Reviews for Bad move

The average rating for Bad move based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-07 00:00:00 Iron Maiden This is the first novel written by Linwood Barclay, before the author became even known. The first in a series of four. Zack Walker is an unlikeable character, a paranoid freak about security, a father who always tends to "teach his family a lesson", because they are so security unconscious about everything. Ultimately, the last lesson will backfire on him, when he grabs an unattended purse thinking it belongs to his wife. This action will make all hell to break lose, and finally he and his family will get to know what really danger looks like. A very easy reading, with lots of humor involved. I loved the chapter of the "backpack incident"! But it's not an edge of your seat thriller. It's a slow burn mystery, it takes a while to take off, but when it does, it's an enjoyable read. And it has two endings…. Just when you think everything is solved, there is a final twist.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-27 00:00:00 Chad Boyan BAD MOVE started off way too slow. Normally, I'd stop reading a book like this after the first chapter. But this was the debut novel of a currently successful author with a following, and it was published by Bantam, no less. So my curiosity was piqued. His prose is very good, but a bit too wordy for my taste. He doesn't lose himself in unnecessary descriptions, but when I'm reading a boring passage and it's not immediately clear to me why this has to be in the book, I tend to think of what other things I could be doing with the precious little free time I have. I forgive the occasional dull bits if they are written by the hand of Stephen King or Dean Koontz because I've read enough by them to trust that it will be worth my while in the end. Some new authors, like Linwood Barclay when he wrote BAD MOVE, tend to assume they have that trust, and they lose momentum in the beginning of the book building background, when they should be making the reader go from curious to addicted in the space of a few paragraphs or the first chapter at most. I stayed at curious throughout the beginning. Not curious because of the story, but curious because I wanted to know how Linwood Barclay managed to get such a slow paced book published. Finally, midway through, the book started working like a page-turner should. At that point, I ended up reading non-stop, like I usually do with books that I really enjoy. I was also impressed by the editing. I had one objection to the use of the word "further" which I believe should be used to portray metaphorical distance, but in this case was used to describe physical distance instead. Other than that, I didn't spot a single typo or misplaced comma. (I'm not a stickler for faultless writing but lately I've noticed more and more typos popping up in novels. Even in some of the more recent books by bestselling authors like Harlan Coben.) In the end, BAD MOVE won me over (though I can't give this book five stars because of the slow beginning) and I'm going to buy the next book, BAD GUYS, right now. If I like it, who knows, I might even become a Linwood Barclay fan.