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Talent evident in Barclay’s novel
Book Review
By Derryll White
Barclay, Linwood (2009). Fear The Worst.
Some patrons of Lotus Books in Cranbrook told me I had better get on the ball and start reading Canadians.
I said, “Hey, I am reading Giles Blunt and Howard Shrier.” Not good enough, they implied and told me to try Linwood Barclay. Like any good independent bookstore worker I am pretty picky about who I read, but I do listen to respected customers.
So ‘Fear The Worst’ is the first Linwood Barclay title for me. I have to say it’s not bad. It doesn’t have any real Canadian content as it is set in Connecticut, U.S.A., but it does have humour and pathos. It is decently written and the characters are strong. I found myself identifying with the troubled father.
I liked the fact that when a character got hit in the nose he or she felt real pain and bled a lot – just like real people do. I liked the fact that the police characters rang true, not superhuman, not sleazy, just people trying to do their job best they knew how.
In my experience used car salesmen in Canada morph into politicians and then Cabinet Ministers. In Barclay’s novel they wrestle with their job and sales manager just like any other worker. He lets in enough sleaze to make the business believable as a capitalist enterprise in a free market, but does not moralize.
I thought the story fell apart toward the end, became less believable and more trite. There is some talent evident and I will try another of Barclay’s novels, but this one does not make my recommended list.
USED CAR SALESMAN – But in person, he’s all designer. Little polo players stitched to his shirts, perfectly creased slacks, expensive loafers without socks. If it were a little cooler, he’d have a sweater tied around his neck, yuppie-style.
LOSS – But it’s always there. You go on, but you don’t go on. Because there’s this weight and you can feel it all the time, like you’ve got a cinder block sitting on each shoulder, pushing you down, wearing you out, making you wonder whether you’ll be able to get up the next day.
TV EXPLOITATION — I flipped through the channels. Left Dr. Phil on in the background to exploit some miserable family stupid enough to air their dirty laundry for the entertainment pleasure of millions, and looked out the second-floor window. I didn’t know what I was expecting, exactly.
HUNTED – After the kind of day I’d had, I was on high alert, like a mouse slipping through the forest at night wondering how many owls are overhead. I was checking my rearview mirror, looking for vans, scanning the faces of pedestrians I passed on the street…
NO SUPERMAN – All the pressure of the last few weeks had come to a boil. A missing daughter, attempts on my life, and now, a woman murdered in my own home. There was only so much one person could endure.
I was a goddamn car salesman, for fuck’s sake. Nothing in my life had even remotely prepared me for dealing with the things that were going on around me now.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
