Closer Look by David Ellis

Simon Dobias and Vicky Lanier Dobias are a respectable well to do Chicago couple, married nearly ten years.  Simon is a law professor applying for tenure at University of Chicago and Vicky works with victims of domestic abuse at a nonprofit.  They anticipate a large inheritance from Simon’s father’s trust at their ten year anniversary.  Simon has a brilliant mind and outwardly appears to lead a successful and happy life.  Inwardly, he despises his now deceased father and blames him and his former mistress now beautiful socialite, Lauren Betancourt for killing his mother.  He doesn’t want his father’s money but his diabolical mind is obsessed with thoughts of revenge for his loving mother.  Both Simon and Vicky have secrets but he cleverly uses these secrets to fool the police when Lauren is found dead hanging by her neck in the two story entryway to her home.  Clues are revealed so timely and often the reader soon stops guessing the outcome.  Nothing is as it seems.  The couple’s lives are rife with past grudges and missteps that facilitate numerous twists and turns. A cast of shady supporting characters with sleazy self-serving motives of their own add to the complex plot.  Who exactly is conning whom?

You’ll remember David Ellis as the house prosecutor during Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial.  Blagojevich is the former governor of Illinois who was convicted of selling Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat when Obama vacated it to run for President.  This minded bending life experience pales in comparison to Ellis’s genius creativity in writing fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance read.