Review: Bad Move

Bad Move by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Linwood Barclay is an author I regularly come back to, aware I will find a gripping book. Most of his books are solid four-star ratings, but I have had a single five-star rating (A Tap on the Window) and a three-star rating (Broken Promise), hence why I always return for more. Despite the numerous Linwood Barclay books I have read, due to the delay in printing them in the UK, I never got the chance to read his original series. Fortunately, the Zack Walker mysteries have been made available in the UK and I’m now able to dive in.

Bad Move was a great debut novel, and it would have certainly left me picking up more Linwood Barclay were I not already a fan. I really did have so much fun with the story and the characters, resulting in my willingness to dive straight into book two. It was filled with all I have come to enjoy about Linwood Barclay mysteries – the gripping storyline, the steady build-up, and the intertwined storylines. In addition to the usual Linwood Barclay goodness, this one also contains some humour.

I’m talking dark humour here. Not to the level of Stuart MacBride – I do not know of any other crime authors who go to the length of MacBride to have readers in pain from laughing – but it was certainly enough to have me chuckling throughout. It was a subtle dark humour, and whenever it hit the laugher would bubble free before I could do anything to stop it.

Honestly, I had so much fun with Zack Walker. I was sucked in deep, finding the book extremely hard to put down. I was turning page after page, finding myself desperate to see how everything came together. There were a few obvious elements, but these added to the humour of the story, and plenty of twists, which left you more than happy with how every tied together.

Without a doubt, I’m glad the Zack Walker books have finally been published in the UK so I can enjoy them.

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