CRIME writer Cara Hunter’s novels have now sold a staggering three quarters of a million copies worldwide.

And her publishers estimate that someone in the world buys one of her thrillers every 50 seconds.

Ms Hunter, who lives in Oxford with her husband Simon, achieved instant success with her first novel Close to Home in 2017, which featured DI Adam Fawley’s investigation into the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl.

Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and she followed up this success with In the Dark and No Way Out.

Oxford Mail:

Now she has completed her fourth novel, All The Rage, which is due out at the end of the year.

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It tells the disturbing story of girls in Oxford being abducted but the author insists the plot is not based on any real-life incidents.

She said in the book’s acknowledgements that the news items in the novel were ‘entirely fictional’.

Ms Hunter added: “Some places are my own invention. For example there is no Summertown High, Windermere Avenue or Rydal Way.

“None of the people represented is based on a real person and any similarity between online usernames in the book and those of real people is entirely coincidental.”

Ms Hunter thanked her readers, adding: “Penguin told me that someone buys a Cara Hunter book every 50 seconds - unbelievable - and people get in touch on Twitter or Instagram every day to tell me they’ve enjoyed the books.

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“I can’t tell you how nice that is - being a writer is a wonderful life but nothing beats that.”

Among Ms Hunter’s fans are established crime writers including Ian Rankin and Peter James.

No Way Out was selected by The Sunday Times as one of 100 best crime novels since 1945.

For her latest novel, like the others, Ms Hunter has sought out the expertise of a team of ‘professional advisers’, who have provided valuable input on technical and procedural aspects.

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These include Detective Inspector Andy Thompson and Nicholas Syfret QC.

Despite this assistance, the writing of the novel was not as trouble-free as the author might have hoped.

She paid tribute to her ‘brilliant editor’ Katy Loftus for ‘pushing me into two final rounds of edits when I was very tired and really didn’t want to have yet another go’.

Oxford Mail:

Ms Hunter’s thrillers are as contemporary as possible featuring plenty of social media references, maps and Twitter feeds and they are now published in 20 countries.

The author said that although there were challenges in her typescripts her editing team at Penguin never failed to rise to them.

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The latest novel features the return of DC Erica Somer, whose surname is an anagram of Morse.

Oxford Mail:

Ms Hunter wanted to pay tribute to Colin Dexter, whose Inspector Morse novels put Oxford on the crime fiction map, and were adapted for ITV, followed by the series Lewis and Endeavour. Mr Dexter died in 2017.

All The Rage will be published as a Penguin paperback in December, price £7.99.