Book Review: Don’t Get Close

Don’t Get Close by Matt Miksa is a thriller that will keep you guessing til the last minute. Or at least it kept me guessing as to what the truth was til the last minute and even then I’m not sure!

Don‘t Get Close follows Vera Taggart, a new FBI agent. Vera, or Tag, was recruited out of art school because of her unique way of seeing things/the world. Her first case after training is the possible resurgence of a cult-like terrorist group called the Sons of Elijah. The last time they were active was 30 years ago, but before they went quiet members of the group had killed mass groups of people in things like suicide bombings. Now all signs point to them being active again.

The one things that ties them together? Dr. Seth Jacobsen is a renowned psychiatrist who happened to treat two of the Sons of Elijah members who killed many people. His claim to fame has been hypnotherapy, where he claims he has been able to help people deal with their issues and trauma by unlocking their past lives. The thought being that things that plague us today can stem from something that happened to us in a past life. For example, a fear of water could be because you drowned in a past life.

In an attempt to put an end to the Sons of Elijah once and for all, Tag believes she must get close to Jacobsen. She undergoes hypnotherapy sessions with him. Things unfold that seem to point to Tag being more connected to the Sons of Elijah than she could ever imagined. But is everything real? Are people actually reincarnated, trying in each lifetime to accomplish a specific task? Do we meet the same people and have the same loves in each life? Or is it all made up and a famed psychiatrist is planting these ideas in his patients’ heads in order to achieve some higher goal?

I enjoyed the book, but I couldn’t figure out what was really going on on my own. Every time I thought it was the “big” reveal and I knew who was good and who was bad, something else would happen and you’d think “oh it’s the other way around” and then something else would happen again to change your mind back! It definitely will keep you on your toes! I’m still not sure I know what the real truth is at the end of the book.

If you’re looking for a thriller to read this fall, check out Don’t Get Close.