Never Saw it Coming by Linwood Barclay

Keisha Ceylon, makes a living by offering to help people when they most need it, by getting in touch with their dear departed or by touching a possession of a missing person to indicate a place they may be found at present. It is a gift, it is a service, but Dear Keisha does not open her mouth until she is paid. Keisha is not new to us, if we have read 'No Time for Goodbye' by Linwood Barclay, she offers to help the protagonist by using her gift to find her missing family, yes, for money. But Keisha is considered a Con-artist, but is she? Most times what Keisha does is listen to her clients. People need somebody to talk too and somebody to reassure them, Keisha does that, well, for money. She not only listens and reassures, but also connects with the dead, brings words of wisdom from beyond and gives hope to the hopeless.

Keisha scans news for potential clients and contacts the family of missing persons and offers to help them find them. Things go wrong for Keisha, when she is completely right. When her random guess hits spot-on, and the client feels that Keisha knows more than she need know. Keisha offered to see into the future of her clients, but never saw it coming, whatever was coming for her.

It is interesting how Linwood Barclay steers our feelings for the characters from one extreme to the other. I didn't expect myself to be rooting for whom I was rooting in the end. This is a short novel with twists and turns that could be read in a single sitting. I understand from the author's website that he had reworked his earlier novella into a novel. I did not read the earlier novella, The Clouded Vision, so I can't really say how much more he had added to the story. I may have been disappointed with this book, if I had read the earlier one, as I don't want to read the same book with a different name. But then I haven't read the earlier one, and in this book I never saw it coming. I enjoyed this little thriller with lots of surprises.


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My review of Trust your Eyes by Linwood Barclay that I read earlier this year.

My Post for Crime Fiction Alphabet

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