The Suspense Novel My Reading Group Could Not Stop Talking About

Our September meeting was supposed to end at eight. At twenty after, eight women were still at the fellowship room table, and Dottie was still arguing with the woman beside her about a detail in the middle of the book. That is what Too Close to Home did to us. I had picked it for the group because I wanted a case that would hold a room, and Lynette Eason gave us one.

I read it in August, in my green chair by the front window, over about a week and a half. That is slower than my usual ten days, but I found myself stopping to check the clock, which is always a sign that a book has its hand on my shoulder. The listing says 336 pages, and it reads like a procedural: an FBI agent, a detective, a case that keeps moving.

This is the first Eason I have read, and I have read only this one in the Women of Justice series. Book one of four, the listing says, and it stands on its own well enough for a group that has not read the rest. I did not feel lost. I did feel the pull of the next book, which is its own kind of recommendation.

The story follows Samantha Cash, an FBI agent, and Connor Wolfe, a detective, working the same case. There is romance alongside the investigation, light enough that it does not take over. The subject is missing teenagers, and I will not pretend that is easy. It is hard reading for a parent or a grandparent, even though Eason keeps the page clean. I would not hand it to a young teen without reading it first.

What I noticed most was the pace. Eason writes short chapters and moves. The faith element is there without a sermon. Nobody in our group felt preached at, which is not always true of this shelf. And nobody guessed the ending early, not even Dottie, who usually has the culprit by the second cup of coffee.

The meeting ran twenty minutes over, the longest of any meeting that year, and nobody was in a hurry to leave.

I have been a librarian for thirty-one years, most of them in a school library, and I have learned that the book that works for a group is not always the book that works alone. This one worked both ways. Glenn does not read novels, so I cannot tell you what a man who lives in the other chair would think. I can tell you that the women in my group are not all fans of police work, and this one held them.

The hard part is the subject. The case involves teenagers who have gone missing, and Eason does not use that cheaply. She uses it to keep the clock ticking. I would say the same thing I would say about any book with that weight: know what you are picking up. If you are a parent or a grandparent, the first chapters may sit with you. One of our members said she had to put it down for a night and come back to it. That is not a flaw. It is a book doing what it set out to do.

Where Eason is strongest is in the ordinary details of an investigation. The interviews, the paperwork, the way a detective has to wait. I have read books that skip all of that and go straight to the chase. This one does not, and I was grateful. If you want a car chase every chapter, look elsewhere. If you want the feeling of being inside a case, this is closer to it.

I wrote the book down in my notebook, as I do. Started it the second week of August, finished in about nine days. Handed it to the group in September. The note beside it says 'keep for readers who want a clean case with a little romance and no sermon.' That is still where I land. It is not a book I would press on someone who wants a cozy mystery. It is a book I would press on someone who wants a procedural with a conscience.

The romance is there, but it is not the engine. That mattered to our group. Some of us want a little warmth in a book and some of us want none of it, and this one kept both camps at the table. The faith is the same way: present, not pushed. I have handed books to this group that ended with a sermon and a bow, and I have watched the room close. This one did not close the room. Would I read the next one? I have not yet. I read only this first book, and I am slow about series. But I have already put the second on my list, which is more than I can say for most of what crosses my table. That is my honest measure.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you this is a good book for a group that wants a case with weight and does not mind a hard subject. I would tell you it is clean, but clean does not mean soft. I would tell you to read the first chapter before you hand it to a young teen. And I would tell you that if you are looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud, this is not that book. It is a suspense novel, and it does what suspense is supposed to do: it keeps you in the chair.