It's probably heresy to admit this - but there were a few things about this book that made it sound less attractive than it could have. Not least of all the plot of a teenage girl going missing in circumstances sounding suspiciously like a run-away. Teenage angst is a subject normally avoided in my reading choices. How wrong can you possibly get?

FEAR THE WORST is the third book from Canadian author Linwood Barclay, the earlier two being NO TIME FOR GOODBYE and TOO CLOSE TO HOME. FEAR THE WORST is really the story of Tim Blake and how his life goes completely pear-shaped when his teenage daughter doesn't come home after a normal start at her summer day job. Nothing has gone from her room. She's not answering her telephone. No friends admit to having seen her. She simply vanished. Stranger still - the hotel where she's supposedly been working say that Sydney Blake has never worked there. Tim is a pretty normal divorced man. He works as a car salesman, he's trying to maintain a relationship with his daughter, he's not particularly jealous of his ex-wife's new boyfriend. He has got himself into a very messy relationship with a woman who is definitely not quite right, but he's trying to do the right thing about her as well. He's even trying to be a good role model for his daughter's teenage friends - especially Patty. An unlikely best friend, Patty comes from a very dysfunctional background and she's very very different from Tim's Syd.

Tim's problems start when the police seem to be more interested in proving he killed his daughter, than actually looking for her, but things really start to get complicated when he's lured to Seattle on a false report and returns to find his house trashed and drugs planted there. The police find Syd's car only to discover there's blood on it - not just Syd's; and there's something going on with Patty and Syd's ex-boyfriend Jeff. As Tim searches for Syd more and more weird things (and people) start falling out of the cracks of what Tim thought he knew about his daughter.

FEAR THE WORST ticks all the "page turning" boxes. The action is fast and frenzied, and whilst our hero does take a bit of a battering, he's not made out to be super-human. He's believable. The supporting cast of characters - Patty, Tim's ex-wife, her new boyfriend Bob, all have some shape and depth to them. The grudging co-operation which slowly builds between Bob and Tim is good, again believable. The plot is complex but not complicated to follow, the twists and turns built into Syd's life realistically, adding some blips in Tim's along the way just to show sometimes life can come back and bite you when you least expect it.

Every now and then along comes a book that I can really say was a page turner. FEAR THE WORST is definitely one of them.

This was my first exposure to Linwood Barclay, but it will not be my last. It was when I finished the last sentence that I was able to catch my breath! When a recently-divorced father discovers that his daughter has disappeared and that he really did not know her true character at all, the journey to not only find her, but to learn of who she was/is begins. Interwoven into a tale of obstacles within a family, is a criminal ring of human-trafficking; fascintating and exciting! This is an intricate story, told with ease.

I picked up Fear the Worst for my e-reader over the summer and was delighted when it was chosen as book of the month for Coffee Talk on Goodreads. Barclay delivers a suspenseful thriller filled with twists and unexpected surprises; as protagonist Tim Blake searches for his missing seventeen year old daughter Sydney.

The first half of the book moved slowly for me, although it held my interest. At times I felt Barclay was too wordy, and a lot of the story could have been trimmed. The second half had me quickly turning the pages as more information came to light and Blake found himself the primary suspect by the police. While Blake is a pretty mundane chap, I found myself impressed by his ability to deal with his ex-wife, his crappy job and back-stabbing associates. Blake becomes an amateur detective unearthing every lead, and slowly putting the pieces together in his daughter’s disappearance. He also finds himself in serious trouble when he discoveries he is not the only one looking for his daughter. I found myself laughing at the exchanges between Blake and his ex-wife’s new boyfriend Bob.

I applaud the way Barclay fed us the pieces of this mystery and slowly tied them together as we discover what events led to Sydney’s disappearance. I loved the twists and shocking revelations. The events that occurred with Sydney were downright scary and I breathe a little easier living in the burbs. The novel had a few action scenes and a climactic conclusion that are sure to please.

I recommend this to fans of mystery, suspense and crime novels. Fear the Worst is available in both paper and digital formats. Barclay has over nineteen published works and I will be picking up a few. His most recent release is entitled The Accident.

The plot wasn't bad but it probably could have been edited better...it really dragged on in spots.

dnf. bad narrator

Kept you guessing right to the end!

Barclay is the master of plot propulsion. It's always "just one more page...just one more chapter". Impossible to put down and crazy action.

Gah-what? This book is twisty! It's turny! You won't put it together until the protaganist does! Many events take place very quickly! It's pretty awesome.

I KNEW IT!! I guessed it at the beginning of the book!

Not going to give spoilers but I knew I was right.

I like this author. I am going to read another