Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks (Review by Taylor Bridgeforth)

Am I the only reader who tries to solve a mystery novel before the answers are disclosed? Am I the only reader who tries to solve a mystery novel before the answers are disclosed? Police find a huge amount of cocaine in Melanie son’s nursery, resulting in her son being taken into child protective services. Melanie was once a child of the state and panics to how her three month old could be being treated. INSERT SURVIVAL SUPER MOM MODE to get her son back which I totally support. However, Melanie refuses to want to know who and why she’s being framed. She simply thinks everything is a mistake—no, no someone went through hell and high water to take away your son and make sure you go to jail for life. Her naivety is incredibly annoying. Meanwhile, attorney Amy is working double duty: convicting Melanie and finding a serial whispering rapist (Melanie being one of his victims). Melanie is simply a wife and mother with no criminal past and yet everyone in the court and social services system has no doubt she’s guilty. A clearly innocent woman convicted of drug charges and seen as an unfit mother was hard for me to continue to grasp because NO ONE believed she was telling the truth, until her lawyer saw her in a dress and she reminded him of his late wife. Ok….. Spoiler: the rapist and who framed Melanie are the same person. I did figure that out on my own, just not who the person was! When it was finally clear as day Melanie was framed all the other answers I’ve been screaming into existence were answered, quick!! Delayed gratification, is what it is! Check it out on Amazon