Thank you to Dutton Books for sending me a free copy of Too Close To Breathe in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own. 

In Too Close To Breather, Detective Frankie Sheehan is investigating the murder of Eleanor Costello, a woman who seemed to have lived a near perfect life. The victim had a successful career, was married and lived in a beautiful home. However, police cannot locate Eleanor’s husband for questioning.  Upon autopsy of the victim, old wounds and broken bones are discovered, too many to seem reasonable. When another body is found that seems to have a connection to the previous victim, Detective Sheehan struggles to solve the case.

I enjoyed Too Close Too Breathe, it is quite an onion of a crime novel: layer after layer of clues, psychological connections and dark twists. The plot is very well developed and had a strong and believable ending. Aa far as police procedurals go, this one checked off all the necessary boxes.

However, I was not able to connect with any of the characters.  A lot of development is put into Frankie’s character and a past case that still haunt’s her but I still just didn’t “get her”, but I feel like the fault may have been in my perception rather than the in book itself. This novel definitely had a darker tone to it, which I did really like, it was sinister at times. Overall, I think it is a solid debut novel and Kiernan has a unique writing style all her own.  I rate this on 3.5 out of 5 stars.