Follow up that beats the original bestseller (Too Close to Home - Linwood Barclay)

Member Name: pagso

Product:	Too Close to Home - Linwood Barclay
Date:	22/09/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable and believable read

Disadvantages: Am sure most will guess the ending before it comes

When I first saw Too Close to Home I thought I'd already read it as the cover is so similar to Barclay's bestselling book No Time for Goodbye, the version I have is blue like the first one and is the same design. I'd enjoyed that one so bought this one. On the back of the book it asks "What's more frightening than your next door neighbours being murdered? Finding out the killers went to the wrong house ....."

The story opens with 17 year old high school senior (we're in America) Derek hiding out in his friend's house just as him and his family are off on holiday so he can have access to the place while they are away so he can have somewhere to be alone with his girlfriend. Turns out they come back unexpectedly so he goes back into hiding only to hear someone shoot and kill his friend and his parents.

Derek goes back home and for some inexplicable reason keeps his mouth shut even when the police start investigating. The sorry tale comes out soon enough and of course Derek becomes the no.1 suspect.

After the prologue the story unfolds from the view of Derek's father, Jim Cutter, an extremely likeable character who works as a lawn maintenance man after quitting his job as the Mayor's driver because of losing his temper over the Mayor's louche lifestyle. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that Jim's wife knows more about events than she is letting on and I found her quite unsympathetic; however Jim reacts to the situation and what he discovers in an understandable way and in this respect I found the book to be a much more believable and engrossing read than No Time for Goodbye.

I did twig about 20 pages from the end what was going on but up until then I hadn't a clue and despite knowing how it was going to pan out I still enjoyed the ending and will definitely look out for future books from this author.

Summary: A great read and will look forward to the next book by this author