I’m always on the lookout for mysteries and thrillers by readers I haven’t yet tried. For my birthday in February, I received a copy of Linwood Barclays Fear The Worst. Linwood Barclay is a new author for me, so I was anxious to get started on the book. The premise was intriguing.
The story starts with a good hook. Tim Blake had a fight with his daughter and now she is missing. As he tries to find her, the intrigue deepens as everything he believed he knew about her appears to be false. What follows is Tim’s unyielding effort to unscramble the lies from the truth and find her.
After the promising start, however, the story began to slow and loosen its grip on my interest.
The characters are unremarkable. Tim Blake is a divorced Dad and a used car salesman. His ex-wife lives with her new boyfriend, another car dealer, and his teenage son. Tim Blake has to work with his daughter’s employers, her friends – some of whom exhibit questionable behavior, his ex-wife and her new boyfriend to get at the hidden truths. Everyone could be hiding something.
The plot line is rather linear and somewhat predictable, and the few surprise elements thrown in might stretch the readers credulity. When the police make little effort to assist, suspicion is cast on them, too, until the whole thing eventually becomes a little too far-fetched and unrealistic, plus the denouement is somewhat unsatisfactory.
This is not an edge-of-your-seat thriller by any means, however, it was sufficiently interesting to finish and to find out where Sydney Blake is.
Jfhilborne's Blog 