Cara Hunter – Q&A – From First Page to Last

Today I’m pleased to welcome Cara Hunter to blog. Cara’s debut novel, Close to Home, is a Richard and Judy Book Club thriller pick for 2018 and was published by Penguin on 14 December 2017.

Cara kindly answered a few of my questions.

1. Tell us a little about Close to Home.

Close to Home is about the disappearance of a little girl. Daisy Mason goes missing from her family’s barbecue and apparently nobody sees a thing. And as the days and hours tick past no-one is exempt from suspicion, and the family become the targets of a vicious social media hate campaign.

2. What inspired the book?

The ‘missing child’ has become a recurring theme in crime fiction and TV in the last few years, and sadly we’ve seen many real-life cases played out on our TV screens and – more recently – social media platforms. It’s a theme everyone can relate to, even if they don’t have children of their own. It taps intpo one of our most basic fears: losing someone you love, perhaps because of your own mistake, and facing the terrible prospect of possibly never knowing what happened to them.

3. Are you a plan, plan, plan writer or do you sit down and see where the words take you?

I’m most definitely a planner. I spend ages evolving my ideas and developing a very detailed synopsis, long before I actually ‘sit down’. I like books with complex plots (reading them as well as writing them) and you can’t do that on the hoof. It needs to be worked through, checked and double-checked. Sometimes it feels a bit like a three-dimensional game of dominoes – pull out one piece and the whole thing has to be reconstructed!

4. Having been through the publishing process is there anything about the process of creating a novel that surprised you?

It takes a lot longer than you expect! Especially after your ‘bit’ is done. There’s a whole series of rounds of copyediting, as well as the production process, deciding on a jacket design, talking about marketing….

5. What do you do when you aren’t writing? What do you do to relax and get away from it all?

This is going to sound like a real busman’s holiday, but yet more crime! Crime fiction, crime drama, and lots of true-crime TV. My husband used to tease me about it – but not any more!

6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?

I think it has to be my favourite book, The Lord of the Rings. When I was a child I used to read it every year. I haven’t done that for a while, but the films made me fall in love with it all over again.

7. I like to end my Q&As with the same question so here we go. During all the Q&As and interviews you’ve done what question have you not been asked that you wish had been asked – and what’s the answer?

I’m going to do a little cheat here as it was mentioned by Richard Madeley when I was ‘on the sofa’ for the Richard & Judy book club. He grinned at me and said, ‘You’re really smitten with Adam Fawley, aren’t you”. And yes, it’s a fair cop (so to speak). I really do have quite a thing for my leading man….

About the book

HOW CAN A CHILD GO MISSING WITHOUT A TRACE?

Last night, eight-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a family party. No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything – or at least that’s what they’re saying.

DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows the nine times out of ten, it’s someone the victim knew.

That means someone is lying…
And that Daisy’s time is running out.

Introducing DI Fawley and his team of Oxford detectives, and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for Spring 2018, CLOSE TO HOME is the new crime thriller series to get addicted to.