It’s always the husband, isn’t it?
One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most people assumed Andy had got away with murder, but the police couldn’t build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom – he drank too much, was abandoned by his friends, nearly lost his business and became a pariah in the place he had once called home.
Now, six years later, Andy has put his life back together. He’s sold the house he shared with Brie and moved away for a fresh start. When he hears his old house has been bulldozed and a new house built in its place, he’s not bothered. He’s settled with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good.
But Andy’s peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, ‘Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?’ And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman – who bears a striking resemblance to Brie – is gone. The police are notified and old questions – and dark suspicions – resurface.
Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy’s future, and the lives of those closest to him, depends on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers…
The first Linwood Barclay book that I read was Elevator Pitch (which had me using the stairs for a very long time, I kid you not) and I’ve been a fan ever since. And I’m not alone, Stephen King calls him a ‘suspense master’.
Take Your Breath Away is his best book yet. It has the perfectly plotted, page-turning pace readers have come to expect from Barclay. The novel switches between perspectives with flashbacks to police interviews six years earlier. It still reads like a Hollywood blockbuster but this time, Barclay’s protagonist feels darker, and there’s a weighted tension throughout that makes it even more thrilling.
Take Your Breath Away was a one-sitting, edge-of-your-seat read. I was hooked from the get-go, taken on a wild ride through twists and turns to the very final climax. Stephen King is right – Linwood Barclay is a suspense master.
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