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Benjamin Percy: IMG The Roof People

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My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would... Continue »
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Fear the Worst

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Fear the Worst Cover

ISBN13: 9780553807165
ISBN10: 0553807161
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Your daughter doesn't come home one night from her summer job.

You go there looking for her. No one's seen here. But it's worse than that.

No one's ever seen her. So where has she been going every day? And where is she now?

In Linwood Barclay's riveting new thriller, an ordinary man's desperate search for his daughter leads him into a dark world of corruption, exploitation, and murder. Tim Blake is about to learn that the people you think you know best are the ones harboring the biggest secrets.

Tim is an average guy. He sells cars. He has an ex-wife. She's moved in with a man whose moody son spends more time online than he should. His girlfriend is turning out to be a bit of a flake. It's not a life without hassles, but nothing will prepare Tim for the nightmare that's about to begin.

Sydney vanishes into thin air. At the hotel where she supposedly worked, no one has ever heard of her. Even her closest friends seem to be at a loss. Now, as the days pass without word, Tim must face the fact that not only is Sydney missing, but that the daughter he's loved and thought he knew is a virtual stranger.

As he retraces Sydney's steps, Tim discovers that the suburban Connecticut town he always thought of as idyllic is anything but. What he doesn't know is that his every move is being watched. There are others who want to find Syd as much as Tim does.

But they're not planning a Welcome Home party.

The closer Tim comes to the truth, the closer he comes to every parent's worst nightmare — and the kind of evil only a parent's love has a chance in hell of stopping.

Review:

"In Barclay's new thriller, Tim Blake, a car salesman in a Honda dealership in Milford, Conn., has more troubles than a Yugo up for its inspection sticker: his wife has left him to shack up with a car dealer rival; he has a devil-wears-Prada-style boss; and, worst, his teenage daughter, Sydney, has disappeared from her summer job at the Just Inn Time hotel. Barclay does a decent job of depicting the fright, fantasies and rage of a parent whose child faces prolonged and uncertain danger, but the narrator exists chiefly as a sketch or plot device rather than a complex, compelling individual. The author explores a timely social issue, human trafficking, but the villains behind it are even less defined than the narrator. Still, Barclay (Bad Move) earns a solid A for his page-turning plot. In short, this is a functional stripped-down Civic of a book that gets you there." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Barclay (No Time for Goodbye) has written a page-turning thriller that's intense, compelling and, for the most part, expertly paced." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"The book's pace is nonstop...but Barclay also finds time to effectively sketch both Tim's anguish and his car salesman's worldview. Fear the Worst may make parents cringe, but they won't be able to stop reading." Booklist
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About the Author

Linwood Barclay is a former columnist for the Toronto Star and the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Too Close to Home and No Time for Goodbye, a #1 Sunday Times (UK) bestseller. He lives near Toronto with his wife.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
seldombites, January 20, 2013 (view all comments by seldombites)
This is a light read for when you don't want your brain to be too taxed. Not too obvious, but not unsolvable and not un-put-down-able.
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crowyhead, October 13, 2009 (view all comments by crowyhead)
The premise of this book is an interesting one: what would you do if, as a loving parent, your teenage daughter disappeared one day? And, added to that, what if you went to her workplace and they told you she'd never worked there, and they had no idea who she was?

The beginning of the novel, when a father is in just this situation, is really quite good. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes overburdened with a growing cast of characters and dozens of convoluted occurences, and the end result was a thriller with which I just could not get engaged. I actually found myself caring more about the intricacies of selling cars (the father is a car salesman) that I was about the ultimate fate of the characters.

Even if the reader makes it through this novel and enjoys it most of the way, I doubt many will be particularly satisifed with the ending, which is very abrupt and leaves most aspects of the characters' fates completely up in the air. It's barely the false closure that an action movie like "Die Hard" gives us -- it's more like the author just couldn't face the idea of trying to things up in a realistic but satisfying way, choosing instead to just stop writing and give up.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780553807165
Author:
Barclay, Linwood
Publisher:
Bantam
Subject:
Suspense
Subject:
Suspense fiction
Subject:
Fathers and daughters
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
August 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
416
Dimensions:
9.16x6.46x1.34 in. 1.41 lbs.
Age Level:
17. Date of birth: April 15, 1992. Weight: approxi
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Popular Fiction » Contemporary Thrillers

Fear the Worst Used Hardcover
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$2.98 In Stock
Product details 416 pages Bantam - English 9780553807165 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "In Barclay's new thriller, Tim Blake, a car salesman in a Honda dealership in Milford, Conn., has more troubles than a Yugo up for its inspection sticker: his wife has left him to shack up with a car dealer rival; he has a devil-wears-Prada-style boss; and, worst, his teenage daughter, Sydney, has disappeared from her summer job at the Just Inn Time hotel. Barclay does a decent job of depicting the fright, fantasies and rage of a parent whose child faces prolonged and uncertain danger, but the narrator exists chiefly as a sketch or plot device rather than a complex, compelling individual. The author explores a timely social issue, human trafficking, but the villains behind it are even less defined than the narrator. Still, Barclay (Bad Move) earns a solid A for his page-turning plot. In short, this is a functional stripped-down Civic of a book that gets you there." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Barclay (No Time for Goodbye) has written a page-turning thriller that's intense, compelling and, for the most part, expertly paced."
"Review" by , "The book's pace is nonstop...but Barclay also finds time to effectively sketch both Tim's anguish and his car salesman's worldview. Fear the Worst may make parents cringe, but they won't be able to stop reading."
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