows anything. But everyone has an opinion, and everyone, it seems, has a secret to conceal.With a story that feels all too real, Close to Home is the best kind of suspense—the kind that sends chills down your spine and keeps you up late at night, thrilled and terrified.