I think I could possibly be Rosamund Lupton’s biggest fan and I became resigned to never reading any new novels from her and never finding anything as good but then I spied Closing In which was described as PERFECT for fans of Lupton and so I jumped at the opportunity to read this book!
Closing In is a fantastically written novel about Ellen Newman, a woman who, after running away to start a new life, takes a job as a nanny for a new family but soon finds her past and what she’s running away from isn’t willing to let her go.
With the responsibility of looking after a child, maintaining a strictly professional relationship with her boss and avoiding her past catching up with her, can Ellen really make a brand new start and look forward to the future?
This book had me totally gripped right from the off. I became so quickly invested in the characters and their world and was desperate to find out what lie beneath the surface of their seemingly ordinary lives. The plot was incredibly clever and I could not have predicted where it ended up. I felt that the ‘big reveal’ as such, could have been a little longer so we could be totally aware of each of the characters motivations but it was still a great twist and shocking revelation.
The characters in Closing In are so well crafted and they are all so multi-layered that you just don’t know which one to trust. Throughout the whole novel I kept trying to second guess the author and work out which character I should listen to but I just couldn’t work out who to believe! I would have loved a tiny bit more of a struggle between Ellen and her boss Donovan - I think there could have been a lot of tension and more scenes between them where he doesn’t know whether to believe her or not.
The tension and intrigue throughout this novel was totally on point the whole way through, I was flying through the pages trying to rush to the conclusion so everything would come together. I love an author who can keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time and Sue has got that skill down to a fine art. Whilst the writing was compelling and gripping, it was also beautifully descriptive so I was able to picture exactly where we were and exactly what was going on in each moment which made what happened even more powerful.
I really recommend this book – it’s a nice length which means you can easily get through it in one sitting or one evening (you won’t be able to put it down!)
A fantastically paced novel exploring how letting go of the past may never be as easy as you think…