[.uk] Bad Move

Skip It:
Someone named Edna Buchannan (I think, I don't have the book in front of me) called this thing hilarious in a blurb on the cover. Never trust anything old Edna says. What the author has done has stocked the book with "wacky" characters and put it on auto pilot. There is an professional S & M role player/accountant (see a whacky combination, the fun has started already)who the author assures us isn't really a hooker, thank God. A slick slimy real estate developer with mob ties (there's a reach, why is it nobody else ever writes about sleazy real estate developers?) and a slob of a corrupt local politician. With this cast how can the book fail? It's worse that it sounds. I actually ordered a second book by the author without realizing it at about the same time so I have another laughfest to look forward to. Hope my sides can hold out as the belly laughts keep piling up.

terrific !!:
This book is so funny and clever. Its an easy read and a very enjoyable one ! Way to go Mr.Barclay !!

If You Loved Barclay's Independent Storyline Novels, Deciding to Read His Earlier Written Zack Walker Series is No Bad Move!:
Recently I came across Linwood Barclay's sensational later written independent stand alone storyline novels No Time for Goodbye and Too Close to Home so decided to track down his old stuff including the Zack Walker series of which this is the first novel. This is also Barclay's first novel and with some authors they don't hit their peak until a few novels in but not so with Barclay and Bad Move. Bad Move is a sensational novel, has a milder touch of the Harlan Coben style, though not as strong as the two standalone novels I mentioned earlier. What this novel also has though, that, which they don't is also the comic caper factor (yes like some of Donald E. Westlake's novels. These two combined styles make Bad Move a very entertaining and can't put down novel. The basic plot of Bad Move is Zack Walker, a father who takes cotton wool parenting to an extreme level convinces his family to move to the suburbs due to the increasing number of needles in the streets, muggings and the final straw in his mind, a little girl being abducted, murdered and dumped in a fridge. However now in the suburbs his family seems to have let their guard down, he is constantly appalled by their lack of common sense, finding keys left in the front door, backpacks at the top of the stairs, car windows open and other 'insane' activities. Zack knows the only way to keep them safe is to change their behaviour and this is done through his lessons. These include moving the wife's car so she will think someone used the keys she left in the door to steal it and letting his kids discover his corpse after he tripped on their bags and fell down the stairs. Of course this doesn't really do anything but cause marital tension and a lack of respect for the kids. Plus Zack is discovering the neighbours he thought were good law abiding citizens are anything but, such as the guy growing pot in his basement and the one woman brothel. However when he tries to teach his wife a lesson about what it is like to have her handbag stolen from her shopping trolley he stumbles into a world of trouble and learns quickly how big the suburban crime world is. If he's going to keep his family safe he's going to have to solve a murder or two very quickly and he's going to need the help of those less law abiding neighbours to do it. A great book can't wait to read the next in this series Bad Guys. Incidentally the next two in order after that are Lone Wolf and Stone Rain.

Best book I've read in awhile:
This is a page-turner with both suspense and humor. It hooked me, and I was not disappointed all the way through!

Bad moves review:
A decent book but not a great book. bought it because a friend said my writing was like his, ( and Linwood is published afterall) ok plot, but no killer payoff. this guy does not write as well is donald westlake. now there's a killer author.