Never Look Away
"..a masterful plot."
Synopsis:
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.
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Review:
Lindwood Barlcay's Never Look Away had a mix of Harlan Coben ingenuity and Scott Smith's futility of a Simple Plan about it. Harwood's life is turned upside down when his wife goes missing and he becomes the prime suspect. He soon finds out that his wife is not the person he first thought she was and to prove his innocence he needs to not only find her, but find out who she really is - and find out if she is still alive. But Harwood is not the only person looking for his wife. And as the book progesses although there is less and less to like about Jan Harwood, the wife, you cannot help but feel an element of sympathy towards her whilst also hoping she will still get her comeuppance. I found this latest novel of Barclay's to be far superior and more of the standard I had come to expect from this author than that of his previous book. Never Look Away has a masterful plot and is very cleverly written. A good mix of characters that have avoided being type cast which has made it even more enjoyable. Barclay at his best.