Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great!!
Review: This novel has a lot of characters. It was very suspensful because Clark keeps you guessing to find out which one of Eliza's admirers is more dangerous. However, The book has a very slow start because nothing really exciting happens until way passed the middle of the novel. It could have been better if more action was involved.
Rating: 
Summary: A heart-racing thriller
Review: This will probably be the fastest book you ever read. My heart was racing. I HAD to figure it out -- and didn't until the very end. This is Mary Jane Clark's BEST -- though I loved her last one (LET ME WHISPER IN YOUR EAR) too.You'll devour this.
Rating:
Summary: Good story spoiled by way too many characters & subplots ...
Review: We've felt the same way after all four of M.J. Clark's four novels of mystery and suspense set in the interesting venue of "Key News", no doubt a knock-off of CBS News where our author toils in real life. Her stories are invariably entertaining and suspenseful, even though her female leading characters verge on Wonder Women. And one eventually gets used to her one- and two-page (or less!) chapter lengths. But we really don't need three main plots and three sub-plots in one fairly short novel, much less the several dozen characters it takes to populate all those mini-stories. The tale this time is about Eliza Blake, reprised from Clark's first novel "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", who now anchors the evening news broadcast. Two or more viewers, not to mention some of her co-workers, are taking way too much interest in Blake, leading to three variations of a stalking problem, two different male romances gone awry, and one potential female liaison thrown in for good measure! As before, Eliza is so perfect it's clear she's Clark's vision of a modern, progressive, gorgeous, single female parent on the pedestal personified, which gets just a little tiresome after a while. But even more tiresome is the seemingly endless cast of characters and plot details that only sap strength from the main story. We've complained loudly about this same "clutter" in MJ's three earlier works. We guess there's just no recourse but too quit now before we invest any more time in an author who otherwise has tremendous potential. Can't an editor do something here?
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable
Review: With Close To You, Mary Jane Clark has an interesting premise but turns it into a disappointing novel. At under 300 pages, it's is certainly a quick read, but Clark fails to deliver genuine suspense. The so called "thrilling" sequences in the book are much too short, barely giving the reader time to think about what's going on. On top of this, the novel is quite predictable. Anyone with half a brain could figure out the identity of the killer within thirty pages. One could forgive the predictability if the characters were well developed, but unfortunately, Ms. Clark didn't do this either. Other than the novel's heroine, we don't get much of a backstory for any character. Mary Jane Clark has a long way to go before she can join the ranks of the great suspense novelists, such as James Patterson and John Sandford. All and all, you could easily find something worse to read than Close To You, but the real question is, why would you waste your time with it when there are so many better books out there?
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