DWD's Reviews

Great Escapist Fiction . Published in 2012 by NAL (New American Library) Linwood Barclay. I came across him almost by accident about 3 years ago and he is one of my favorite authors to go looking for. He doesn't write series (at least not anymore) so you can just jump in and go for a ride. His books feature regular guys who get stuck in an extraordinary circumstance not of their making. Linwood Barclay In Trust Your Eyes two grown brothers are re-united due to the death of their father. One of the brothers (Ray) is  a political cartoonist. The other, Thomas, has some sort of schizophrenia that keeps him housebound. To be honest, he seemed more autistic to me (as a teacher I have ran across enough students on the autistic spectrum to readily identify the behaviors) but that is neither here nor there. Thomas has an obsession - maps. He hangs them on the wall, he studies them, he memorizes them and he cruises the internet everyday looking at Whirl360, a website that...

Delivers what it promises - tension, thrills and escapism Published 2007 by Bantam Linwood Barclay has quickly become one of my favorite authors. His books feature a happy family in which some event intrudes into their lives and turns everything upside down, very much like the classic black and white noire movies where the regular guy gets pulled into a seedy underworld that he had no idea even existed.  Note, these books are not deep, they are not fine literature in any sense. But, they drag you in and make you read right through to the end and the story is well worth the price of the book. Linwood Barclay No Time for Goodbye is no different. The story is about Cynthia and Terry Archer. They have one daughter. He's a high school teacher. She works in a women's clothing store. They are a happy couple except for one dark moment twenty-five years before when Cynthia was 14 years old. One day she woke up and her entire family was gone - her mom, her dad and her bro...

WOW! This one starts in a hurry and never slows up! Linwood Barclay Normally, I am very skeptical of all of those little blurbs that cover books. This one came with all kinds of blurbs from established authors and professional reviewers, including "Will leave you breathless - Robert Crais", "A one-sit thriller - Michael Connelly" and "The surprises just keep on coming - Charlaine Harris." Well, guess what? This one lives up to its praise. I'd never heard of Linwood Barclay before I read this book, but he writes a terrific thriller. The premise of the book is that car salesman Tim Blake's daughter goes to work one day and does not return. No one at her job has seen her before. No one in the area knows anything about her. Her best friends don't know anything. She's just gone. The whole idea comes from the author's daughter who looked at him at breakfast one day and said, "Suppose you came to pick me up at my job...

Not as good as other Linwood Barclay books Published in 2009 by Bantam. I am an enthusiastic fan of Never Look Away and Fear the Worst my first two Linwood Barclay books. This book continues in the tradition of many film noir thrillers - the regular guy who gets his whole life overturned by some sort of crime and how he reacts to it. Unfortunately, Too Close to Home was not the equal of those two books. In T oo Close to Home we meet the Cutter family, a mom, dad and a teenage son. The neighbors are brutally murdered one night and the family skeletons start to come out of the closet in a big, big way as the police begin to investigate everyone who even might be connected to the victims. Linwood Barclay This was precisely the problem with the book, in my opinion. This family has too many skeletons. Every few pages there is a major plot twist with a "sit down, I've got to tell you something" moment. I am still giving the book 3 stars out of 5 because Barclay...

Another Winner from Barclay Linwood Barclay excels at writing books in which the average middle class guy (a car salesman in Fear the Worst: A Thriller , a newspaper reporter in this book) has his whole life turned upside down and is thrust into a world of crime, violence and intrigue. His books remind me of the old-fashioned film noire style except these are quicker and have even more turns. Linwood Barclay In Never Look Away: A Thriller , David Harwood is a reporter with a wife, a son, two loving parents who babysit their son and a hot lead on signs of corruption in local government that will make an explosive story. Suddenly, his wife disappears at a local theme park and he is accused of causing her disappearance. More problems pile on and the pressure makes David and his world crumble. There is a point in which the reader says, "What? Even more happens to this guy?" Does it get ridiculous? Absolutely. More importantly, does the story work? Absolutel...