The Close-Up
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A struggling author discovers the dark side of fame when a stalker begins reenacting violent events from her thriller in this electrifying and twisty new novel.
When Zoe Ann Weiss moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, her whole future is wide open. But then Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she’s falling for, ghosts her. Her debut novel, a thriller, fails. And she has writer’s block worse than ever before. Now, three years later, Zach is famous and Zoe is...not.
She’s facing her thirtieth birthday, a dead-end job at a flower shop, and a demanding agent, terrified she’ll never get her life back on track. But when she goes to make a flower delivery and Zach is at the address, it’s like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating in secret, her writer’s block disappears, and Zoe begins to wonder: Zach inspired her first novel, so why can’t he inspire her second?
But then the inevitable happens and photos are leaked, landing Zoe in the press. Her first novel goes viral, and now everyone seems to know her name. Except the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name—including the mysterious stalker obsessed with Zach. A stalker who begins reenacting violent events from Zoe’s book, step by step, against her...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A writer's life takes a turn for the metafictional in this glossy neo-noir from Drysdale (The Paris Affair). Zoe Weiss moves to L.A. after the manuscript for her debut thriller, Fractured, earns her a million-dollar two-book deal. When the novel is published, however, it bombs, shattering Zoe's self-confidence. Two years later, her advance is gone, her second book is long overdue, and she fears it's only a matter of time until her publisher demands its money back. When her agent requests an update, Zoe panics and claims she's writing a high-concept thriller based on a celebrity she knows. While it's true that Zoe has recently reconnected with Zach, a former fling who's now a movie star, his manager has made her sign a nondisclosure agreement, taking their time together off the table as literary inspiration. Then Zoe and Zach's rekindled relationship makes the tabloids, and Zoe gets violent threats resembling the ones received by Fractured's protagonist. It's perfect thriller fodder—provided she can skirt the NDA and stay alive. Drysdale's tale takes the form of an after the fact tell-all written by Zoe, characterized by clever foreshadowing and an intoxicating Hollywood buzz. This offers plenty of frothy fun.
