Steph is Chief of Internal Affairs in the FBI’s Washington D.C. field office. But at nineteen, she was a summer intern for Senator Halliday when she was raped by him. Finding herself pregnant, she decides to keep her baby in Keep You Close.
Her now seventeen year old son, Zachary, is distant and uncommunicative. Steph blames her long hours and his age. However, when a colleague warns her that Zackary has been emailing a domestic terrorist group, she decides to investigate.
After speaking to Zachary, Steph is convinced of his innocence. She decides that someone from her past is getting to her through Zachary. Could it be Senator Halliday? A mob boss she took down years ago? Another disgruntled FBI agent who lost his job because of her?
For a FBI agent, Steph seems to be searching for phantoms for most of the book. Names and motives are thrown around but no real research or investigating is done. She doesn’t even do a background search on the gun she found that started it all. How could a trained agent not remember that she failed to set her alarm and/or not be concerned when the alarm is off when she returns home after work.
Keep You Close requires a suspension of disbelief that I just can’t get past. Worse, despite starting well it is boring throughout the middle. Steph needs a real psychiatrist—not just the one in her head that sounds like the most annoying parent ever.
I enjoyed the author’s last book, Need to Know, but this one is a disappointment. Hopefully, her next book will be better. 2 stars.
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.