Esther Verhoef – Close-up

Margot has recently split up with her long term partner after he had an affair with her best friend. She is bored in her job and her self esteem is at an all time low. When she meets Leon and starts a relationship with him everything changes. He brings her confidence back and helps her to leave her job and go after her dream of doing daring interior design projects. But Leon has secrets that he doesn’t want to talk about. His previous girlfriend died in his bath. The police believe she committed suicide, but in fact she was murdered.

I picked this book up in The Works a while back as it sounded intriguing. I’m so glad I did!
The book is well written, the translation was well done (the book was originally written in Dutch) and the characters are believable and on the whole likeable. The plot is engaging and suspenseful, I hated having to stop reading to do such things as go to work or sleep!

Most of the book is written following Margot but every so often there are chapters that are written in the first person perspective from the point of view of the killer. I really liked that and thought it really enhanced the book. I also loved the ending. It was not what I had expected but it worked perfectly.

I will definitely be looking out for more books by Esther Verhoef in future. I believe Close-up is currently the only one that has been translated into English so far but another is due out later in the year. Close-up is one of my favourite books that I have read so far this year and I am excited to see what else Esther Verhoef can offer.