My book review with Kathryn Ryan on Radio New Zealand National this morning

A TAP ON THE WINDOW

Linwood Barclay – Orion Books - $37.99

 

Linwood Barclay is a Canadian author and former prominent newspaper columnist. He has published 8 or 9 books of crime fiction and he lives near Toronto with his wife and son.  Some of his books are in a series and some, like this one are stand-alone.

His protagonist in this new title is Cal Weaver a former cop now private detective and one rainy night while driving home he stops at a set of traffic lights and a bedraggled-looking teenage girl taps on his window. He puts the window down and says she needs a lift home, he is about to decline and move on when she says “hey, aren’t you Scott’s dad” and he realises she is one of his son’s schoolmates so he opens the door and lets her in. What else can he do? What harm can it do?

Well the short answer is a helluva lot as soon he is in a nightmare situation as the local police decide he is responsible for the subsequent disappearance of the young woman; Claire is her name and to complicate matters further she turns out to be the daughter of the mayor so there is huge pressure on the police to get a speedy resolution to the mystery of her disappearance. Cal Weaver’s car of course carries her DNA and he is the last person to have seen her. Cal, (and the reader), know he is not responsible so he decides to start his own investigation into the mystery and before long he discovers there are some strange things going on below the apparent tranquil surface of small town Griffon, and the more he probes  the more dark secrets start to reveal themselves.

While the book has all the hallmarks of very well written, intricately-plotted  crime fiction the book actually goes beyond that and I particularly got caught up in the tragedy being experienced by Cal Weaver and his wife whose lives are being torn apart by the death of their only son two months earlier. I don’t really want to say much more about the story than that as it may spoil it for other readers except to say that it is a rattling good, compelling story running to 500 pages that I couldn’t put down and that is has a knock-your-socks-off ending.

It doesn’t surprise me that Linwood Barclay is a former winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for the best Canadian crime fiction. Warmly recommended.

Only published here 30 July, I expect to see it featured in this week’s best seller lists.