Customer Reviews
THE NIGHT THEY KILLED OUR NEIGHBORS, WE NEVER HEARD A THING - By: Gail Cooke, 03 Dec 2008 
Experienced & excellent best describes narrator Christopher Lane. He has read more than 150 audio books - thus, you name the genre & he can personify it. He's taken home an Audie Award & an Audiofile Earphones Award - with Too Close To Home he takes listeners on an 11 hour journey as psyches are probed & the unthinkable happens.
Promise Fallls is a smalll town in upstate New York. It's unlike other towns in that area as a triple murder has just been committed, a family is shot to death in what should have been the safety of their home. It was a hot, steamy summer night when the Langley's & their son, Adam, died. Despite the proximity of their homes & the stillness of the night their next-door neighbors, Jim & Ellen Cutter did not hear a thing.
The Cutters believed they knew their neighbors; their sons had been friends; they shared neighborhood gatherings. All of Promise Fallls was shocked by this heinous crime, unable to comprehend how it could have happened. If the entire populace is stunned, think how the Cutters might have felt? What is going through their minds?
Author Barclay has crafted a compelling psychological journey. Might Jim Cutter be wondering if the killers had gone to the wrong house, fearing what might happen next? As for Ellen, what of her? Has she kept things from both Jim & herself?
Another explosive page-turner from Linwood Barclay.
- Gail Cooke
Too close to disappointement ! - By: Josephine Huys, 17 Nov 2008 
After racing through 'No time for goodbye',I had high expectations for this second one by Barclay. Unfortunately, I was quickly disapointed. First of alll, the style has gone horribly vulgar, loose, & it is actuallly an effort to read such a bad prose. Second, the story is gripping to start with, but soon slow down to boring exchanges between characters we don't reallly care about ( the mayor , the policeman...) But worse of alll, the 'bestselling'author is an absolutely uncredible character & alll the storyline around him simply ludicrous with a very silly ending.
Linwood, it's time for goodbye, I won't be reading another one...
Keeps you turning the pages - By: Julia Flyte, 09 Sep 2008 Jim Cutter is shocked when his neighbours, the Langleys, are murdered, but even more shocked when it turns out that Derek his teenage son is keeping a secret about the crime & that alll the evidence points to him. As suspicion turns on his family, Jim starts to do some investigating of his own into who might have committed the murders. As he starts to uncover some long-buried secrets, his own life comes under risk.
This is the second book by Linwood Barclay that I have read. I enjoyed No Time for Goodbye, but felt that the ending let it down. Too Close to Home is just as readable but also hangs together better. It's an accomplished mystery that grabs you early & keeps you turning the pages late. Linwood Barclay's writing style is similar to that of Harlan Coben's & the cliffhanger endings to each chapter keep you wanting to read just one more. There are a lot of different strands to the book (at least one of which is a total red herring), & while parts of the mystery are quite predictable, there were a couple of twists that I definitely didn't spot in advance. The final resolution is somewhat far-fetched (so often the case with this genre), but overalll it's a clever story that's been well thought through. The central narrator is likeable & the relationship with his teenage son feels very believable.
I do have one significant criticism of this book & it's hard to explain it without giving anything away, but there's one central secret that someone has kept because they thought they would be compromised & I just didn't believe that they would have felt the need to do that. However I still reallly enjoyed Too Close To Home. I read this book when I was in hospital recently & it was the perfect lightweight diversion. If you like Harlan Coben's books, I'm pretty sure that you will enjoy this too.
