[Synopsis]
When the artist Marianne Glass falls to her death, everyone insists it was a tragic accident. Yet Rowan Winter, once her closest friend, suspects there is more to the story. Ever since she was young, Marianne had paralyzing vertigo. She would never have gone so close to the roof’s edge.
Marianne — and the whole Glass family — once meant everything to Rowan. For a teenage girl, motherless with a much-absent father, this lively, intellectual household represented a world of glamour and opportunity.
But since their estrangement, Rowan knows only what the papers reported about Marianne’s life: her swift ascent in the London art world, her much-scrutinized romance with her gallerist. If she wants to discover the truth about her death, Rowan needs to know more. Was Marianne in distress? In danger? And so she begins to seek clues — in Marianne’s latest work, her closest relationships, and her new friendship with an iconoclastic fellow artist.
But the deeper Rowan goes, the more sinister everything seems. And a secret in the past only she knows makes her worry about her own fate…
[My Review]
This is the first book I’ve read by Lucie Whitehouse- I have heard a lot about Before We Met but haven’t yet had the chance to read it. So, when I got the chance to review Keep You Close I jumped at it!
This is exactly the sort of novel- psychological thrillers- that are so ‘in vogue’ right now, and I love– but they tend to either be a bit samey and bland, or they’re amazing! Happily, I feel like this fell into the latter category!
The story isn’t particularly fast moving; instead Whitehouse focuses on defining the characters so we feel like we’re really getting to know Maron and the Glasses family (and Marianne too, but posthumously, mainly through memories as from the very start of the novel she’s dead). Because of the information we learn about the characters, the ‘action’, so to speak, happens quite slowly, but I enjoyed the way it unfolds as you continue reading.
It’s one of those stories where you’re never quite sure who is as they appear, which I love. I also really enjoy novels which switch from the present to the past and back again; I know plenty of readers who really hate this style but personally I enjoy this way of discovering more and more detail as the novel goes on, with some things in the current narrative incomprehensible until we go back into the past to find explanations. Many characters seem to have their own agenda, and this all adds to the mystery surrounding Marianne’s death and the consequent ‘incidents’.
There are surprises and twists which kept me eagerly reading on until the last page, when I put down the book in satisfaction.
Definitely recommended for fans of this genre- or anyone looking for a enigmatic, absorbing read- I’ll certainly be reading more by this author!