Keep Them Close promises a tense domestic thriller where family bonds are tested, every relationship is fractured beneath the surface, and the most dangerous secrets are the ones kept closest to home.
When a husband is murdered, the people left behind quickly become suspects—not just to the police, but to each other. As buried betrayals, hidden affairs, and old wounds claw their way back into the light, every answer only creates another question. How far would you go to protect the people you love… and what happens when they’re the very people you can’t trust?
Allison’s life is already falling apart before the murder. Her husband is cheating, her son is about to leave for college, and the one constant in her life is her brother, Luke, who has an impressive talent for getting himself tangled in questionable situations. Then Finley is found dead—stabbed straight through the heart—and somehow the person who seems to care the most is the detective assigned to the case. Allison? She’s the prime suspect.
Can we talk about Fin for a second?
Because what could possibly be worse than discovering your husband is cheating? Oh, I don’t know… maybe he blows out his knee, you nurse the cheating bastard back to health, he loses his income, you somehow rebuild your marriage from the ashes, everything finally starts feeling normal again… and then he goes running straight back to his mistress.
Sir.
The audacity deserves its own criminal charge.
The story cleverly jumps between two investigations. In the present, Allison is trying to survive being the number one suspect in her husband’s murder. In the past, Luke finds himself under investigation after being caught transporting oxy—except it wasn’t even his car. It belonged to his crush, Trinity, who conveniently owns Pilates studios that may or may not be the perfect cover for something far less healthy than reformer classes. Considering Luke already has a history involving drug charges, things spiral fast.
Everyone has a theory.
Allison is convinced Trinity set Luke up.
Luke believes Fin had something to do with everything.
Meanwhile I’m just sitting there screaming:
Okay… but who actually killed Fin?
And that question kept me turning the pages.
This book completely blindsided me with one particular reveal involving Fin’s love interest. I genuinely did not see it coming. Every time I thought I had figured things out, David Ellis casually pulled the rug out from under me and reminded me that I knew absolutely nothing.
The plot is far more layered than I expected. What starts as a fairly straightforward murder mystery slowly unfolds into something messier, darker, and surprisingly emotional. I especially loved Allison’s relationship with her son—it added warmth to a story where almost every other relationship is held together with duct tape, resentment, and bad decisions.
One thing this book absolutely nails is character complexity. Almost nobody is particularly likeable, yet somehow you still understand why they make the choices they do.
Well…
Almost everybody.
Because Fin can respectfully stay dead.
Overall, Keep Them Close is an incredibly addictive domestic thriller packed with twists that genuinely caught me off guard. It’s fast-paced, intelligently plotted, and constantly keeps you second-guessing everyone. I flew through it, had a great time trying (and failing) to solve the mystery, and by the end I was more than satisfied with where the story landed.
If you’re looking for a thriller full of dysfunctional families, betrayals, morally gray characters, and plot twists that actually earn their shock value, this one deserves a spot on your TBR.
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