Drawn by sheer possibility and that magic, golden-hour light of Los Angeles, Zoe Ann Weiss moves from London to California when she gets her two-book-deal break. It’s that Hollywood allure that also prompts her to accept an invitation from a famous actor on her 30th birthday, sparking a string of events that leads her to inspiration — and desperation.
In reality, this is Australian author Pip Drysdale’s fifth book. In this fictional world, “The Close-Up” is written as Zoe’s overdue sophomore book, inspired by the things she sees and experiences now that she has access to celebrity life via Zach Hamilton, an old flame who made his big break as an action star and was recently dubbed sexiest man alive.
The book's title and the fact that both the real author and her fictional character are thriller writers are about as far as the similarities go — fortunately for Drysdale, as her character finds herself running into worse luck and more dangerous secrets than she ever could have anticipated.
Because when the press leaks that Zach has a new love interest, the hate comes unrelenting.
Zoe soon finds herself the target of a stalker who seems to be following the plot of her debut novel — the one in which a human heart is left on the protagonist’s windshield and the main character dies in the end. She could just walk away and hope this all blows over, but Zoe needs to deliver the manuscript for her second book yesterday, and every scary thing that happens to her becomes fodder for her new novel. Each sexy, scandalous detail of Zach’s life and their romance can be catalogued and used, if she can blur the lines enough to get around the non-disclosure agreement and not ruin the good thing she has going with him.
All the while, LA nudges her, almost a character itself. The city’s influence is undeniable and persistent, persuasive in its ability to make your dreams come true even if, as the narrator notes, odds are you won’t make it there.
Combined with the present-tense, first-person perspective quintessential of thrillers, Drysdale drives up suspense by leaning heavily on the foreshadowing and fourth-wall breaking, particularly early on before things really pick up speed.
An unforeseeable penultimate reveal follows a rapid-fire, late-stage progression of twists and turns that would leave your head spinning if Drysdale wasn’t so skillfully keeping track of all the criss-crossing threads.
Everything is explained in the end in a bold but gratifying plot-dump — a relief after all the buildup. Because it's not so much about the plot points as much as it is about the underlying theme that calls into question the impact of a person's life and actions. What makes “The Close-Up” compelling is Zoe’s constant struggle with her legacy, with taking agency in her life and making it meaningful, weighing her career versus her relationships.
“The Close-Up” checks many boxes: steamy, suspenseful, surprising, meta. But it’s Drysdale’s momentous writing and underlying musings that really drive this novel home.
AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews
This cover image released by Gallery Books shows "The Close-Up" by Pip Drysdale. (Gallery Books via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks edged lower in morning trading on Wall Street Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2%. A handful of technology companies helped cushion the widespread losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 308 points, or 0.7% as of 10:59 a.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged.
Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, rose 1.2%. Broadcom jumped 3.8% to also help support the broader market.
Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan said they are talking about combining in a deal that might also include Mitsubishi Motors. Honda rose 3.8% and Nissan rose 1.6% in Tokyo.
Eli Lilly rose 2% after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea.
Department store Nordstrom fell 1.3% after it agreed to be acquired and taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal.
Business group The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8.
The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update follows several generally strong economic reports last week. One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid.
A report on Friday said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed. The central bank has signaled that it could deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier expected because of concerns over inflation.
The central bank just delivered its third cut to interest rates this year, but inflation has been hovering stubbornly above its target of 2%. Expectations for more interest rate cuts have helped drive a 24% gain for the S&P 500 in 2024. That drive included 57 all-time highs this year.
Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.56% from 4.53% late Friday.
European markets were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground.
Wall Street has several other economic reports to look forward to this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. will release its November report for sales of newly constructed homes. A weekly update on unemployment benefits is expected on Thursday.
Markets in the U.S. will close early on Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas.
FILE - Signs mark the intersection of Wall and South Streets in New York's Financial District on Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
Trader John Romolo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People stand near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
