The Close-Up

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...

Pip Drysdale is an author, musician, and actor. She grew up in Africa, Canada, and Australia, became an adult in New York and London, and lives on a steady diet of coffee, dreams, and literature. All four of her previous novels—The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know, The Paris Affair, and The Next Girl—have been bestsellers in Australia. Connect with Pip at PipDrysdale.com or on Facebook and Instagram @PipDrysdale.