You Need to Read: Fear the Worst

Your daughter doesn’t come home one night from her summer job. You go there looking for her. No one’s seen her. 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.

Fear the Worst

Linwood Barclay

While I'm glad to be back at school, it definitely takes a toll on my reading time. I've had my nose in textbooks and powerpoint instead of novels, so I've literally been reading this same book for weeks.

Fear the Worst is from the point of view of Tim, the father of Sydney who goes missing. That made it very unique from other books, so I was unsure about that at first.

The story line is easy to follow and I was able to keep good track of characters, which is something I normally have more difficulty with in thrillers.

You as the reader are left in the dark just like Tim as to Syd's whereabouts, which will result in you being just confused to her whereabouts as her own father. There are so many secrets to uncover about this town, it's eerily realistic.

Linwood is an expert at adding elements to their story to make you suspicious of many people, and she sneaks in a lot of elements that tie everything together.

The hotel will haunt you. Wondering if she's dead or alive will haunt you. The van down the road will haunt you. The unknown will haunt you the most.