The
Twenty Three (Promise Falls Trilogy) – Linwood Barclay – (Berkley)
In what is the third and final installment of the
Promise Falls Trilogy, The Twenty Three,
bestselling author Linwood Barclay has readers ensnared in a multitude of
characters, storylines and cliffhangers that he must somehow manage to pull all
together.
Barclay has done a masterful job of building to this
conclusion; starting with mysterious and seemingly bucolic little burg of
Promise Falls in the suburbs of Albany and then adding layer after of
interacting storylines and strange and wonderful characters.
This is not one of those sets that you can comfortably
start anywhere that you feel; you really need to start and the beginning and
work from there. That being said the sheer volume of people may leave you
backtracking through pages (books?) to determine who is who. While Barclay has
more in common with Steven King, the number of characters and storylines seems
to be more like a Tom Clancy novel. I admit to looking around for a small white
board to mind map the characters.
In The Twenty
Three, the people Promise Falls are mysteriously dropping like flies on the
first day of a long holiday weekend and just to spice things up on top of the
dozens of sick and dying and murder victim is discovered; could it be the work
of serial killer? Barclay has a tall order the bring these competing storylines
to a satisfactory conclusion and some lose threads may not get clipped, leaving
some fans in the lurch as he lards on the red herrings, seeming clues and dead
end plot lines. Barclay it seems is some parts master storyteller and some
parts frustrating, master manipulator.
Whatever your perspective on the events here, he will
leave you screaming as you thunder along towards the conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment