Skip to main content

Broken Promise

Bookreporter.com Bets On...

Broken Promise

August 2015

Linwood Barclay writes books that are fast-paced, full of drama and memorable characters. BROKEN PROMISE lives up to all of those expectations.

David Harwood is back in Promise Falls, NY, with his nine-year-old son. His wife has died, and his newspaper job has gone away; his life is unraveling. He’s way down on his luck. But life on the home front in Promise Falls has its own set of challenges as this sleepy town has its own problems.

To begin with, his cousin, Marla, has suffered a miscarriage and is having her own unraveling moments. When David sees her, he is taken aback to learn that she has “found” a baby on her porch and is now raising it. Clearly something is not right with this.

Linwood immediately has David in an investigative mode as he tries to uncover what is going on ---- and then the baby’s real mother is found murdered. What will this mean for his cousin and his family? Plots twist and turn. Pages fly by. New clues and storylines emerge. I solved some of the plot twists, but just as I was feeling smug and smart, another twist cropped up.

There’s sly humor…lots of it. And surprises. David being greeted by a shotgun-toting mom is just one of them. I read it fast; it almost begs to be read in one sitting.

I look forward to books two (coming in March 2016) and three (coming in November 2016), and unraveling the significance of the number “23”!

-Click here to see Carol's Bets On commentary for FAR FROM TRUE, the sequel to BROKEN PROMISE.
-Click here to see Carol's Bets On commentary for THE TWENTY-THREE, the conclusion to the Promise Falls trilogy.

Broken Promise: Book One of the Promise Falls Trilogy
(Promise Falls Trilogy #1)
by Linwood Barclay

  • Publication Date: March 1, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Signet
  • ISBN-10: 0451472683
  • ISBN-13: 9780451472687