Never Look Away

This is my second Linwood Barclay thriller after NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, and I thought this one was more layered than that effort without losing any of the intriguing mystery that makes you keep reading compulsively. I really liked the parts about the newspaper falling on hard times and how staff was dealing with it, as well as the subplot with the private prison and its diabolical leader. Some parts of the mystery were pretty easy to figure out, while others came as complete shocks, but aside from a very unbelievable coincidence at the end, I was satisfactorily entertained yet again.

David Harwood is a journalist for a small paper in upper New York State and is working hard on a story about corrupt local government officials taking bribes to approve the establishment of a privately run prison in the area. On top of this pressure, for several weeks his wife Jan has been exhibiting signs of depression, to the point even of reporting suicidal thoughts to her husband and he is very concerned. In an attempt to lighten the family’s mood the couple take their four year old son Ethan to a local amusement park for the day which is when their lives fall apart.

Never Look Away incorporates a compelling mix of nail-biting tension and normal people behaving credibly despite extraordinary situations. David Harwood is a great show more character for a thriller, being the sort of person with whom we can all identify. I really liked the fact he didn’t suddenly develop any inexplicable superhuman skills (which tends to happen in thrillers) but stumbled his way through a series of pretty astonishing events in a very believable way. His reaction as he learned that people around him might have lied was particularly credible in the way it showed his willingness to entertain the most bizarre theories rather than the notion he had been deceived. His parents are also wonderfully normal characters and even his wife Jan, though a less orthodox character, has a credibility about her.

On two successive mornings I walked an extra long way around to get to my office just to hear a little more of this book. Funnily enough the big plot twists were telegraphed but I didn’t find that detracted from the story terribly much as I was more interested in how the various players would cope with unfolding events than the play-by-play, though the strait narrative was very sold too.

I like thrillers that have an air of normality about them and don’t go too over the top with explosions and other silliness and Never Look Away fits that bill well. At its heart it’s a story of a family where all is not what it seems and plays on the sorts of fears that all of us might face at some time. Top thrills indeed.

What about the audio book?

To be perfectly honest it took me a little while to ‘get into’ Jeffrey Cummings’ narration as he used a wide variety of voices and some of the ones for minor characters were a little odd-sounding. However after the first 20-30 minutes I was totally absorbed and Cummings had made the book whatever the audio equivalent is of a page turner. show less

Yow! I wrote my review and forgot to save it!!! So here we go again! This was definitely a fast read, lots of action full of twists and turns that you just don't see coming. I found myself making comments out loud when I suddenly came to an unexpected event.

The story is not quite believable but we'll let that be the writer's imagination at work but it certainly takes place in an awfully short period of time for so many interrelated things to happen. I would love to know if other people agree with me about a couple of things near the end---but who wants to give anything away????

I won't hesitate to find another book from this prolific author when I need another action book---he seems to have a wonderful knack for keeping you questioning.

Linwood Barclay is a great storyteller and this book starts slowly, but all the details and build-up make it worthwhile when the story changes and a woman and mother disappears and the search for her begins. To say more, would give away too much. Just sit down and read and enjoy the ride!

Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay is a fast paced thriller that involves the disappearance of a wife and mother. The police are concentrating on the husband but there are many things we, the readers know that the police don’t. Clues, motives and red herrings abound but this story driven mystery chugs along like a runaway train, gathering speed until the end of the book where it did seem to get a little bogged down.

This was my first Linwood Barclay book and I enjoyed it a lot. His main character is a normal small town guy who has a hard time putting all the pieces together, but when he does, he steps up nicely. In fact, I found most of the characters were well fleshed out. I did think that it was quite obvious who was behind the show more disappearance, but the most important element of the thriller, to me is the pacing and not having too many moments that cause you to scratch your head. I felt Never Look Away had excellent pacing and very few plot-holes, so it totally worked for me.

This was my first book by Linwood Barclay, and I now know that I can turn to this author when I am in the mood for an entertaining and compelling thriller. show less

Having read two of Linwood Barclay's previous books and having enjoyed one and put aside the other after 50-60 pages, I had no idea what to expect with "Never Look Away". It was good beyond any expectations!

The story drew me in immediately and never let me go. I was totally absorbed in this tale of mystery, deception, and duplicity. David Harwood, the protagonist, is a likable thirty-ish reporter for a newspaper in Promise Falls, New York, where he lives with his wife Jan and 4 year old son Ethan.

One sunny Saturday, the family goes to a local amusement park where the boy Ethan mysteriously goes missing when his mother looks away for a minute, but is then found within an hour. Inexplicably, David's wife then disappears suddenly even as show more David rejoices over finding Ethan. What happened to Jan?

A tangled web of deceit and cunning unravels as David, frantic with worry about his wife, who had been depressed and behaving strangely, begins a desperate search for her. What he finds is not anything he could possibly have imagined.

The pages flew as I read this absorbing thriller. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good, fast paced mystery which keeps you on the edge of your seat with surprises. His best book yet, and five stars from this reviewer! show less

A taut, suspenseful thriller with plenty of twists and turns. In a departure from his usual thriller structure (or at least what seems to me a departure... I could just not be remembering properly), Linwood Barclay intersperses the first-person narrative with third-person chapters to show the action that his protagonist would not be expected to be able to observe firsthand. The protagonist has a good voice and is easy to relate to, and the whole story kept me turning the pages at a fast clip. Highly recommended for Linwood fans -- it just may be his best one yet.