‘Never Look Away’ by Linwood Barclay
Like Tim Dorsey, Edna Buchanan and many others, he has made a successful transition from a career as a veteran journalist into a career as a best-selling author. I’m interested in taking that path in a decade or so, if I can come up with some good ideas.
Barclay is a former reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star (more than 20 years) who has written six novels, including “Fear the Worst,” “Too Close to Home” and “No Time for Goodbye.”
His latest, “Never Look Away,” is a modern thriller that involves ordinary people in extraordinary situations. It bears some resemblance to Harlan Coben novels, which usually involve people living in small towns or suburbs who get caught up in some strange circumstances that turn out to be much worse than originally anticipated.
Barclay builds his latest story around an urban myth. When Barclay worked on the city desk in the newsroom, every once in a while, a person would call with a hot tip that a child was “kidnapped” from a local theme park. The tipster would then say that the information is
being suppressed by the police because the theme park owners don’t want bad publicity. But after some investigation, nothing ever came of the tip. These tips grew into a recurring urban myth.
In “Never Look Away,” David Harwood is a reporter in his 30s who is working at a struggling newspaper in upstate New York, the Promise Falls Standard. The newspaper industry seems to be collapsing — the paper is outsourcing jobs to India and Harwood is worried about his job and career. He has a young son and a troubled wife, Jan, who is battling depression.
Harwood then stumbles onto a major scoop: There’s a potential scandal about a proposed prison development project on the outskirts of Promise Falls. He pursues the story, but the editors keep sweeping it under the rug. Harwood suspects that the newspaper’s publisher and editor may be part of the scandal. And he gets some unfriendly advice from the prison company’s owner to not write the story.
To escape their troubles for a day, the Harwood family goes to Five Mountains amusement park. Their 4-year-old son Ethan suddenly gets lost, and David and Jan split up to find him. David finds Ethan, but in the park's chaos, he can’t find Jan.
"Don't worry," David tells Ethan. "I'm sure (Jan) will be here any minute now. Then we'll have some fun."
But he doesn't find her. He later calls the police, and the investigation into her sudden, inexplicable disappearance begins. David fears the worst — he has embarked on a not-so-fun roller coaster ride that’ll change his life forever.
Barclay’s character-driven story is full of suspense that maintains a reasonable level of believability. He takes too much time in developing the first part of “Never Look Away” but after Jan disappears, he kicks the story into a more exciting gear. I loved how Barclay incorporates newspaper journalism into the novel, but he needs to better develop the “bad guy” characters.
The story is primarily told through David, but in some chapters, it switches to other points of view, including Jan's. I like this but some readers may find it uncomfortable.
In “Never Look Away,” Barclay explores some of our worst fears and asks us: How well do we really know our neighbors, co-workers and even our own families?
