The Close-Up

I went into this story, my first by Pip Drysdale, wanting an edge-of-my-seat, twisty psychological thriller. I loved the glittery LA setting and the premise, but the story didn't come together for me. 

This is a VERY slow burn story that gets bogged down with repetition and the daily minutiae of Zoe's life. I would have DNF'd this book but had heard that it was a late starter with its suspense, so I stuck with it. The tension finally ramps up at the three-quarters mark and the epilogue gave the story a much-needed energy boost and redeemed it somewhat. But by that time, it was too little, too late.

With its far-fetched, very slow burn plot and a frustrating character I couldn't connect with, this book wasn't a good fit for me. That said, I may pick up another one of Pip's books to get a better feel for her writing.

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Pip Drysdale

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: trade paperback from public library

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

First Published: Oct 30, 2024

Read: Dec 21 - 23, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: In this glittering new psychological suspense novel from internationally bestselling author Pip Drysdale, a writer’s own thriller is brought chillingly to life when a stalker begins to reenact the events from her book. 

Sometimes when your dreams come true, so do your nightmares... When Zoe Ann Weiss moves to LA to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist, she welcomes the fault lines, the Santa Ana winds, and the magic hour light. Her whole future is wide open—until Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she’s falling for, ghosts her, and her debut novel, a thriller, bombs. Three years pass. Zach’s star rises—he’s on Netflix, on billboards, in every magazine—while hers falls. Now she’s working in a flower shop, still calling herself a writer while staring at a blinking cursor every night. But then she delivers flowers in one of LA’s most exclusive neighborhoods and...he’s there. Zach Hamilton. And it’s like no time has passed at all—the two pick up right where they left off. It feels like fate, a love story for the ages—the kind of love you write about. Suddenly, Zoe’s writer’s block disappears. 

When photos of Zach and Zoe are leaked, her name ends up in the press and her novel goes viral online. Which all sounds fine in at least now she’ll sell some books. Except the problem with everyone knowing her name is that everyone knows her name. Including Zach’s stalker. A stalker who wants Zoe gone. A stalker who has read Zoe’s novel. A stalker who is now re-enacting everything that happened in that book, step by step, against her…