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by Brad Parks
Brad Parks delivers another riveting, emotionally powerful stand-alone domestic suspense thriller perfect for fans of The Couple Next Door and What She Knew.
Disaster, Melanie Barrick was once told, is always closer than you know.
It was a lesson she learned the hard way growing up in the constant upheaval of foster care. But now that she's survived into adulthood - with a loving husband, a steady job, and a beautiful baby boy named Alex - she thought that turmoil was behind her.
Until one Tuesday evening when she goes to pick up Alex from childcare only to discover he's been removed by Social Services. And no one will say why. It's a terrifying scenario for any parent, but doubly so for Melanie, who knows the unintended horrors of what everyone coldly calls "the system."
Her nightmare mushrooms when she arrives home to learn her house has been raided by sheriff's deputies, who have found enough cocaine to send Melanie to prison for years. The evidence against her is overwhelming, and if Melanie can't prove her innocence, she'll lose Alex forever.
Meanwhile, assistant commonwealth's attorney Amy Kaye - who has been assigned Melanie's case - has her own troubles. She's been dogged by a cold case no one wants her to pursue: a serial rapist who has avoided detection by wearing a mask and whispering his commands. Over the years, he has victimized dozens of women.
Including Melanie. Yet now her attacker might be the key to her salvation ... or her undoing.
"Starred Review. Another winning tale of domestic suspense from the Shamus- and Nero Award–winning author Parks, who knows how to get readers to empathize emotionally with his characters while amping up the tension and suspense from the first page." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. [Parks] dishes out another irresistible descent into hell for a heroine who regards her harrowing plight with a sobering verdict: 'It was like hitting a new bottom every day.'" - Kirkus
"A diverting, exciting read, with an ending you won't see coming." - Booklist
"Although Parks excels at keeping the pages turning with brisk pacing, relentlessly high tension, and a knotty narrative, the story - particularly the ending - comes off as too contrived." - Publishers Weekly
"Closer Than You Know grabs you by the gut in Chapter One and keeps upping the tension through every shocking plot twist. Don't expect to come up for air until the final, satisfying pages." - Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife
"Strong plotting, memorable characters, and situations that will hit readers where they live make Closer Than You Know a compulsive read." - Linwood Barclay
This information about Closer Than You Know was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Brad Parks is the only author to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of crime fiction's most prestigious prizes. A former reporter with The Washington Post and The Star-Ledger (Newark), he lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
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