Too Close to Home

By: Linwood Barclay

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

“The night they killed our neighbors, we never heard a thing.”

In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in a house only one door away, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. And you think to yourself: It could have been us. And you start to wonder: What if we’re next?

Linwood Barclay, critically acclaimed author of No Time for Goodbye, brings terror closer than ever before in a thriller where murder strikes in the place we feel safest of all. Promise Falls isn’t the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. But that is exactly what happened to the Langleys one sweltering summer night, and no one in this small upstate New York town is more shocked than their next-door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son, Derek, was friends with the Langleys’ boy, Adam; but how well did they really know their neighbors?

That’s the question Jim Cutter is asking, and the answers he’s getting aren’t reassuring. Albert Langley was a successful, well-respected criminal lawyer, but was he so good at getting criminals off that he was the victim of revenge - a debt his innocent family also paid in blood? From the town’s criminally corrupt mayor to the tragic suicide of a talented student a decade before, Promise Falls has more than its share of secrets. And Jim Cutter, failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home and his wife Ellen’s past to know that things aren’t always what they seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.

Suddenly the Cutters must face the unthinkable: that a murderer isn’t just stalking too close to home but is inside it already. For the Langleys weren’t the first to die and they won’t be the last.

Praise for Too Close to Home

“[Linwood] Barclay knows how to put ordinary people into extraordinarily dangerous circumstances. . . . Readers will zip through it with delight.” -Publishers Weekly

“[An] affecting and effective thriller.” -Wall Street Journal Review

©2008 Linwood Barclay (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

So twisty-turny, you’ll never guess all the surprises!

This was a fantastically well-written and performed thriller! I’m going right now to see if Linwood Barclay has written more, because, OMG! You just have to buy this book.

Linwood Barclay Never Disappoints

Linwood Barclay is an excellent story-teller, I highly recommend reading any of his books, they are all incredibly well written and absolutely enjoyable with complete characters that are easy to relate with. If your neighbors are murdered in their home, of course you’re thinking “what if we’re next”? or “that could have been us”! or “what if we’re next”? so much to consider…you will NOT be disappointed.

Give it a chance, you won't be sorry.

On the recommendation of a friend I listened to this wonderful book. Although I almost gave up a few chapters in. I didn't and so glad I didn't. There were so many twists and turns, that once they grabbed me I couldn't let go.

Acts of kindness can bite you in the butt.

Excellence!

Just as captivating as his other books, this one grabs you at the start, keeps you guessing throughout, and ends with a bang! Great read/listen!

Only So-So

As I started the book I thought, "What possessed me to buy this book?" Then it got a little better, then it didn't. This book is mostly back story and there is very little current story line. It moves slowly as all of the back story has to be told in order to conclude the plot. I found it very predictable and rather trite in many places. The characters are not very well developed. The narrator is only average. I had a difficult time separating one character speaking for another.