THE TWENTY-THREE by Linwood Barclay

The Twenty-Three by Linwood Barclay
My Goodreads rating: 2 of 5 stars
My Personal rating: 4/10 (C) AVERAGE

Amazon.com Synopsis:
From New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Linwood Barclay comes the jaw-dropping finale of the Promise Falls Trilogy.

It’s May 23, and small town Promise Falls finds itself in the midst of a full-blown catastrophe with dozens dead from a flu-like virus. Investigator Cal Weaver quickly zeros in on mass poisoning and a tainted water supply.

Meanwhile, a college student has been murdered, and Detective Barry Duckworth recognizes a killer’s handiwork from the unsolved homicides of two women in town. Suddenly, the strange events from the last month start to add up….Bloody mannequins in car “23” of an abandoned Ferris wheel…a fiery, out-of-control bus with “23” on the back…“23” on the hoodie of a man accused of assault.

The motive for hurting the people of this town points to the number 23—and working out why will bring Duckworth closer to death than ever before.


My Thoughts:

In book 3 of the Promise Falls Series - I was very invested in knowing who the overall killer of the three women were, as well as who was the cause of the "23" labelled incidents that have been a common theme throughout this series. Are these related or is were the timings coincidental?  All the unanswered questions.  I also expected chaos to ensue in the town with other events, as Linwood Barclay has done so well throughout the series.

The opening line, pulled me right in:
"I know I won't be able to get them all. But I hope I'll be able to get enough."

The wrap-up of these two areas listed above, were perfectly done. I would have liked to see more of a wrap-up on the Samantha/David incident at the end, I need a little more closure on that story line. I felt that the middle dragged on a tad long, with the water poisoning - which is why the rating dropped to a C for me.

David Harwood and the others in Promise Falls have become well developed characters over three books in the series, and I've enjoyed the ride.  If more were written, I would continue to read them.

Even though I only rated this book a C, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the story and Barclay has become a new favorite author of mine for sure. I love his writing and I look forward to reading more of his books.  If you have any suggestions, please post them below.

This was a buddy read for the The Reading Cove.


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