Broken Promise: (Promise Falls Trilogy Book 1)

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If you like your crime more twisty than a bowl of fusilli pasta, then you will love Linwood Barclay and this tale of a small town newspaper reporter investigating a gruesome murder and a missing baby. I know that the general consensus amongst the readers of this novel was that stretching over five-hundred pages it was a little lengthy, but in contrast to that opinion, I rather admired the gradual slow burn of Broken Promise and the livelihood of the unfortunate denizen who habituate the town.

The information about prosopagnosia (face blindness) was an interesting development and integral to the story. The first chapter may read simply "I hate this town", but readers will be seduced by the dark heart of Promise Falls. He engages his investigative reporter’s skill set to uncover the true mother’s identity, but when he discovers her dead body at her home, things look quite bad for Marla. There is real storytelling craft on display here, and if ever a book deserved the description 'page turner' it's this one.Just as you think you know where this is heading, Mr Barclay will throw in a twist to the plot that has the book heading off in a completely unexpected direction. BROKEN PROMISE, the debut novel in Linwood Barclay’s now well-known PROMISE FALLS trilogy is best described as lying in the center of a triangle bounded by suspense thriller, psychological thriller and horror! David attempts to reconcile who this baby's true mother might be but is taken aback when he finds the mother dead.

He thinks he can power the town back to its boom era, even getting the mothballed theme park back up and running again.His mom, Arlene is forgetting things; Jack the doctor has a gambling habit, Marla is struggling with reality, Samantha, the mother of Carl (the boy who was mean to Ethan), with baggage of her own; works at a laundromat, wear tight jeans, hot, and carries a shotgun—possible love connection for David? As well as being a skilled police officer, he’s an amazingly charming and entirely believable protagonist who is obviously destined to play a part in novels yet to come. However, if you are a person who likes mysteries and crime novel with lots happening, you will probably like this more than I did and it could well hook you into reading the others as well. David's point of view is the primary source of narration which accounts for about half of the story.

There are many characters with many quirks, characteristics and I am sure back stories that could lead on to many different spin offs.Like a less surreal Twin Peaks, this is a compellingly grotesque portrait of the American dream in meltdown. He's even more disturbed to find Marla looking after a baby, a baby she claims was delivered to her 'by an angel'. Broken Promise smoothly combines a page-turning Harlan Coben pace with a Jeffery Deaver-esque twist. That also served me well as this tale meanders into several directions that eventually connect, some loosely and others more concretely.

Of course the police suspect that Marla committed the murder, and David, concerned for his cousin, agrees to try to help her.Broken Promise is the first book in the epic Promise Falls Trilogy from master of the thriller, Linwood Barclay. Despite my irritation with the style, I will read the second one as I am curious about the bigger story arc. Full details of your rights under the Distance Selling Regulations are available in the UK from your local Citizens' Advice Bureau or your Local Authority's Trading Standards Office.