I don’t think there’s ever a bad time to pick up a good book, but at the time of writing, we’re two months into lockdown, and even the most cursory of glances at social media is enough to leave you silently mouthing “whaaaaat?” at your phone.

WORDS: Emma Hill

There’s been some talk of using this time productively to tackle every goal, unfulfilled dream, or project. However, if you don’t fancy piling more pressure on top of an already high pressure situation, and just waiting for that stress to melt away, I’d recommend making some time for the kind of activities that actually tend to help us to relax, like reading a good book that draws you in and whisks you away from alarming headlines and graphs, at least for a while!

The Closer You Get is a thriller focusing on the emotional fallout when an affair goes badly wrong. It came out in late April and although, of course, it wasn’t intended as pandemic reading, I think it makes the perfect read for these tense times.

If you’ve been struggling to pick up a book, or to focus over the past few weeks, you’ll probably appreciate the fact that this thriller is essentially easier to read than not to. With just a handful of key characters who you’ll either swiftly warm to, or fixate on with deep suspicion, (with a little crossover between the two) The Closer You Get introduces tension and jeopardy from the first page.

As with all good thrillers, the pace and your desire for answers intensifies as you read, and you’ll swiftly find yourself immersed in the main characters’ world. As with Mary’s other novels, I appreciated the way that she creates a huge sense of jeopardy for her characters, but as they race against time to save themselves, they also find themselves contending with life’s smaller stresses, like trying to find the money to feed the parking meter, applying for jobs, or tying to balance the budget while their lives fall apart. They may sound like relatively minor details, but I think this combination of a huge looming sense of threat alongside the kind of stressful life admin that never stops, even during a crisis, adds a sense of realism to the unfolding drama.

Following a compelling initial set-up, the author upends some of our initial assumptions about the characters and maintains the sense of tension, and the readers’ looming sense of suspicion until the very last pages.

If you’re looking for a book where the writer’s done all the hard work, so you won’t have to strain to keep your attention on the characters or the plot, and where the final pages live up to the promise of the prologue, The Closer You Get will deliver in style.

The Kindle edition is available for £1.99. The Closer You Get is also available for £8.99 via Amazon Prime.

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