Too Close to Home

Jim Cutters neighbors – the Langley family, consisting of the parents and a son – get murdered in their house. And his son, Derek, becomes a suspect, because he was at the crime scene when it happened.

I enjoyed Too Close to Home, though sometimes it felt a bit constructed with all the revealed secrets of the involved persons and the twists of the plot.

Some quotes from the book

I opened the door and stepped into his room. It looked as it always did, as though a bomb had gone off.

Finding creative ways to get out of his obligations is one of his talents.

Teenagers, honestly, sometimes they did some stupid shit, but you stood by them no matter what. It was all part of what you'd signed on for.

Barry approached the mayor at a regular pace, like he was trying hard not to run, not wanting me to think he jumped every time the mayor asked him to, even if that was exactly what he did.

I couldn't see how engaging in small talk with the guy who held the job I'd walked away from was going to make an already bad day any better.

I came done the stairs, feeling naked not so much because I was in nothing but a pair of shorts, but because I had nothing in my hands.

It was, without a doubt, one of the ugliest cats I'd ever seen, looking as though it'd be more at home in a pigpen, wallowing in the mud, than curled up on a couch.

Mayor Finley flashed me his big shit-eating grin.

God, I just wanted to kill him right then and there. Get my lawn tractor out and run right over the smug fuck.

I always fuck up. It's like the only thing I'm good at.

He's an asshole, I know that, but he's generally a reliable asshole.

Nobody ever calls the cops when they hear one shot. They go, hey, what was that? Listen for a second shot, when that doesn't happen, they think, must have been a car, then go back to watching TV.

If being an asshole was all it took to get yourself killed, you and I would have been dead long ago.

Rule number one in politics: Always book a room that's too small.

I think a real leader needs to have done a few things wrong in his life to know how to get things right.

To embrace life, to accept its challenges, means making mistakes, because without mistakes there are no accomplishments. If it weren't for mistakes and failures, how would we be able to measure our successes?

I know each and every one of you wishes you could go back in time and change at least one thing, one thing that you wish you could undo, a time when you hurt someone close to you, a time maybe when you were deceitful, a time maybe when you broke the law even though you knew better, and believe me, if I had such a time machine, I'd putting so many miles on it it'd be out of warranty in no time.

If I had to sacrifice Randy's life, and my own, to save my wife and son, then that was what I was going to have to do.

You are able to form complete sentences, so it doesn't sound like you sustained any brain damage.

I hoped that when I next came back out of this house, it wasn't in a box.

Sometimes, even if it takes ten years to get around to it, you have to do the right thing.