As Linwood Barclay's new novel, Broken Promise, opens, David Harwood is a reporter for a local newspaper that has just closed on his first day back after returning from a gig at the Boston Globe. Things didn't work out in Boston because he had to work nights and hardly ever saw his son Ethan. So, for the good of his son, David and Ethan had moved back in with his parents.
His cousin, Marla, has just gotten involved with a kidnapping and murder. There are a lot of characters and subplots going on in Broken Promise but Barclay is able to juggle all of them deftly. Barry Duckworth, a 20-year veteran of the Promise Falls Police Department is investigating the murder and apparent kidnapping, as well as a host of other crimes, which may or may not be related.
The twist at the end I did not see coming. I thoroughly enjoyed Broken Promise and I look forward to the sequel! Well done Mr. Barclay.
I did not rate this higher because in the beginning there is a scene where he thinks his son was kidnapped and now, returned, but he is told to wait for another adult to arrive to get his son out of the car. I found that very unrealistic. I cannot imagine him waiting to grab up his child.
