Book review: The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale

The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale is a twisty tale from the Australian author whose previous books I have enjoyed and who I recently met in person at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. We’re offered a likeable but certainly flawed lead in Zoe whose narration is akin to second person, as if she’s talking to us. It works well as we’re drawn into her world very quickly. It’s purely by chance that she reconnects with Zach, who she knew briefly (but intimately) three years before. Given what happens next she rues that chance meeting, but Zoe herself admits it’s not just the allure of Zach that attracts her, but the fact that he (and his world) become her writing muse, so there’s more than her heart (and life) on the line.

The Close-Up
by Pip Drysdale
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia
on 03/12/2024
Source: Harper Collins
Genres: Crime Fiction
ISBN: 1668043467
Pages: 369

Goodreads

Things have not been going well for Zoe Ann Weiss. Once a young novelist full of promise, now she has a failed debut under her belt, a mountain of debt, a dead-end job, and an agent who's about to drop her if she doesn't write something new and brilliant soon.

Worst of all, she's blocked. Can't-write-a-word blocked. But all that changes one night when she runs into her old flame, Zach Hamilton. It's like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating, and Zach makes her feel like anything is possible. Like the stars have finally realigned themselves in her favour.

Best of all, her writer's block has disappeared.

The only issue is Zach isn't just some hot guy with a dream anymore. Now he's a movie star with billboards and PR people and fans and paparazzi ... and even though they're dating in secret, Zoe soon finds herself splashed all over the press. Now everyone seems to know her name.

But the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name ... including the stalker who's obsessed with Zach. The stalker who's re-enacting violent, creepy plot twists from Zoe's first novel, exactly how she wrote them - except now, she's the victim.

I enjoyed that this book circumnavigates the world of writing and publishing. As a once-contemplative writer myself who still inhabits its periphery I understand a little about publishing deals and expectations of writers, agents, editors and publishers.

Although I liked Zoe, she’s unashamedly ambitious – for fame and fortune really (when we meet her), rather than her craft. And I found that perplexingly disappointing, realising I was judging her.  And that’s even before she’s planning to stomp all over her confidentiality agreement regarding Zach and the fact she only feels glimmers of guilt for betraying his trust.

Of course, her initial plans to write about the inside world of a celebrity is overtaken by the opportunity to document the threats she starts to receive and it’s a case of art imitating life imitating art. Or something. It’s not as convoluted as it sounds though perhaps does become a smidge so once we near the end as a few more players appear.

And I certainly did not guess at the twists here as Drysdale ups the pace and the ante. And then there’s yet another bombshell. One that I didn’t enjoy but I suspect that’s the point. It’s meant to shock and leave we readers pondering the ‘what-ifs’… and a book we’ll remember.

I enjoyed the familiarity of Drysdale’s (well, Zoe’s) conversational style of narration and appreciated the divergent (well, here convergent) worlds of Hollywood, publishing and floristry and it seemed like Drysdale was able to speak with authority on each.

This is a twisty read and Drysdale gives us a very real lead in Zoe. And in some ways, she is right in her opening pages, her life is upended (in good and bad ways at varying stages) by fate rather than by design (which comes later) and I think there’s a bittersweet poignance there. And perhaps a lesson for young players, if they’re ready to learn it.

The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale was published in Australia by Harper Collins.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.