What do readers think of Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay? Write your own review.

Linwood Barclay has once again given us "the common man" encountering extraordinary circumstances. David Harwood is trying to hold life together for himself and his young son after the death of his wife and the loss of his job. Living with his parents in his childhood home in Promise Falls, NY he is drawn into a drama involving his cousin, a kidnapped child and murder. In his efforts to put the story together and help his cousin he meets all sorts of characters in this small town who are not what they would seem to be. As all of this unfolds, the reader finds answers to some of the questions but is left with the biggest one unanswered. In this way, the book seems to be the beginning of a series and would not appeal to those who want all the loose ends tied up at a story's end. I felt it was an entertaining read but not his best work.

Linwood Barclay's "Broken Promise" is a murder-mystery thriller that takes place over just a few days. The book is set at such a fast pace, that I read it in just a few days as well (and I usually like to read at a leisurely pace to soak in all the details), in fact with the fast pace of the book and my reading, after I finished it, I went back and quickly reread many of the parts of the book to make sure I had not missed anything.
The thriller's premise and the characters were very well drawn, the protagonist sympathetic, and yet, the author, who has many characters in this book, has a way of portraying all the characters, even the protagonist, as slightly sinister. The fact that there is an underlying unsolved mystery, and that many of the characters have a "shady" past or tragic past, left me wondering if any of the characters were actually "good people" even the most innocent seeming. I like the different dimensions to the characters. It is very much like a roller coaster ride, where you can not tell what or who is coming next. However, the fact that the book is being set up for a sequel becomes very obvious half-way through the story, and at the end I was not satisfied because the underlying mystery is not solved in this book. I rated it as good for the fast-pace thrilling writing and dimensions to the characters. However, I did not rate it as high as I would have with a book of this quality, because of the unsatisfactory feeling at the end of the book. I don't mind some cliff hangers, but when they are such big ones, and so much has been left unresolved, it leaves me feeling like I haven't read a full novel, but just a prequel. Though I am looking forward to the sequel.

Linwood Barclay delivers once again. He provides many twists in the plot and a full cast of characters. One minute the story is leading down a certain path the next another twist. It is interesting to watch the characters interact and watch as their relationships evolve. Barclay entertains his readers from beginning to end. Once I started the book I wanted to keep reading. He snagged me once again.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay. It was an intriguing plot line from the beginning with good character development. The end, especially, was quite a roller coaster ride with a few twists thrown in. I didn't realize at the beginning that this seems to be the first of I'm not sure how many books with this protagonist and this town. I will definitely want to read the next one and see how the characters evolve. Enjoyable!

[Editor's Note: Diane is right, this is the first book by Linwood Barclay set in Promise Falls. A novella also set in Promise Falls is due to publish Jan 2016, and further full length novels will follow.]

This entertaining book introduces you to a cast of quirky characters who are brought together by a series of events in their hometown of Promise Falls.
Main character David Harwood struggles to bring order to his personal life, but he becomes part of complicated family and community circumstances that are intertwined.
Clues are scattered throughout the book and we are left with some satisfying resolution as well as promise of things to come in a follow-up work.
My advance copy of this lengthy book received at the beginning of the week was finished in a few days. Enjoy!

Thank you for sending me the advance copy of Linwood Barclay's new book, Broken Promise. This will be a great, fast summer read on the beach or on a plane. It is suspenseful enough to keep turning the pages but the story line is fairly simple. I don't want to be a spoiler for those reading this review so I will just say that I figured it out about half way through but still enjoyed it to the last page. The characters are not highly developed or believable especially in the case of Sarita and Dr. Sturgess but it's still a good read.

I have seen good reviews for Linwood Barclay’s books so I decided to give them a try. I chose the Promise Falls Trilogy for starters. The third book Twenty-Three is not available to me yet. No matter…
The first book Broken Promise started a little slow for me, but it did pick up. The story-line is very good and well plotted. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed that we were getting the story from different perspectives. At the end of Barclay’s wrapped up the story very nicely leaving a few dangling story lines for the next book in the trilogy.

I have read 9 of Linwood Barclay's previous novels and have always enjoyed reading them. This one doesn't disappoint but I did feel there were too many characters and subplots. This book is an easy read if that's what you are looking for. However, I solved the mystery early into the book except for the cliffhanger ending. This is still an enjoyable book and I will read the next 2 books in this series.