Never Look Away

Starred review from February 15, 2010
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.

February 15, 2010
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.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from February 15, 2010
David Harwood is a newspaper reporter in the small town of Promise Falls, where he lives with his wife, Jan, and their young son, Ethan. David's been ruffling feathers while working on a story about suspicious dealings between the local politicians and a privately run prison looking to move into town. Things have been stressful at the struggling newspaper, and Jan has been acting strangely. David is worried, but then Jan surprises him with tickets to a nearby theme park for a day of family fun. But it's not much fun when Ethan momentarily disappears. When he's found, Jan vanishes, and there is no record of her buying the tickets or entering the park. Now the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance, David sets out to prove his innocence and find his wife. VERDICT The pages fly in this gripping, twisty tale of betrayal and heartbreak. Barclay ("Fear the Worst") takes ordinary people and puts them in extraordinary circumstances, creating a tense, fast-paced thriller without stretching the limits of credulity. Sure to please fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Unger. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/09; library marketing.]Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2010
David Harwood thinks his only problem is the failing newspaper he works foruntil Jan, his wife of five years, suddenly begins to show signs of serious depression and talks of suicide. When she arranges a trip to a local amusement park for David, their young son Ethan, and herself, David feels encouraged that her mood may be lifting. Unfortunately, in the press of the crowd, Ethan mometarily vanishes, and by the time hes found, Jan has also disappeared. Unlike Ethan, she cant be found. Was she abducted? Did she run away? It isnt long before David is tagged as the number-one suspect in what cops think is her murder, and its up to him to find what really happened. The truth is more bizarre than David could have imagined. Giving what might have been a routine tale some curious twists, Barclays latest stand-alone is a satisfying thriller about a fairly ordinary guy who stumbles into a puzzle that changes his life and family forever.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)