Description
New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Linwood Barclay delivers the second spine-chilling thriller set in the troubled town of Promise Falls, following the electrifying cliffhanger ending of Broken Promise...
After the screen of a run-down drive-in movie theater collapses and kills four people, the daughter of one of the victims asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into a recent break-in at her father's house. Cal discovers a hidden basement room where it's clear that salacious activities have taken place—as well as evidence of missing DVDs. But his investigation soon becomes more complicated when he realizes it may not be discs the thief was actually interested in....
Meanwhile, Detective Barry Duckworth is still trying to solve two murders—one of which is three years old—he believes are connected, since each featured a similar distinctive wound.
As the lies begin to unravel, Cal is headed straight into the heart of a dark secret as his search uncovers more startling truths about Promise Falls. And when yet another murder happens, Cal and Barry are both driven to pursue their investigations, no matter where they lead. Evil deeds long thought buried are about to haunt the residents of this town—as the sins of the past and present collide with terrifying results.
After the screen of a run-down drive-in movie theater collapses and kills four people, the daughter of one of the victims asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into a recent break-in at her father's house. Cal discovers a hidden basement room where it's clear that salacious activities have taken place—as well as evidence of missing DVDs. But his investigation soon becomes more complicated when he realizes it may not be discs the thief was actually interested in....
Meanwhile, Detective Barry Duckworth is still trying to solve two murders—one of which is three years old—he believes are connected, since each featured a similar distinctive wound.
As the lies begin to unravel, Cal is headed straight into the heart of a dark secret as his search uncovers more startling truths about Promise Falls. And when yet another murder happens, Cal and Barry are both driven to pursue their investigations, no matter where they lead. Evil deeds long thought buried are about to haunt the residents of this town—as the sins of the past and present collide with terrifying results.
Review
I've only ever given a Linwood Barclay novel five stars but unfortunately this novel left me a little disappointed and just because it contains yet another cliff hanger.
It is now clear that there is a trilogy of books with the Promise Falls series and this is the second one of those. Unlike other books, in my opinion you really need to have read Broken Promise to fully understand this book and also it would be ideal to read Never Look Away. I've only just read it (see here) as I got out of sync. Although there is a lot of recapping in this book, it serves as a memory jogger to those who are in the know rather than a complete flashback.There are also characters brought in from earlier novels that Linwood Barclay has written.
At times I felt I could see a large mind map that Linwood must be using to keep track of all of these plot lines and the back stories for each character, which for the reader at times became a little harder to follow than it should be. I kept getting Cal and David mixed up - not sure why, but at times I couldn't understand what was happening because I had the wrong character in my mind. Lots of references to social media and an almost Fifty Shades of Grey story line made me wonder whether there is pressure to attract new readers, and so the story line has been adapted to do that.
Whilst this was an intriguing book, there are still more questions than answers and lets hope they are all resolved in the next book "The Twenty-three" which is out in November.
Please don't let this be the first Linwood Barclay novel you read or you will not understand what a genius he is. I can't wait for the next installment, I think I know who is behind some of what is happening - but I could be wrong.
I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars as I feel the author got too clever for the reader to follow. My thanks go to Netgalley for a review copy of this book.
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