A woman and child are found locked in a basement room, barely alive.
No one knows who they are — the woman can't speak, and there are no missing persons reports that match their profile. The elderly man who owns the house claims he has never seen them before.
The inhabitants of the quiet Oxford street are in shock. How could this happen right under their noses? But DI Adam Fawley knows that nothing is impossible.
And that no one is as innocent as they seem ...
Comment: This is the second installment in the DI Adam Fawley series by Cara Hunter. I had read the first book in the series by pure chance, an impulsive choice at the library back in November of 2025, but it was a good read and I felt like reading the next one, at least.
In this story, the police team is investigating the case of a woman and her child, found in a basement, with clear signs of prolonged hunger and thirst.The house they are found at belongs to an old teacher, who has some sort of dementia, and investigating him reveals he divorced his wife fora younger woman, although both women are now dead. What is the connection between these people? How did the woman get locked in the basement? Who is the child's father? How could the neighbors not see anything? And does it seem that a woman missing for two years is also connected to this house?
The plot of this book was an incredible exercise in twists and discoveries. the author must have had a lot of fun thinking and plotting this story because I really could not see the big twist coming until the obvious moment it was revealed.
The story happens some time after the events of the first book, and there are some hints about what happened then, but not to the point in which a new reader would not understand. This plot is isolated from the other, but the police team is the same, so it is to be expected that many references are continuous or sequential about them and their personal lives.
The case investigated was actually very interesting and I did not see the twists coming, which made this story very refreshing, even though the secrets aren't that original or the characters acting on them that special or amazing. Still, the author was able to present this in such a way that the sequence of events and how things are shared to the reader make the surprises really well planned and timed. In terms of plot, I think this book was a lot more impactful than the first one.
I also liked the new insights into the main characters' lives and their behavior at home and at work. Some are clearly meant to be characters we look for and root for (like Adam, or officers Everett and Sommer) and others are meant to be the morally grey ones, such as officer Quinn. The juxtaposition of all these people and their respective personalities helped to sustain the story and strength of the characterization of everyone. I cannot say I liked them all, but I do feel interested in them and in what will be there for them in the next story.
However, in spite of the good elements, and even some better ones here than in the first installment, I did give the same grade to both books. I cannot pinpoint exactly what I feel could have elevated this more, considering how incredible some elements truly were, but perhaps the atmosphere wasn't always very likable or the characters didn't make choices I think would be consistent with other aspects of their personalities. I confess I wasn't fond of the plot device in which Adam and his wife actively participate in a specific situation related to the boy found with his mother in the basement. I understand why it matters for the characters as they further develop, but I didn't like the unlikeliness of this situation.
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