Bad Move

How good is Bad Move? I took it out to the pool and didn't stop reading-- and laughing-- until I'd finished it. Zack Walker may be a self-professed jerk, but he's an endearing one. All he wants to do is keep his family safe. He thinks the exact same things I think-- when I see a woman walk off leaving her open purse in her shopping cart at the grocery store for example-- but he has the bravery (or perhaps stupidity) to follow through on those thoughts. Naturally every well-intentioned thing he does gets him in so much hot water he may as well rent space in the local hospital's burn unit.

Every character in the cast is a gem-- from his long-suffering (and loving) wife and kids to Housecoat Woman who constantly hoses down her driveway. show more Part of the charm of this book is watching Zack learn that the location of his new home is every bit as strange as the city-- even if you can't get good Chinese takeout in the burbs.

Sometimes a book is ruined when you read it and know what's going to happen every time. Although I did know what was going to happen in many instances, what kept me thoroughly engaged was seeing how Zack would react to each situation. Second guessing him wasn't always a sure thing.

If you're in the mood for something light and hilarious, by all means get your hands on a copy of Bad Move. I've already ordered Bad Guys, the second book in this series because I've fallen head over heels for Zack the lovable jerk. show less

As Linwood Barclay is one of my favourite newspaper columnists, I obviously had to read this book. It was remarkably good! I did have low expectations going in. Barclay is a very funny man, but I wondered how he could transition his humour from a short column to a lengthy novel. He did not disappoint. It was fun to see how bits of his own life worked into the story and see how Barclay himself might handle something like what happens in the book. It was very humourous, very entertaining and did keep me wondering up until the end.

Zack is a sci fi author who is paranoid, safety conscious, & an asshole who lectures his family for not locking doors, leaving shoes at the front door, car keys in the ignition, & backpacks on stairs. He's smug at taking his wife's car keys & hiding her car to "teach her a lesson". One lesson goes too far when he takes a purse out of what he thought was his wife's shopping cart. Turns out it wasn't and that leads to murder, cover ups, shady home owners association, & missing children. A little contrived, a little unbelievable, & a little thrown together. Not interested in the rest of the series

From Amazon:

In the too-quiet town of Oakwood, only the lucky die of boredom…and new homeowner Zack Walker isn’t feeling lucky. Whoever said the burbs were boring will think twice after reading Linwood Barclay’s hilarious debut mystery, in which Dad learns the hard way that he doesn’t always know best.

Zack wouldn’t blame you for thinking he’s safety-obsessed. True, he masterminded a plot to trade his family’s exciting city lifestyle for one of suburban tranquillity. True, even after this strategic move, Zack still has issues with family members who forget their keys in the front door, leave their cars unlocked, or park their backpacks at the top of the stairs—where you could kill yourself tripping over them. Just ask his show more wife, Sarah, or his teenage kids, Paul and Angie, who endure their share of lectures.

Zack knows that he needs to chill out and assume the best for once—but we know what happens to those who assume. When Zack realizes their two-faced developer sent a petty thief to fix their leaky shower, he starts fighting hard to ignore the fact that Oakwood isn’t the crime-free paradise he was hoping for. But his brief state of denial comes to an abrupt end when, during a walk by the creek, he stumbles across a dead body. Even more shocking, Zack actually knows who the victim is—and who might want him dead.

My Thoughts:

A decent book but not a great book. That being said... I love a good mystery....and Barclay can certainly weave the best. His ability to weave humor into the story is great, but in this book there was just a bit too much. I found myself skimming through all of the funny to get to the mystery. I liked the book but not as much as his other novels. show less

Bad Move is a quickly paced action novel told in the first person by the smart alecky writer, Zack Walker. Zack has moved his family into the suburbs from urban life--the 'Bad Move' to which the title refers--and a relocation that is intended to be safer for his family quickly leads to risky, illegal, violent outcomes. The story is populated with larger-than-life cast of supporting roles, however the weight of these characters is not provided by Barclay's writing, but by their professions. As the mysteries emerge about who his neighbors really are, they seem like obvious cardboard cut-outs. The most realistic and rewarding portions of the book are not the action or mystery, but the relationship between Zack and his wife Sarah, and his show more two kids. The book could easily have been a Generation X, musing mid-life crisis story of a man's personal battles with no murder or crime and the really sophisticated writing could still exist. It doesn't fail as an action story but what turns it from a mediocre watered down thriller to something worth reading is Barclay's main character and his evolution with his wife and his new but falling-apart home. show less

This is the second Zack Wolf "the worrier" novel. Zack is now working as a reporter for the newspaper. He's writing a feature on a private detective who's investigating smash-and-grab robberies. And he buys a car at a police auction. The vehicle comes with serious complications. And it appears Zack's daughter is being stalked, so he begins following her around. He learns more than he'd really like to know -- or thinks he does. Fun, funny, and exciting at the same time. Excellent.

This one is a whole different feel than his other works. It was a fun light myster/humourous novel.

Zack Walker is control, paranoid freak and wanting to teach his wife a lesson in not leaving her purse wide open at the grocery store where someone can take it, decides to take it and hide the purse. he made the mistake of taking another woman`s purse and gets him in trouble, more than he could imagined.

Great novel, had fun reading this one and since it`s a series will read and see what else can happen to Zack Walker.