Review: The Caller

The Caller by Chris Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Caller is the eight book in Chris Carter’s wonderful Robert Hunter series, and I cannot begin to explain how happy I was to win an advance read copy of the story.
 
When I saw a giveaway for Chris Carter’s newest story on Goodreads, offering the novel well in advance of release, I jumped at the chance to enter. I wasn’t expecting to win – I never am when it comes to my favourite authors – meaning there was a lot of excitement when I received an email telling me I had won. I cannot begin to explain my excitement, and as soon as I could I picked up the book and started reading.
 
The Caller is a brilliant addition to the series. I wouldn’t call it my favourite in the series, but it is a very strong read. In my mind, Chris Carter stands above many of the crime authors currently on the market meaning even his weaker books are well and truly worth a read. As I’ve said, though, this isn’t a weak book at all.
 
In this one, Chris Carter once again demonstrates how he is an author of the modern world. He uses modern day technology and trends to create a wonderful crime novel that reflects the real world. Issues we see today, trends that can be found, are shown within his books. Rather than being your typical murder mystery, Chris Carter sends us on a chase that uses the world as it currently is to add many layers to the story. The fact that these things could happen, the fact he uses things we see and interactive with on a daily basis, makes the story more terrifying. We’re constantly left with ‘what if’ questions, leaving us grateful that Chris Carter is simply writing these stories and not out there in the real world committing these crimes. I know for a fact, if something like this were to happen in the real world people would look at the world in a very different way.
 
Truthfully, as real as all of his novels are, I think this one addresses the most in terms of the modern world. Not only is it used in the crime – both in terms of finding victims and in terms of how the crime is committed – but it also addresses the modern world in terms of reasons why the crime was committed. It’s not simply a case of ‘this person is bad’; it has much more to it than that. Moreover, things aren’t as straight forward as they could be. As always, Chris Carter adds multiple layers to the story, telling a story within the story, allowing us to watch many things come together.
 
Now whilst each of these books can be read as a standalone novel, there is a story underneath it all. With this one, I found myself wanting to see more for Hunter on the relationship front. He’s a wonderful character and I believe I’ve reached the point where I want to see him happy, and certain events in this book left me hoping that there will be happiness for him in the future.
 
Overall, yet another wonderful Chris Carter read. I’m now off to slip into a post-Carter slum whilst I await the next book in the series.

View all my reviews