Closer Than She Knows

Author: Kelly Irvin

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: June 9, 2020

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

A great, clean, action-packed mystery with just the right amount of romance at all the right moments!

Instead of going into the family business of law enforcement, Teagan O’Rourke decides to go her own route and become a court reporter. Listening to hours of real-life murders and dealing with crime scene photos, her life is covered in death and destruction, but she has never been the victim of a crime. Until now. As she is riding in the car with a young police officer, the car window explodes and the officer is killed from a sniper rifle shot. The man responsible starts leaving Teagan notes signed by different murderers from some of her favorite mystery novels. Teagan’s family is in law enforcement and come to her aid along with one of her oldest friends, Max Kennedy. Max wants to be more than friends with Teagan but is afraid his past will keep them apart. Teagan is determined to keep those she loves from being hurt, but with each passing moment, the killer comes closer to her and those she is striving to protect proving he is closer than she imagined and doesn’t plan to stop until he finishes what he started.

Closer Than She Knows was a fun, exciting read that was full of mystery and suspense with just the right amount of romance. I flew through the pages of this one and enjoyed the story. While it was predictable at times, it wasn’t one that I knew everything that was about to happen; I just happened to figure out the bad guy quite a bit earlier before it was revealed. The relationship between Teagan and Max was paced perfectly, while they had known each other a long time, nothing was rushed; but when she was in danger, the feelings they had for each other couldn’t stay dormant any longer. It works perfectly in true fashion that when we are in high stress situations our true emotions tend to surface even if we want to keep them at bay. I enjoyed the rest of the family dynamics, the way Teagan related with her stepsiblings and her father was all very realistically written. The ending was not a big surprise for me, but some might not catch on to the clues early on that I saw. I would recommend this book to those that enjoy a good, clean suspense with romance that brings the suspense up a notch.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher.  The views and opinions expressed within are my own.