I read Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason in August 2024, and I picked it for our church book group the next month. That meeting ran twenty minutes over, the longest we have had since I started keeping the list. I am Marian Holloway, a retired school librarian in Owensboro, Kentucky, and I have spent most of my life handing books to people who wanted a clean story and no sermon. Eason's first Women of Justice book is that kind of book. It is a Revell paperback, 336 pages, book one of four, and it gives you a case, a pair of investigators, and a faith thread you can see without being hit over the head with it.
Too Close to Home is not a book I would press on everyone. It is a suspense novel with a serious case at its center, and the first book in Eason's Women of Justice series. I read it once, in August 2024, and I have not read the other three, so I will not pretend to know where the series goes. What I can tell you is why it worked for me, why it worked for our group, and who I would hand it to. If you want a clean paperback you can start tonight without wondering whether it will turn graphic or preachy, start here.
Start the Women of Justice series with the book our group could not stop discussing
Too Close to Home is book one of four, a Revell paperback, 336 pages. If you want a clean suspense novel with a case at the center and a faith thread that stays in the background, start here.
Amazon See Too Close to Home on Amazon →It opens with a case, not a lecture
I have put down more Christian suspense novels than I can count because the first chapter felt like a Sunday school lesson wearing a trench coat. Too Close to Home does not do that. Eason starts with the work, and the work is a case. You meet Samantha Cash and Connor Wolfe, and you get moving. The paperback is 336 pages, so there is room for the story to breathe, but the opening does not waste your evening. If you want a book that trusts you to follow the investigation, this is the one I would hand you first.
The investigator pairing keeps the pages turning
One of the reasons this book suits suspense readers is the pairing at the center. You have an FBI agent and a detective working the same case, and Eason lets each one carry a piece of it. I like that better than a single hero who sees everything. The back and forth gives you someone to root for on both sides of the case, and it keeps the middle of the book from sagging. Our group talked about that partnership more than anything else at the September meeting.
It stays clean without feeling childish
Clean does not have to mean bloodless or silly, and this is a good example. The subject matter is serious, but the book does not lean on graphic detail to hold your attention. I could hand it to a woman in our church group without adding a warning about language or scenes. That matters to me. I am not looking for a book that pretends evil does not exist. I am looking for one that handles it with some restraint. Too Close to Home does that, and it still reads like a grown-up novel.
The faith notes are light enough to skip past
I am a lifelong Baptist, and I still do not want a novel that stops the story to preach at me. Eason keeps the faith notes light. They are there, and a reader who wants them will find them, but they do not take over the page. Dottie, my longest reading friend, is the one who notices those threads first, and even she did not call this one preachy. That is the balance I look for in Christian suspense. You get a clean story with a conscience, not a sermon with a plot stapled to it.
Book one of four gives you a series to settle into
This is the first of four Women of Justice books, and I like knowing that before I start. I read only this one, so I cannot tell you how the series goes, but I can tell you that book one stands on its own well enough for a group discussion. If you are the kind of reader who likes to know there is another book waiting on the hall shelf, that is a point in its favor. The Revell paperback is 336 pages, a comfortable size for a series opener.
The pacing fits an evening reading habit
I read most novels after supper, and I read this one in August 2024 over several evenings. The book gave me natural stopping places, which is not always true of suspense. Some novels make you pay for every pause with another twenty pages. This one moved at a pace I could live with. I kept a pencil in my hand and made a note when I finished, the way I do with every book. I finished it in good time and passed it along to the group.
It gave our book group its longest meeting
I picked Too Close to Home for our September 2024 meeting, and we ran twenty minutes over. In the years I have been keeping the list, that is the longest any book has run us. Eight women around a table in the fellowship room, and everyone had something to say. That does not happen with a thin book. A novel can be clean and still give you nothing to discuss. This one gave us plenty without anyone having to reveal the ending to make a point.
The romance sits beside the case, not on top of it
There is romance in this book, and I know some suspense readers want none of it. I am not one of them, as long as it does not take over. Here it sits beside the case. You care about the people, and the case stays central. If you want a novel that is all chase and no attachment, you may find this one softer than you like. If you want a case with people you would recognize at church, this is a better fit.
It is honest about hard subject matter
I will not pretend this is a light read. The case involves missing teens, and some of them turn up dead. That is hard for a parent or a grandparent to sit with, even when the book stays clean. Eason does not use that pain cheaply, but she does not skate around it either. I would not hand this to a young teenager. I would hand it to an adult who wants a suspense novel that takes the cost of a crime seriously.
It is an easy handoff to a friend who wants clean suspense
My test for a book is simple. Would I put it in the hands of a friend without a list of caveats? Too Close to Home passes that test for the right reader. It is clean, it moves, and it has enough weight to talk about. I would not give it to someone looking for a cozy mystery with tea and no danger. I would give it to the woman who wants a police case and a faith-friendly story in the same paperback. That is a narrow shelf, and Eason fills it well.
What I'd Skip
What I'd skip is the assumption that this book is for every reader in the room. It is not a cozy mystery, and it is not a thriller that keeps the violence off the page by making the stakes small. The case involves missing teens and deaths, and that is a real weight. I read only the first book of the four, so I cannot promise you the series stays at this level. I also would not hand it to a young teen or to a reader who wants a romance-first novel. If you want a clean suspense novel with a case at the center and a faith thread you can see without being preached at, this is a good place to start. If you want a light mystery for a beach chair, skip it and ask me for something else.
Our September 2024 meeting ran twenty minutes over, the longest any book has run us, and nobody had to give away the ending to keep the talk going.
If you want clean suspense you can hand to a friend, start with book one
Read the listing, check the sample, and see whether the first pages suit you. That is how I decide, and it has kept my hall bookcase honest.
Amazon See the Book on Amazon →