Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver
Dec. 31st, 2013 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
A secret that will change lives for ever.
It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie’s house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner’s cooking, the TV’s on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily turns to investigator David Raker. He’s made a career out of finding missing people. He knows how they think. But it’s clear someone doesn’t want this family found.
As he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to unravel a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find the missing family, he might just have made himself the next target …
It’s five months after VANISHED. David Raker has split from Liz and is recuperating from his wounds at his cottage in Devon. Colm Healy’s staying with him. When a body is washed up on a nearby beach, Healy wants to investigate but Raker’s more reluctant and it isn’t long before the crime has driven a wedge between the men. But Raker can’t refuse when ex-girlfriend Emily Kane asks him to investigate the disappearance of her sister Carrie and her whole family almost a year earlier, leaving their whole house in the middle of making dinner. There’s been no activity on their bank accounts or credit cards and there’s been no contact at all.
Raker’s investigation pulls him into a sinister cover-up that’s lasted for decades and crosses continents - a cover-up that someone will do anything to maintain …
This is the fourth in Tim Weaver’s DAVID RAKER SERIES, which I hadn’t realised when I picked up a copy at the airport for a trip. However, there’s enough information in the opening chapters to work out what’s happened before and the novel is self-standing so you don’t have to worry about complicated backstories. I found it an easy read that kept me turning the pages, although I did see some of the twists coming and some of the things that the villain does really strained credibility for me at times. Raker’s a driven investigator with a complicated life but I was disappointed that his friendship with the broken Healy fizzles away without any real resolution after the first third. However, it was a decent enough read for me to be interested in checking out the earlier books and Weaver’s other books.
It’s difficult to summarise the plot without spoilers. I like the way Weaver brings in elements of history into the plot and would have liked to see more interaction with the villain to bring that out more and humanise them. Fundamentally the story does turn on coincidence and people being in the wrong place at the wrong time but Weaver handles this well so that it doesn’t feel contrived. I enjoyed the way the plot comes back to Raker’s personal history and his relationships with old and current friends and it’s also refreshing to have a character who recognises his own flaws.
Ultimately this is a solid read and I’m interested to read more.
The Verdict:
This is the fourth in Tim Weaver’s DAVID RAKER SERIES, which I hadn’t realised when I picked up a copy at the airport for a trip. However, there’s enough information in the opening chapters to work out what’s happened before and the novel is self-standing so you don’t have to worry about complicated backstories. I found it an easy read that kept me turning the pages, although I did see some of the twists coming and some of the things that the villain does really strained credibility for me at times. Raker’s a driven investigator with a complicated life but I was disappointed that his friendship with the broken Healy fizzles away without any real resolution after the first third. However, it was a decent enough read for me to be interested in checking out the earlier books and Weaver’s other books.
It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie’s house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner’s cooking, the TV’s on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily turns to investigator David Raker. He’s made a career out of finding missing people. He knows how they think. But it’s clear someone doesn’t want this family found.
As he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to unravel a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find the missing family, he might just have made himself the next target …
It’s five months after VANISHED. David Raker has split from Liz and is recuperating from his wounds at his cottage in Devon. Colm Healy’s staying with him. When a body is washed up on a nearby beach, Healy wants to investigate but Raker’s more reluctant and it isn’t long before the crime has driven a wedge between the men. But Raker can’t refuse when ex-girlfriend Emily Kane asks him to investigate the disappearance of her sister Carrie and her whole family almost a year earlier, leaving their whole house in the middle of making dinner. There’s been no activity on their bank accounts or credit cards and there’s been no contact at all.
Raker’s investigation pulls him into a sinister cover-up that’s lasted for decades and crosses continents - a cover-up that someone will do anything to maintain …
This is the fourth in Tim Weaver’s DAVID RAKER SERIES, which I hadn’t realised when I picked up a copy at the airport for a trip. However, there’s enough information in the opening chapters to work out what’s happened before and the novel is self-standing so you don’t have to worry about complicated backstories. I found it an easy read that kept me turning the pages, although I did see some of the twists coming and some of the things that the villain does really strained credibility for me at times. Raker’s a driven investigator with a complicated life but I was disappointed that his friendship with the broken Healy fizzles away without any real resolution after the first third. However, it was a decent enough read for me to be interested in checking out the earlier books and Weaver’s other books.
It’s difficult to summarise the plot without spoilers. I like the way Weaver brings in elements of history into the plot and would have liked to see more interaction with the villain to bring that out more and humanise them. Fundamentally the story does turn on coincidence and people being in the wrong place at the wrong time but Weaver handles this well so that it doesn’t feel contrived. I enjoyed the way the plot comes back to Raker’s personal history and his relationships with old and current friends and it’s also refreshing to have a character who recognises his own flaws.
Ultimately this is a solid read and I’m interested to read more.
The Verdict:
This is the fourth in Tim Weaver’s DAVID RAKER SERIES, which I hadn’t realised when I picked up a copy at the airport for a trip. However, there’s enough information in the opening chapters to work out what’s happened before and the novel is self-standing so you don’t have to worry about complicated backstories. I found it an easy read that kept me turning the pages, although I did see some of the twists coming and some of the things that the villain does really strained credibility for me at times. Raker’s a driven investigator with a complicated life but I was disappointed that his friendship with the broken Healy fizzles away without any real resolution after the first third. However, it was a decent enough read for me to be interested in checking out the earlier books and Weaver’s other books.
