BOOK REVIEW: Keep You Close by Lucie Whitehouse

They said it was a tragic accident. She knows better...
The brilliant young painter Marianne Glass is found dead in her snow-covered garden, Rowan Winter, once her closest friend, knows it wasn't a mistake.
Marianne had vertigo, paralysing vertigo. She never would have gone that close to the edge...

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 361

I have read an enjoyed all of Lucie Whitehouse's previous books. She is a superb storyteller and so, so good at creating tension and suspense within her books.
Rowan has not spoken to Marianne Glass for more than ten years, when she is informed of her tragic death. It would appear that she committed suicide by jumping from her studio window at the top of her house. Rowan is devastated but also suspicious. Marianne suffered from paralysing vertigo, there is no way she would have gone out on to the roof so what really happened?
Marianne becomes entangled in the Glass family again as she offers to house sit until Marianne's belongings are cleared out. She becomes very aware that she is being watched and she is sure that whoever it is must be connected to her friend's death.
Keep You Close is so well written; the tension is there from the very beginning but Lucie Whitehouse has plenty of tricks up her sleeve to keep the pace going. I was seriously shocked when reading the final few chapters; there were some things I had worked out but there was still plenty of surprises.
I thought that Lucie Whitehouse's characterisation was fantastic. Marianne is dead from the very beginning of the book but we still become very familiar with her. Her whole family are integral to the book as is Marianne's childhood home where she still lived and died. Lucie Whitehouse paints beautifully vivid images through her descriptions and I felt that the characters and the history they shared were entirely believable.
I highly recommend Keep You Close  but also this author's other books too. Her writing style and storytelling put Lucie Whitehouse above many other authors in this genre.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy of this book to review.