Title: Someone Close to Home
Author: Alex Craigie
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Thriller
Book Blurb:
Talented pianist Megan Youngblood has it all – fame, fortune and Gideon.
But Gideon isn’t good enough for Megan’s ambitious, manipulative mother, whose meddling has devastating repercussions for Megan and for those close to her.
Now, trapped inside her own body, she is unable to communicate her needs or fears as she faces institutional neglect in an inadequate care home.
And she faces Annie. Sadistic Annie who has reason to hate her. Damaged Annie who shouldn’t work with vulnerable people.
Just how far will Annie go?
My Review:
A book formatted in a very uncommon way. The author takes the reader deep into the mind of Megan but that journey is circular. The reader gets Megan's life in fits and starts and only through conceivable detective work, the reader can piece that life together.
The central point of Someone Close to Home must be to shine a bright light on the terrible conditions found in long-term care homes. The huge amount of deaths from the pandemic in those homes have been harrowing. This kind of abuse and evil was more common in days before the pandemic. The only positive these days is it is possible that someone who shouldn't be caring for those who need help may get the virus too.
Someone Close to Home reminds this reader of variations on Rear Window and Misery. The book could be presented as a horror book for the stark terror that is presented. To be helpless in your body while an evil person does terrible things to you is akin to being buried alive.
If you want a journey that will expose the depravity of the human soul, this book is for you. For this reader, a sense of chronological order in the flashbacks would have made this much easier to read. Fans of the paranormal thriller will like this book too. A very uncommon work.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
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Author Biography:
Alex Craigie is the pen name of Trish Power.
Trish was ten when her first play was performed at school. It was in rhyming couplets and written in pencil in a book with imperial weights and measures printed on the back.
When her children were young, she wrote short stories for magazines before returning to the teaching job that she loved.
Trish has had two books published under the pen name of Alex Craigie. Both books cross genre boundaries and feature elements of romance, thriller and suspense against a backdrop of social issues. Someone Close to Home highlights the problems affecting care homes while Acts of Convenience has issues concerning the NHS at its heart.
Someone Close to Home has won a Chill with a Book award and a Chill with the Book of the Month award. In 2019 it was one of the top ten bestsellers in its category on Amazon.
Book lovers are welcome to contact her on alexcraigie@aol.com
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Reviewed by: Mr. N