Bad Guys (Zack Walker)

Barclay has an easy going style that drags the reader into the scenerio quickly and completely. He has the ability to convey his story simply and makes the reader want to know more and more about the outcome! I have enjoyed all his fiction and await more!

Just found this author and very much enjoy his writing. The only thing I'm not fond of is the liberal use of profanity by the characters. The story line would be just as enjoyable if it wasn't used. The plots are well constructed and holds your interest right to the finish.

This follow-up to Bad Move was a fun and funny story. The various family hiccups in central character Zach Walker's life are centered around his relationship with his daughter in this book, and as in Bad Move, the have a resonance with any father of a daughter. Barclay continues to take everyday occurrences that any one of us could find himself in and twist them into a farcical romp that will put you in stitches. If you love to laugh, you'll love Barclay's Bad Guys.

When I read Bad Move this summer (Barclay's first novel in the series), I was constantly laughing out loud. Happily, the sequel made me do the same. Since the other reviewers describe the book, and I have carapl tunnel, I'll make a couple of points. One, our protagonist Zack is a fantastic creation. He can't control his mouth even in the most dire circumstances. Two, while he clearly adores his teenagers, his relationship with them is one of continuing screw-ups based on his love and fear for them - it makes for lots of fun. And as a story, it's clever, has a few neat plot twists, nice pacing and is extremely well written. The dialgoue is stellar. Barclay is one of the few comic/mystery writers than can put it all togerther and in my mind he's joined the ranks of Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry and Elmore Leonard. Good company to keep!

After finding the burbs worse than Tom Hanks (see BAD MOVE), super worrier Zack Walker returns to the inner city with his wife and their two teenage children. He lets his paranoia over the safety of children get a grip on him when his eighteen years old daughter Angie fails to come home by curfew. He stalks the home of her date "Pool Boy" only to be caught and learn his daughter is sleeping in her bed. Now his daughter is being stalked by apparently Trevor Wylie, a friend of her younger brother Paul, but she wants dad to stay out of it. Meanwhile the Metropolitan reporter is working graveyard stakeouts accompanying private detective Laurence on trying to prevent robberies. However, a peer who shares work with Laurence, Diamond is murdered on a concurrent stake out. As Zack investigates the homicide, he also stealthy tries to stop the stalker bothering his daughter; all this and more fears without taking medication. Zack is as nutty and paranoid as ever over the safety of his family as he sees bad doers under every rock. The humorous story line grips readers once they realize how foolish Zack takes things (never dawned on him to check whether his daughter was home) and never slows down until he places himself at risk from a killer and the stalker. Linwood Barclay provides a wonderfully jocular Noir starring a sympathetic Don Knotts like lunatic who no one understands. His wife threatens to use a pillow on him while he sleeps if he does not back off from his driving his family crazy over their wellbeing. Harriet Klausner