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A review by saareman
Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
5.0
"Trust Your Eyes" is another solid read from Linwood Barclay who really ought to be more well known. Probably one of the reasons he isn't, is that he doesn't currently use a series character (he did in his early days) and there isn't quite the same compulsion to pick up the next one when you're not following a longer character arc. For instance, here I am in 2013 only now catching up on 2011's "Trust Your Eyes", even though I read and enjoyed 4 earlier Barclay novels in a fast discovery sweep back in early 2011.
The setup here is that there are two brothers. Ray is an illustrator for print and web journalism and Thomas is a recluse with issues that are described and treated as a type of schizophrenia but who otherwise seems to be very high on the functioning autism spectrum and who is on a compulsive quest to memorize all the houses and streets of the cities of the world by using a web interface called Whirl360 which is used as the proxy name for what most of us would know as Google Streetview.
With a modern-day twist on Hitchcock's "Rear Window", the plot driver is that Thomas sees what appears to be a murder captured through a chance streetview photo capture and he asks his brother to check into it with an actual site visit. This kicks off a conspiracy that endangers the brothers in unexpected ways.
Barclay has a knack for writing a compulsive read as he is constantly leaving unanswered questions (which are thankfully resolved by the end) and dropping in unexpected twists at the end of chapters. You just have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. "Trust Your Eyes" is yet one more guaranteed must-read-right-to-the-end thriller. I don't think I'll wait quite so long to pick up the next one or two (the one good thing about being a lazy author-fan is that you know there are always a few good books waiting for you in the pipeline ;)
The setup here is that there are two brothers. Ray is an illustrator for print and web journalism and Thomas is a recluse with issues that are described and treated as a type of schizophrenia but who otherwise seems to be very high on the functioning autism spectrum and who is on a compulsive quest to memorize all the houses and streets of the cities of the world by using a web interface called Whirl360 which is used as the proxy name for what most of us would know as Google Streetview.
With a modern-day twist on Hitchcock's "Rear Window", the plot driver is that Thomas sees what appears to be a murder captured through a chance streetview photo capture and he asks his brother to check into it with an actual site visit. This kicks off a conspiracy that endangers the brothers in unexpected ways.
Barclay has a knack for writing a compulsive read as he is constantly leaving unanswered questions (which are thankfully resolved by the end) and dropping in unexpected twists at the end of chapters. You just have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. "Trust Your Eyes" is yet one more guaranteed must-read-right-to-the-end thriller. I don't think I'll wait quite so long to pick up the next one or two (the one good thing about being a lazy author-fan is that you know there are always a few good books waiting for you in the pipeline ;)