Scan barcode
A review by crowyhead
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
2.0
The premise of this book is an interesting one: what would you do if, as a loving parent, your teenage daughter disappeared one day? And, added to that, what if you went to her workplace and they told you she'd never worked there, and they had no idea who she was?
The beginning of the novel, when a father is in just this situation, is really quite good. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes overburdened with a growing cast of characters and dozens of convoluted occurences, and the end result was a thriller with which I just could not get engaged. I actually found myself caring more about the intricacies of selling cars (the father is a car salesman) that I was about the ultimate fate of the characters.
Even if the reader makes it through this novel and enjoys it most of the way, I doubt many will be particularly satisifed with the ending, which is very abrupt and leaves most aspects of the characters' fates completely up in the air. It's barely the false closure that an action movie like "Die Hard" gives us -- it's more like the author just couldn't face the idea of trying to things up in a realistic but satisfying way, choosing instead to just stop writing and give up.
The beginning of the novel, when a father is in just this situation, is really quite good. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes overburdened with a growing cast of characters and dozens of convoluted occurences, and the end result was a thriller with which I just could not get engaged. I actually found myself caring more about the intricacies of selling cars (the father is a car salesman) that I was about the ultimate fate of the characters.
Even if the reader makes it through this novel and enjoys it most of the way, I doubt many will be particularly satisifed with the ending, which is very abrupt and leaves most aspects of the characters' fates completely up in the air. It's barely the false closure that an action movie like "Die Hard" gives us -- it's more like the author just couldn't face the idea of trying to things up in a realistic but satisfying way, choosing instead to just stop writing and give up.