Monday 29 August 2016

Keep You Close - Lucie Whitehouse



They said it was a tragic accident.

She knows better...

The brilliant young painter Marianne Glass is found dead in her snow-covered garden.

Rowan Winter, once her closest friend, knows it wasn't an accident.

Marianne had vertigo, paralysing vertigo.

She never would have gone that close to the edge.

What did I think?

Although I have two of Lucie Whitehouse's three previous novels in my book collection, Keep You Close is the first one I have read.  I did find it a little difficult to get into but it was well worth persevering.

Marianne Glass is a famous artist who is just about to exhibit in America when she is found dead in her garden after an apparent jump from the roof of her house.  With only Marianne's footprints in the snow, the police believe it is suicide but Marianne's family and her estranged schoolfriend, Rowan, know that Marianne had vertigo and would never have gone near to the edge of the roof.  Rowan and Marianne's brother, Adam, try to put the pieces together of Marianne's last movements to prove that she didn't jump.  Rowan, however, has a slightly different agenda as she tries to keep the secret buried that drove her and Marianne apart all those years ago.

I love books with a deeply buried secret and Lucie Whitehouse has brilliantly built up the tension as layer after layer is unwrapped of Rowan and Marianne's friendship.  Rowan was so close to Marianne's family when they were younger, so we wonder what on earth could have happened to drive them apart.  Was it a silly schoolgirl argument or something more sinister?  You will just have to read Keep You Close to find out for yourself.

Keep You Close surprised me at every turn as nothing is quite what it seems.  It is a goosebumpy examination of a friendship and a scary account of just how far some people will go to protect themselves in the guise of protecting those they claim to love.

I received this book from the publisher, Bloomsbury, in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:




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