Linwood Barclay - what do you think?

[aristocat]

i have recently read Fear the Worst which was excellent and now i am just starting Too Close to Home.
the 'blurb' is -

whats more frightening than your next-door neighbours being murdered? finding out the killers went to the wrong house....

has anyone read it?

is it as good as i am expecting it to be?

I've read them all, only three so far, and I really enjoyed the first two in particular. Not so sure about the third.

I like them. Good examples of that genre, if ykwim.

He writes like Harlen Coben but he is noticeably less of a misogynist. HC is appalling. Sets my teeth on edge.

Why do you think HC is a misogynist? Just interested as I've read all his books and never noticed!

Too Close to Home is very good... read it on holiday. Not read Fear the Worst.

Read the first one... cannot remember title.. about the girl who came home and found all her family missing. Too Close to Home was as good as that.

I really enjoyed TCTH.

No Time for Goodbye was good as well. (think that's the one you mean thelunar)

HC misogynistic? Why do you think that ValiumSingleton?

atswimtwolengths, you're kidding me!!???

Myron Bolitar is presented as some kind of thoroughly decent new man's alpha male man, but I feel he's a bit of a deluded ol' creep. Mentally bigging himself up all the time because he was once an athlete. eg, in 'Long Lost' Bolitar walks through customs wondering whether "to give the female customs officer the full charm offensive or just bare minimum".

Win's 'mee time' nonsense was quite tedious. We're supposed to believe that MB disapproves of that. But the characterisation is so poor, that instead of hearing two distinct voices, one from Myron and one from Win, I just hear Harlan Coben himself. Rightly or wrongly, I feel like he's a mixture of Myron and Win, ie, a conceited misogynist who considers himself rather charming.

All that talk about derriers and felony in a bikini was just boring. like some randy teenager writing for Nuts magazine.

He and Win are supposed to be very immature - or rather their relationship is similar to a teenage relationship. I thought that MB's attitude to women is just quite funny (though he is an irritating character.) Win doesn't trust anyone in the world (except MB) - he's a misanthrope.

I've heard interviews with HC and have really liked him. There's nothing at all to suggest he's a misogynist when he speaks. He was very moving when he spoke about the early death of his parents - when he writes about the character's parents, he's writing about his own.

There was a really lovely piece here which is a tribute to his mum.

In any case, you have to separate an author's opinions from a narrative voice!

Well if the characterisation was better, perhaps I could separate the voice. I think HC clearly enjoys, positively relishes writing like this. I've read far too many of them, but I've read my last now. So, he loved his mum?! Madonna/whore syndrome anybody!?

He writes like a misoj imo!

have finished the book now and it was really good ....... liking this author very much

Valium, he talks more about his father than his mother! He portrays a very tender relationship between MB and MB's parents - I think you're way off track with the Madonna/whore remark!

Read a few interviews with him - you'll see his reasons for writing the way he does.

To be honest, I've found him one of the least misogynistic writers I've read.

Just read No Time For Goodbye and thought it was excellent. Well worth reading.

I thought No Time For Goodbye was good apart from the ending which I found very confusing.

I have read No Time For Goodbye and Too Close To Home - both gripping and decent reads while you're reading them but pretty forgettable afterwards. I couldn't really tell you what the story was and I only read them last year!

I've only read on of linwood Barclays books so far, Never Look Away. I have since downloaded a few more of his books to read. Too close to home and fear the worst are among them.