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Thursday, January 7, 2016

Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay



David Harwood is despondent. He has lost his job in Boston as a reporter. His wife is dead and he is moving back to live with his parents and his nine year old son. He gets a local job as a reporter and on the day he starts work, the paper folds up. Nothing could be more bleak for David.

His cousin Marla has been a little strange for a very long time. The loss of her baby has affected her and though she is holding it together, it is just barely there. When David visits her and finds a baby in her house, he knows that something is amiss. The fact that she insists that an angel visited her and gave her the baby adds to the mystery. David knows that the police are not going to be as kind to Marla as the family is. The discovery of a body which turns out to be the baby's mother and a string of strange circumstances with apparent links back to Marla makes David think that this is not just an abduction of a baby and a murder of a young mother.

The story was slow at the beginning for me despite the kidnapping and the murder! but it did pick up when the investigations went along. The college incidents of attempted rape and oddities happening around Promise Falls detracted from the main story but the clincher at the end was very good with readers now being able to look forward to a second book! it came in unexpectedly and was very well enacted.

This book was sent to me by Netgalley courtesy of Penguin Group, Berkeley Nal. Thank you.

6 comments:

  1. I haven't read anything by Linwood Barclay before. This sounds like a fun one, even with the slow start and the slight detractors from the main story. I may have to give this one a try!

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  2. Not sure if I've read this author!

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  3. Hmm sounds a little spooky. Read a book that involved a mother/baby not her own and saw another on NetGalley. So good promising start to a series.

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  4. This is an author I tried and really enjoyed when he first came out but haven't been able to keep up. They all sound good.

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  5. I don't know how it is that I haven't read any thing by this author when I have a bunch of his books on my TBR list on goodreads. I have now bumped one much closer to the top. HIs books all sound like such good reads.

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  6. I've enjoyed this author in the past so hope to try this one too. Sounds good, even though not perfect.

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