See More From Book Club Friends

Sign up and log in to post, comment and join the conversation.

Book Club Friends is 100% Canadian 🇨🇦

Linwood Barclay
Too Close to Home
See the list of Promise Falls Trilogy books in order

Too Close to Home

“The night they killed our neighbors, we never heard a thing.”

In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in a house only one door away, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. And you think to yourself: It could have been us. And you start to wonder: What if we’re next?

Linwood Barclay, critically acclaimed author of No Time for Goodbye, brings terror closer than ever before in a thriller where murder strikes in the place we feel safest of all. Promise Falls isn’t the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. But that is exactly what happened to the Langleys one sweltering summer night, and no one in this small upstate New York town is more shocked than their next-door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son, Derek, was friends with the Langleys’ boy, Adam; but how well did they really know their neighbors?

That’s the question Jim Cutter is asking, and the answers he’s getting aren’t reassuring. Albert Langley was a successful, well-respected criminal lawyer, but was he so good at getting criminals off that he was the victim of revenge—a debt his innocent family also paid in blood? From the town’s criminally corrupt mayor to the tragic suicide of a talented student a decade before, Promise Falls has more than its share of secrets. And Jim Cutter, failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home and his wife Ellen’s past to know that things aren’t always what they seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.

Suddenly the Cutters must face the unthinkable: that a murderer isn’ t just stalking too close to home but is inside it already. For the Langleys weren’ t the first to die and they won’t be the last.

Praise for Too Close to Home

“[Linwood] Barclay knows how to put ordinary people into extraordinarily dangerous circumstances. . . . Readers will zip through it with delight.”—Publishers Weekly

“[An] affecting and effective thriller.”—Wall Street Journal Review

Author: Linwood Barclay
Published: 2008
Page Count: 404

This page may include affiliate links.

Purchase on:

Amazon
Amazon

Book Club Discussion Questions For Too Close to Home

Too Close to Home
Discuss Too Close to Home With Your Book Club Friends

Do you want to take a deeper dive intoToo Close to Home? Chat about themes, characters, settings, plots and let’s celebrate this book for our Book of the Month discussion!

Suggest Too Close to Home

More Book Club Discussions

A Better Man
A Fatal Grace
A Great Reckoning
A Rule Against Murder
A Trick of the Light
A World of Curiosities
All the Devils Are Here
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Beautiful Ugly
Bury Your Dead
Glass Houses
How the Light Gets In
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Kingdom of the Blind
On Tyranny
State of Terror
Still Life
The Beautiful Mystery
The Boyfriend
The Briar Club
The Brutal Telling
The Crash
The Cruelest Month
The Frozen River
The Grey Wolf
The Housemaid
The Life We Bury
The Long Way Home
The Madness of Crowds
The Mighty Red
The Nature of the Beast
The River We Remember
The Rose Code
The Searcher
The Thursday Murder Club
See All Discussions

Highly Recommended Books by Linwood Barclay Book Club Friends

Neon Prey
Blood and Mascara
Pirate King
Beating About the Bush
Atonement of Blood
The Castlemaine Murders
Waiting for Wednesday
The Hit
The Stranger Diaries
The Bone Collection: Four Novellas
The Shadow Dancer
Echo Park
Killing Season: A Thriller
The Art of Detection
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death in a Darkening Mist
A Cold Treachery
Leaving Everything Most Loved
Spirit Crossing
Unseen: A Novel
Not Dead Enough
Murder Unfolds
A Stranger in Mayfair
Evil Bones
Slow Kill
Back Spin
The Grave Tattoo
Dead Mountain
The Doomsday Decree
Deserves to Be Dead: MatchUp Collection
Treachery at Lancaster Gate
The Third Gate
A Fatal Lie
Another One Goes Tonight
Sand Sharks
Three Hands in the Fountain
The Locked Door
We Are All Guilty Here
Christmas Crumble: An Agatha Raisin Short Story
Hidden Prey
Winter Prey
The Child's Child
A Shooting at Chateau Rock
Random Acts: A Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds Novella
Two for the Lions
Badger's Moon
Sea of Troubles
A Dying Light in Corduba
Unnatural History: An Alex Delaware Novel
Pitch Dark
Playing with Fire
The Family Way
Paradise Lost
Remaindered
The Redeemer
Death of a Travelling Man
A Test of Wills
Killing Raven
Morality for Beautiful Girls
Killing Orders: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
Sins of the Fathers
Down a Dark Road
Three-Inch Teeth
Rabid: A Mike Bowditch Short Mystery
Where Memories Lie
The Nesting Dolls
Agatha Raisin and Tthe Haunted House
The Last Word
A Great Deliverance
Fever Dream
The Serpent on the Crown
The Grave's a Fine and Private Place
Saving Emma
Murder on the Short List
Master of Souls
The Sixth Man
Angel of Vengeance
A Cruel Deception
Crack Down
No Cure for Love: A Novel
Watchman: A Novel
The Mill on the Shore
Split Second
Homecoming: A Historical Mystery
A Question of Blood
Rock Paper Scissors
The Mosquito
The Keeper of Lost Causes
Walk the Wire
Bloodhounds
This Dark Road to Mercy
Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel
A Finer End
Full Scoop
The Fallen Curtain and Other Stories
Forever and a Day: A James Bond Novel
Midnight Tango
Beekeeping for Beginners
Stagestruck
Framed in Fire
Deadly Stakes
R is for Ricochet
What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust
Home by Nightfall
The Custom of the Army: An Outlander Novella
The Midnight Hour
A Trick of the Light
An East End Murder: A Charles Lennox Short Story
A Christmas Witness
Over the Edge
The Naming of the Dead
Fallout: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
One Virgin Too Many
A Match Made for Murder
The Eagle Catcher
Half Moon Bay: A Novel
Lockdown
A Pale Horse
Masked Ball at Broxley Manor
Curious Minds
Skin and Bones: A Mike Bowditch Short Mystery
Shroud for a Nightingale
The Woman in Suite 11
Bittersweet Oblivion
The Apprentice: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
A Christmas Garland
What to Do When Someone Dies
The Other Side of the Door
Means of Evil and Other Stories
Survival of the Fittest: An Alex Delaware Novel
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales
Earthly Delights
Freaks: A Rizzoli & Isles Short Story
The Face in the Mirror
The Forgotten Room
The Girl Who Died
The Brutal Heart
The Theory of Death
The Vanishing Point
The Surrogate Mother
Devil's Delight: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
Going Rogue
Be Buried in the Rain
In This Grave Hour
The Franchise Affair
The Survivors
Love You Dead
Flesh and Blood
Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
The Absent One
Divorce Horse: A Walt Longmire Story
Wild Crimes
The Woman in the Water: A Prequel to the Charles Lenox Series
How the Light Gets In
Venus in Copper
The Fourth Sacrifice
Behind Closed Doors
The Girl of His Dreams
Skeleton Man
The Red Queen
A Christmas Hope: A Novel
The Veiled One
Waxwork
Death in Holy Orders
A More Perfect Union
Never
Secret Prey
Friend of the Devil: An Inspector Banks Novel
Safe Harbour
Rattlesnake Crossing
A Simple Murder: A Kate Burkholder Short Story Collection
Land of Wolves: A Longmire Mystery
Mortal Causes
Dark Assassin: A William Monk Novel
An Old
Persons of Interest: A DC Smith Investigation
Last Car to Elysian Fields
Agatha Raisin and The Terrible Tourist
The Long Call
In Plain Sight: A Kate Burkholder Short Mystery
Lord John and the Private Matter
Dark Places
Beginnings: A Kate Martinelli Novella
Pony Girl
Gaslighted
Watershed
The Endless Knot
The Son: A Novel
A Dark-Adapted Eye
G is for Gumshoe
The Angel Court Affair
Kills Well with Others
Sovereign
Guilt: An Alex Delaware Novel
Fade to Red
3 Truths and a Lie
A Christmas Journey
Judgment Call
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story
Rainbow's End: A Richard Jury Mystery
Nothing Gold Can Stay
A Sudden
Zero Day
The Kidnapping: An Ian Rutledge Original Short Story
Thief of Hearts
H is for Homicide
Bone Box: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
The Guest List
Dead or Alive
Resurrection Row
Tell Me
The Lying Room
Ward D
An Unwilling Accomplice
Five Christmas Gifts: A Holiday Short Story Collection
Private Eyes
Among the Mad
A Cruel Fate
The Last Mrs. Summers
Borderline
Moon Music: A Novel
The Pillars of the Earth
P is for Peril
Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery
The Truth About Melody Browne
Buried Secrets
One Good Deed
Murder for Love
The Crying Child
The Wife
After the Storm
Funeral in Blue: A William Monk Novel
Remains of Innocence
A Beautiful Blue Death
Dorchester Terrace
1979: An Allie Burns Novel
The Grey Wolf
The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel
After I'm Gone
Cemetery Dance
A Fatal Inversion
One Perfect Couple
Master of the Moor
The Finisher
The Armor of Light
The Mark of the Assassin
Fade Away
Necessary as Blood
No Man's Land
A Last Goodbye
A Darkness of the Heart
The King's Ransom
Fire and Ice
Cruel Intent
Track of the Cat
Death of an Addict
Malice at the Palace
Wife of Moon
The Life We Bury
Peril in Paris
Hold Tight
Murder in the Rue Dumas
The Twist of a Knife
Willful Behavior
Gone Missing
Minor in Possession
The Vows of Silence
The Shadows We Hide
Body Double
Evan Only Knows
A Christmas Gathering
The Amersham Rubies
A Land More Kind Than Home
The Marco Effect
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
Westwind
The Colorado Kid
Extreme Prey
Agatha Raisin and The Fairies of Fryfam
W is for Wasted
A Song of Comfortable Chairs
Dixie City Jam
Absolute Proof
Kiss of the Bees
The Shoeshine Man's Regrets
The New Girl
Standing in the Shadows
The Lost Bird
The Speaker Of Mandarin
To the Power of Three
The Spider's Web
Death of a Policeman
A Matter of Justice
The Black Box
Seven Up
The Chase
The Pursuit