15 Years ago Dan and Holly were on their way to a midnight movie when they discovered a toddler alone in the parking garage, standing on a sign that read simply "Free to good home."
No relatives were ever located, and after a huge ordeal of red tape they were eventually allowed to adopt her. Now at 18, she is recently moved out with a roommate, when she receives an upsetting letter. Someone claiming to be her real father wants to meet her. Dan believes it is just a prank and wants her to forget about it. They argue over it and leave it at that. The next day when Dan shows up to apologize she's simply vanished. Did she go off with her real father or did something more sinister happen? Dan will stop at nothing to bring her home.
This was a fast paced twisty psychological thriller with more turns than a roller coaster. I never knew who to trust.

I received a complimentary copy for review ( )

Erik Therme is fast becoming one of those authors where I choose to read his book simply because he has written it; I don't need to read the blurb as I know it'll be a good one and boy was this the case with Keep Her Close. I picked it up and could not put it down; it's so easy to read it in one sitting as it's quite short at 247 pages but there is so much going on that I just had to keep reading until the end.

Dan and Holly find a little girl abandoned in a parking lot; not so much a baby in a basket but a 3 year-old standing on a sign that says 'free to a good home'. Holly takes to the child immediately and after several months of red tape, Holly and Dan are allowed to adopt her and call her Ally. Her origins have never been hidden from Ally and naturally she is curious about her birth parents. When she receives a letter out of the blue claiming to be from her birth father, Dan and Holly worry that it may be a hoax and, unbeknown to them, Ally decides to meet 'Frank'. That's the last time that Ally is seen.

I found the whole story very tense and Dan's volatility reminded me of Liam Neeson's character in Taken; willing to do absolutely anything to get his daughter back with absolutely no regard for the consequences of his actions. Ally's naivety was quite believable as you can just imagine someone of college age thinking that they are an adult and know better than their parents. You think you're invincible in your late teens, before the scales drop from your eyes and you see the horror of the real world.

I don't really want to go into the plot and spoil it for others but I found it very interesting how it developed from one person's almost throw away comment. It was almost like lighting a touchpaper and seeing the flame spreading, so much so that Dan had difficulty identifying the point of origin. It reminded me of the phrase that led to the murder of Thomas à Becket with Henry II uttering 'Will no one will rid me of this turbulent priest?' and it being taken as an instruction to kill. You just never know who might be listening!

Clear your schedule if you're reading Keep Her Close; it's a read-in-a-day kind of book as it's so difficult to put down once you start it. I love Erik Therme's writing; his visualisation conjures some amazing images in my mind and I do feel as if the book is playing out as a movie in my head. Not every book translates well to screen, but I think Keep Her Close would be perfect as a film - I'd definitely be in the queue to see it.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

Dan and Holly Nebel, on their way to see a midnight movie, find a barefoot three-year-old girl by the corner stairwell in the parking garage. When the authorities are unable to find the child’s family, Dan and Holly adopt her.

Fifteen years have passed. Ally is the light of their lives, but those lives have taken different directions as Dan and Holly divorced and Holly remarried. Ally has moved into an apartment with her best friend; she has a job in a local coffee shop and is looking forward to starting college in the fall.

Then the letter arrives. The letter from her birth father. The letter that asks Ally to meet him.

Dan tries to dissuade her from rushing into this, but Ally sets up a meeting without telling her parents.

And then she disappears.

The tension ramps up as the narrative unfolds in this quick-read, fast-paced tale of a family in crisis as desperate parents struggle to find their missing daughter. The main characters are believable, although Dan seems rather stereotypical as a “quick-to-lose-his-temper-and-solve-things-with-his-fists” dad and Holly’s officious manner may make it difficult for readers to feel completely empathetic toward her.

Some secondary characters and their stories need a bit more fleshing out; it is unclear why Ellie chose to rant about Ally’s sloppiness in the middle of an urgent search for the missing girl, but her mini-tirade is likely to leave readers wishing they knew more about the relationship between the two young women. However, the suspense builds as the story unfolds with some interesting reveals and plot twists that keep the pages turning.

The mostly-satisfactory ending nicely wraps up the preponderance of the story, but leaves a significant question unanswered, suggesting the possibility of a sequel to the narrative. Or perhaps the reader is, by the author’s choice, left to decide what will happen after the final page is turned.

Readers may question some of the attitudes, both spoken and implicit, toward the mentally ill; nevertheless, they are likely to be satisfied with the denouement that ties up most of the loose ends.

Recommended.

I received an e-book copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley.
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