Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay

About the Author:

Linwood Barclay is a former columnist for the Toronto Star. He is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Too Close to Home and No Time for Goodbye, a #1 bestseller in Britain. He lives near Toronto with his wife and has two grown children.

Visit Linwood's website at http://www.linwoodbarclay.com/

About the Book:

Your daughter doesn’t come home one night from her summer job.
You go there looking for her. No one’s seen here. But it’s worse than that.

No one’s ever seen her. So where has she been going every day? And where is she now?

In Linwood Barclay’s riveting new thriller, an ordinary man’s desperate search for his daughter leads him into a dark world of corruption, exploitation, and murder. Tim Blake is about to learn that the people you think you know best are the ones harboring the biggest secrets.

Tim is an average guy. He sells cars. He has an ex-wife. She’s moved in with a man whose moody son spends more time online than he should. His girlfriend is turning out to be a bit of a flake. It’s not a life without hassles, but nothing will prepare Tim for the nightmare that’s about to begin.

Sydney vanishes into thin air. At the hotel where she supposedly worked, no one has ever heard of her. Even her closest friends seem to be at a loss. Now, as the days pass without word, Tim must face the fact that not only is Sydney missing, but that the daughter he’s loved and thought he knew is a virtual stranger.

As he retraces Sydney’s steps, Tim discovers that the suburban Connecticut town he always thought of as idyllic is anything but. What he doesn’t know is that his every move is being watched. There are others who want to find Syd as much as Tim does.

But they’re not planning a Welcome Home party.

The closer Tim comes to the truth, the closer he comes to every parent’s worst nightmare—and the kind of evil only a parent’s love has a chance in hell of stopping.

I was lucky enough to get an interview with this very talented author. Here's what he had to say:

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

Fear the Worst is about a father whose 17-year-old daughter comes to live with him for the summer while she works at a one-star hotel. One night, she doesn’t come home and the father goes to the hotel, for the first time, to find out what’s happened to her. The hotel workers have not only not seen her, they’ve NEVER seen her. So where has she been going these last few weeks? Where is she now? And why are some very bad people looking for her?

Who is your biggest supporter?

My wife Neetha.

Your biggest critic?

Me.

In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?

I’m getting better and better at Nintendo Wii tennis. When I need a break away from the computer, I play a few sets, then get back to work.

Do you have any rituals you follow when finishing a piece of work?

I make my desk really, really tidy.

Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?

The one author who’s had the most impact on me, certainly when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, was Ross Macdonald, who wrote the Lew Archer series of detective novels.

What are you currently working on?

I’m doing the final revisions and page-proofing for my next book, Never Look Away.

What do you feel has been your greatest achievement as an author?

My novel No Time for Goodbye was the single bestselling novel in the UK in 2008.

What do you feel is your biggest strength?

I deliver on time.

Biggest weakness?

I deliver too early. Gives everyone, including myself, too much time to revise.

What is your favorite past-time?

Watching Lost.