Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay

Too Close to Home

by: Linwood Barclay

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

*audio version

Length:
11 hrs and 4 mins
Audible Release Date:
08-28-08

Book info:

Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Bantam (September 30, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553805568
ISBN-13: 978-0553805567
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches

Too Close to Home is a deliciously suspenseful and riveting novel. What starts out as a teenager's "dream week with his girlfriend" turns into an unforgettable nightmare and soon snowballs into suspicion, finger pointing, mistrust and endless questions.

Too Close to Home starts out from the point of view of Derek, as he plans a fun filled week with his girlfriend, using the house of his best friend, while he and family will be gone for a week long vacation. Then things go terribly wrong when the family unexpectedly returns home and Derek ends up being a prime suspect in his best friend's family's brutal murder.

From here, the story switches to the point of view of Derek's father, Jim Cutter. This is a smooth transaction and works very well for the story. The narrator, Christopher Lane, does a superb job bringing the characters and story vividly to life, along with Mr. Barclay's talent for spinning a tale that leaves the reader glued, as they wait to see what happens next.

How easily could a murderer go to the wrong house, brutally kill the family, realize their mistake and try to reconcile that mistake? What if your own son was convicted of this mistaken murder? How far would you go to find the real killer before it is too late? All these questions and many more arise within Too Close to Home ,as the reader is gripped within the story and the weaving of Mr. Barclay's imagination.

This is my first experience with Linwood Barclay's writing and I am honestly hooked. I can't wait to read/listen to more by this great and talented author. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a great suspense story - once you start, you won't want to stop until the very end! Filled with great and unexpected twists and turns, Too Close to Home will leave the reader guessing until the end!

*overall rating 4.5/5

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Publisher's Summary:

In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in the house next door, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. You can't help thinking, "That could have been us". And you start to wonder, "What if we're next?"

That's the question Jim and Ellen Cutter are asking, and the answers aren't reassuring. Promise Falls isn't the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. But then how well did the Cutters really know their neighbors - or the darker secrets of their small town? They don't have to look any further than their own marriage to know that things aren't always what they seem. Now the Cutters and their son, Derek, must face the unthinkable: that the murderer isn't just stalking too close to home but is inside it already.