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A review by clarissep
Close to Home by Robert Dugoni
4.0
3.75 rounded up (because it’s not quite a 4 like his other books, but this series is AT LEAST a 4 overall so I have no issues rounding up)
Solid, but I felt that this one took too long to weave the threads of the story together, even though I liked that I got to spend more time with the other A Team members. The approach Dugoni used in talking about drugs was quite unique for me as far as settings/circumstances go, because he showed us a bit of what the JAG Corps is like. The politics involved there was kind of fascinating to me. As for the more sobering part of this novel, I liked that Dugoni tried to drive home the issue of drugs among the youth by focusing on the family members surrounding the addict. Imagine being a mom of one of these kids, helpless to put a stop to the drug use, dreading every knock that comes at your door because you never know if it’s the one that brings news of a fatal overdose. How does one even live with that? Some of the kids in this story even come from decent families, yet they turn to drugs because of their peers. Once addicted, they are willing to do ANYTHING to get the money for a hit. (A lot of the scenarios were shown in this story so well.) Calling it a problem is the biggest understatement of the century.
Drug-talk aside, I like that the way Dugoni wrote about Tracy’s personal struggles to get pregnant. Not only did he manage to make her even more relatable, I was kind of surprised that he seemed go have a very good understanding of what it would feel like for a woman despite not being one. I appreciate how he handled it.
To be honest, I thought this installment wasn’t as impactful as his previous books because of the pace, but it was pretty good still.
Solid, but I felt that this one took too long to weave the threads of the story together, even though I liked that I got to spend more time with the other A Team members. The approach Dugoni used in talking about drugs was quite unique for me as far as settings/circumstances go, because he showed us a bit of what the JAG Corps is like. The politics involved there was kind of fascinating to me. As for the more sobering part of this novel, I liked that Dugoni tried to drive home the issue of drugs among the youth by focusing on the family members surrounding the addict. Imagine being a mom of one of these kids, helpless to put a stop to the drug use, dreading every knock that comes at your door because you never know if it’s the one that brings news of a fatal overdose. How does one even live with that? Some of the kids in this story even come from decent families, yet they turn to drugs because of their peers. Once addicted, they are willing to do ANYTHING to get the money for a hit. (A lot of the scenarios were shown in this story so well.) Calling it a problem is the biggest understatement of the century.
Drug-talk aside, I like that the way Dugoni wrote about Tracy’s personal struggles to get pregnant. Not only did he manage to make her even more relatable, I was kind of surprised that he seemed go have a very good understanding of what it would feel like for a woman despite not being one. I appreciate how he handled it.
To be honest, I thought this installment wasn’t as impactful as his previous books because of the pace, but it was pretty good still.