Sunday 13 October 2013

Book Review: NEVER COMING BACK BY TIM WEAVER

NEVER COMING BACK
BY
TIM WEAVER

Published by Penguin August 2013

About the Book:
 
It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie's house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner's cooking, the TV's on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily asks missing persons investigator David Raker to find them. It's clear someone doesn't want the family found.
But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily's missing family, he might just have made himself the next target...

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780241954416,00.html#0Dwpbyf23qLfJx3I.99
 It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie's house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner's cooking, the TV's on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.

When the police draw a blank, Emily asks missing persons investigator David Raker to find them. It's clear someone doesn't want the family found.

But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily's missing family, he might just have made himself the next target ...
 
"....... it was a snapshot of time:  nothing but the milk out of place.  The food was still cooking, the lights were still on, the TV, the computer, the cars, the dog.
All the signs of being a family home.
But none of the family."

This was a gripping thriller that, from about half way in, I could not put down.  I had to find out what had happened to the family and why.

The story is told mainly in the first person by David Raker and starts in 2007 in Las Vegas where he meets an old friend from school, but, after chatting for a little while, his friend disappears and he never sees him again.

Back to the present now and Raker is recuperating in his parents old cottage by the seaside, after being stabbed five months ago, when a body is found on the beach.  Then he meets his teenage sweetheart, they hadn't seen each other for 24 years, and she asks for his help in finding her missing family.

The story again goes back a couple of years to a family meeting a doctor and the mother notices a photograph that the doctor owns.

The story goes back and forth between these two different timelines and I found these teasing chapters a little confusing but, as the plot thickens, it all gradually starts to make sense.

The story features a psycopath, an abandoned village that had almost disappeared into the sea, anonymous phone calls, old photographs, Las Vegas high rollers, a stolen laptop.

David Raker was very observant and good at reading people......

Sometimes the clearest picture of a person came from the smallest things: the way he'd set his pen and paper down parallel to one another pointed towards a meticulous mind; the way he'd torn out the last notes in the pad - as if to keep them away from prying eyes - suggested a suspicious one too.

The writing was detailed and compelling, the characters were interesting and, after a slow start, never boring.
 
Source:  From RealReaders
 

It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie's house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner's cooking, the TV's on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily asks missing persons investigator David Raker to find them. It's clear someone doesn't want the family found.
But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily's missing family, he might just have made himself the next target...

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780241954416,00.html#0Dwpbyf23qLfJx3I.99
It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie's house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner's cooking, the TV's on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily asks missing persons investigator David Raker to find them. It's clear someone doesn't want the family found.
But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily's missing family, he might just have made himself the next target...

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780241954416,00.html#0Dwpbyf23qLfJx3I.99

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...