Never Look Away

by Linwood Barclay Narrated by Jeffrey Cummings

Overview

"Where has Linwood Barclay been all my life? His is the best thriller I've read in five years. Once I was 30 pages in, I literally couldn't put it down. The writing is crisp; the twists are jolting and completely unexpected. Think 'Rebecca' and you'll be in the right neighborhood."-Stephen King

In this tense, mesmerizing thriller by Linwood Barclay, critically acclaimed author of Fear the Worst and Too Close to Home, a man's life unravels around him when the unthinkable strikes.

A warm summer Saturday. An amusement park. David Harwood is glad to be spending some quality time with his wife, Jan, and their four-year-old son. But what begins as a pleasant family outing turns into a nightmare after an inexplicable disappearance. A frantic search only leads to an even more shocking and harrowing turn of events.

Until this terrifying moment, David Harwood is just a small-town reporter in need of a break. His paper, the Promise Falls Standard, is struggling to survive. Then he gets a lead that just might be the answer to his prayers: a potential scandal involving a controversial development project for the outskirts of this picturesque upstate New York town. It's a hot-button issue that will surely sell papers and help reverse the Standard's fortunes, but strangely, David's editors keep shooting it down.

Why?

That's a question no longer at the top of David's list. Now the only thing he cares about is restoring his family. Desperate for any clue, David dives into his own investigation-and into a web of lies and deceit. For with every new piece of evidence he uncovers, David finds more questions-and moves ever closer to a shattering truth.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Barclay's outstanding thriller, his fourth stand-alone after Fear the Worst, opens with what should be a happy family outing—a trip to an amusement park. Shortly after newspaper reporter David Harwood; his wife, Jan; and their four-year-old son, Ethan, arrive at Five Mountains in upper New York State, Ethan disappears. A frantic Jan goes to find security, while David soon locates Ethan nearby asleep in his stroller. But now Jan is missing. What's more, the park has no record of selling her a ticket, and she doesn't show up on any security video. Nor is she at home in Promise Falls, N.Y. While the police suspect David killed Jan and concocted the park abduction story, he uses his reporting skills to dig into his wife's past and learns he never really knew her. The tension mounts as Barclay skillfully shows how even the most innocent action can seem suspicious. The surprising twists and appealing characters rank this among the author's best. 5-city author tour. (Mar.)

Kirkus Reviews

Suspicion falls roundly on a small-town reporter when his wife disappears from a family outing to an amusement park. Jan Harwood had been acting strangely for some time before she disappeared, telling her husband David how much better off he and their son Ethan would be without her. He'd noticed bandages on her wrists, and she'd told him about an aborted suicide attempt at a nearby bridge. Although David assumed she was just going through a phase, when he received an anonymous e-mail from someone who wanted to tell him about some shady doings between a local politician and a for-profit prison operator, he figured he'd take her along when he went to the meet, even if only to keep an eye on her. The next day, after a scare at the amusement park when a bearded stranger briefly made off with Ethan, she was gone, disappearing somewhere between the main gate and the family car, to which she'd returned to fetch a forgotten backpack. Things start looking bad for David when the police notice that David's credit card had only been charged for two amusement-park tickets-one adult and one child-and when his wife is nowhere to be seen on the park's security cameras. When police realize that no one has seen her since the two of them drove to a service station in a wooded area to meet his source, David becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation. David, meanwhile, does a little digging into his wife's past, and begins to suspect he never really knew her at all. Barclay's previous thrillers, especially Fear the Worst (2009), worked by being believable enough to force the reader to see things through the eyes of his Everyman protagonists, who suddenly find themselves thrust into a world of crime,lies and suspicion. But here, with a few exceptions, the characters are far too wooden to clinch the deal, and the writing is bland at best, occasionally dipping into the downright bad. Lame characters and groan-worthy prose make this book a slog.

From the Publisher

The best thriller I’ve read in five years.”—Stephen King

“Outstanding . . . The tension mounts. . . . The surprising twists and appealing characters rank this among the author’s best.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The writing is crisp; the twists are jolting and completely unexpected.”—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
 
“Mr. Barclay can flawlessly assume the voice of a small-town American dad.”—The New York Times
 
“Plenty of surprises and twists.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

JUNE 2010 - AudioFile

Linwood Barclay plants himself firmly in Harlan Coben territory with this thrill-a-minute roller-coaster ride. From the moment journalist David Harwood and his family enter an upstate New York amusement park, terrible things begin happening. His 4-year-old son, Ethan, is taken. His wife, Jan, disappears. The police begin to suspect foul play, and Harwood is the prime suspect. Listeners will swear there are other actors in the recording booth with Jeffrey Cummings. His energetic tenor offers a great range of voices—from credible-sounding women and children to gruff policemen, sleazy businessmen, and elderly fathers. David's doing a story opposing a privately owned prison. Jan isn't all she's alleged to be. As the puzzle pieces fall into place, Cummings's performance makes the listening exciting and fun. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172263811
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	03/16/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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