Never Look Away
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- ISBN13: 9780553807172
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In this tense, mesmerizing thriller by Linwood Barclay, critically acclaimed leader of Dread 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-ancient son. But what starts as a pleasant family tree outing turns into a nightmare after an inexplicable disappearance. A frantic search only leads to an even more shocking and upsetting turn of events.
Until this terrifying moment, David Harwood is just a tiny-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 pictorial upstate New York town. It’s a hot-button issue that will surely sell papers and help back 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 tree. 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.
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010 With a storyline that’s wound tighter than a rattlesnake’s coil, leader Linwood Barclay returns to play upon our deepest fears with Never Look Away. Journalist David Harwood is left only with questions after a family tree outing becomes a terrifying nightmare in the mere blink of an eye. A name, it would seem, is out to get him, and when suspicious evidence marks him a “person of interest” in a mysterious disappearance, the unassuming Harwood is forced to bare his teeth in pursuit of the truth. Fans of Dread the Worst, Too Close to Home, and No Time for Goodbye should already know the drill: Barclay refuses to grant readers any relief with gut-wrenching plot twists that keep firing until the final page. But persons unfamiliar with his work would be wise to clear their calendars for this engaging non-stop thriller. –Dave Callanan
Amazon Exclusive: Linwood Barclay on Never Look Away
Years ago, when I worked on the city desk for The Toronto Star, every once in a while a name would phone in with a hot tip. Something they’d heard from a friend of a friend. The tale was that children were being spirited away from a local theme park. Grabbed, disguised, thrown into a van and driven away so quick their parents hadn’t even noticed they were gone yet.
And the kicker was, the tale was being suppressed because the theme park owners didn’t want terrible publicity.
There was never, ever anything to it. I’d worked in the news business long enough to know that when a kid goes missing. That tale gets out. Huge time.
Our theme park was not the only one where this urban myth played out. I’d heard the same tale about a number of huge attractions. But never with any real names attached. It permanently happened to the boyfriend of a name’s cousin’s brother’s boss.
But the tale stayed with me just the same. I ongoing playing around with it in my head. I thought, okay, let’s start with the myth, but then let’s do something entirely different. A name’s going to disappear, all right, but not the person you’re expecting…
As I started effective out the storyline for my new thriller, Never Look Away, the amusement park scene became a way in to a very different kind of tale for me. One about secrets, about past, hidden lives, about how sometimes the people we’re closest to are the ones we know the least. One significant way in which it differs from my previous novels is that it is not told entirely in first person. This time, there were things I had to keep from my protagonist that the reader just had to know.
That time on the city desk was part of more than 30 years I spent effective in newspapers. It was a period in which papers mattered a fantastic deal. They still do, but it’s hardly news to point out they’re facing tough times, a perfect storm of changing equipment meeting harsh economic realities. So when it came to deciding what that protagonist would do for a living, I chose to make him a reporter at a tiny daily that’s more concerned with maintaining revenues than breaking scandals, especially if breaking them will hurt the bottom line. (I like to point out, I never encountered anything like that at The Star.)
I was well into writing this novel when Michael Connelly’s terrific novel The Scarecrow came out, which is also set against the backdrop of a newspaper in decline. I suspect these will not be the only two novels to explore–either in depth or in a tangential way–the significant changes this institution is going through.
Another urban myth that used to get called into the paper now and again was that some unscrupulous developer was building houses so cheaply, a name’s piano went right through the living room floor. We never establish that house, but there might still be a murder mystery in that tale, especially if there was some poor bastard in that basement. –Linwood Barclay
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It was about a distress LEO who helped young girls get off the street…It had some twists and turns, a who dunnit it type of book. The book did not have a nice flow from chapter to chapter and was a bit hard to read at times but I was able to end the book, just OK.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Opening with a scene ripped from most parents’ worst nightmares, Linwood Barclay’s “Never Look Away” morphs into something more chilling, disturbing and unexpected. Local reporter David Harwood and his wife Jan have taken their four-year-ancient son for a day at the local theme park. David and Jan’s marriage has been up and down the past few months and David is secretly relieved when Jan suggests a family tree outing. But the day out becomes a nightmare when the stroller with their son vanishes. David finds the son but now his wife has vanished lacking a trace and all the clues point to David being the prime suspect in her disappearance.
For the first half of the “Never Look Away” Barcley amps up the suspense, putting in place a lot of varying bombshells and red herrings for the novel’s stretch run. David is pursing a tale about the new privately owned prison that is scheduled to be built in his town and the behind-the-scenes perks for local officials that may be buying their vote. This subplot looks at the scenery of reporting today and is fascinating enough even if it eventually doesn’t lead anywhere of major impact to the tale.
We also find out that Jan isn’t all she claims to be and watching this plotline. Jan’s tale goes from, at first an appealing one to slowly descending into cliches. It may not help that a current plotline on the hit TV show “24″ mirrors what the backstory for Jan.
“Never Look Away” starts with a four-year-ancient’s dread of rollercoasters and then quickly becomes a literary one. The twists, turns and drops the tale goes through will keep you on board, though as the ride comes to an end you may be a bit let down by the overall experience. It’s a popcorn thriller of a book.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
David Harwood’s life unravels when his wife disappears and he is suspected of killing her. Despite mounting circumstantial evidence against him, David is determined to prove his innocence so he can keep custody of his four-year ancient son Ethan. His quest to unravel the mystery of his wife’s disappearance uncovers hidden pasts, corruption in his tiny town, and the incomprehensible things people will do out of greed.
I really wanted to like this book as I am a fan of Linwood Barlclay’s books. But, Never Look Away has too many problems, the largest being that it is just not very engaging. The storyline contains too many threads that don’t weave together believably. I did not like any of the characters either; it seemed that no one did any thinking until the last 50 pages of the book, when all of a sudden everyone snapped out of it so the tale would have a tidy ending. Though I finished the book, it did not have a sense of urgency so I was not particularly compelled to find out what would take place next.
Here’s hoping that the next Barclay outing will be better.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I had to struggle to make it all the way through this book. Still I did end it to find out how everything came out in the end.
David Harwood’s tale is rather entertaining, and there are some appealing twists and turns in the tale, but none of it compelled me to keep on reading from one page to the next. David learns that his wife was not who he thought she was. While he searches for the truth and tries to free himself from the web of deceit, several side tales creep in and around the tale. The primary sub plot involved a newspaper tale that David was researching about private prisons. That sub plot never did fit neatly into the main tale.
I thought the main tale was reasonably predictable and the only real surprise is the tiny twist at the end, which is wrapped up all too neatly. I do not wish to give the tale away by telling too many details, so I won’t ruin it for others.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I stayed up all night reading this book. What a amazingly addictive tale. Chapter after chapter, you’ll be glued to this book. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes suspenseful thrillers.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5