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3 July 2013

Review: NEVER SAW IT COMING, Linwood Barclay

  • First published in Great Britain by Orion Books 2013
  • ISBN 978-1-4091-4142-6
  • library book
  • 244 pages
Synopsis  (author)

Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. At least, that’s what she tells people. She watches the news for stories of missing people, then waits a few days and goes to see the family. She tells them she’s had a vision and that she may know where their missing loved one is—for a price, of course.

from the back of the book

Keisha's latest mark is a man whose wife disappeared a week ago. She's seen him on TV, pleading for his wife to come home or for whoever took her to let her go - an right away she can see the dollar signs too.

But when she pays Wendell Garfield a visit to give him the good news, things don't go exactly according to plan. At first he's sceptical, hostile even. But once she starts telling him about her visions - visions that might just explain why his wife of twenty-one years has been missing for four straight nights - she can tell she's got him hooked.

The trouble is, unbeknownst to her, Keisha's "vision" is uncomfortably close to the truth. And advertising it may be the last thing she wants to do.....

My Take

Another page turner from a master story teller.  This book is full of twists and turns. Keisha Ceylon is an opportunist, a charlatan who takes advantage of people's misery and gullibility. At the beginning of the book we get some insights into how she "works". She has a bank of clients who consult her from time to time when making big decisions but every now and again opportunity knocks via media coverage of news stories about missing persons. And that is why she approaches Wendell Garfield - his wife has been missing for four days. And that's when Keisha makes a mistake that nearly costs her her life.

These books by Canadian author Linwood Barclay are very readable. They slip down so easily. NEVER SAW IT COMING is probably not as good as TRUST YOUR EYES which I gave 5.0 to, but I have no hesitation in recommending it to you.

My rating: 4.7

I have also reviewed

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
4.5, FEAR THE WORST
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY
5.0, TRUST YOUR EYES   

Explore Linwood Barclay's website

4 comments:

  1. Kerrie - I like Linwood Barclay a lot myself. He weaves together wit, pacing and storytelling quite effectively.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved Trust Your Eyes, so I shall have to check this one out as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm pretty sure I read this as Clouded Vision, which was published in the UK in the QuickReads series of books. I t was maybe half the length of this, from memory,

    ReplyDelete
  4. Barclay mentions CLOUDED VISION in a comment at the end of the book Col, saying that while he started with the idea of expanding the short book, it ended up very different

    ReplyDelete

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