Teenage Girls Disappearing

Reviewed by Phee Paradise

Too Close to Home
By Lynette Eason

Note to self: sometimes a book you don’t care about, is worth reading.

Too Close to Home seemed predictable in every way – instant romantic sparks, a workaholic parent, a troubled and rebellious teenager, and most of all, the serial killer point of view. I don’t like crime dramas that show the crime at the beginning and spend the rest of the hour showing the detectives looking for clues when I already know “who dunnit.” That’s the kind story I thought this book was. Between the occasional glimpses into the killer’s mind and the obvious clues scattered about, I was two steps ahead of the detectives and wanted to shake them for being so obtuse.

But Eason is a much better writer than that. Nothing happened the way I expected it to, and by the end I realized I had been set up. Eason cleverly provided the obvious clues and then surprised me with a completely different outcome. What I thought were irrelevant details were foreshadows of the important events at the end of the book.

In the story, Connor Wolfe and Samantha Cash head an investigation into the disappearance and murders of several teenage girls. The case is slow and frustrating because the killer leaves no traces. At the same time, Connor, a widower, is worried about his teenage daughter whom he leaves alone too much. Samantha has some problems of her own, and the case puts them in quite a bit of danger. In the midst of all this, they find themselves attracted to each other. There is plenty of action, but also plenty of character development. Some characters will truly surprise you with their actions.

In the end, my only criticism of the book is that it was a little too much about emotions. I want to get to know the characters in the books I read, but I don’t need to know everything they are feeling. But that’s a personal quirk and you might be one of the people who thinks emotions are essential to a good book.

Pros: Very well written crime story with surprising plot and characters.

Cons: It might take you a while to care about the characters.