Cover image of "A Tap on the Window," a small town thriller

This is the first time I’ve stumbled across Linwood Barclay. It turns out, though, that A Tap on the Window is one of fifteen novels he’s written, most of them, like this one, detective fiction. Barclay is a US-born Canadian author who has won awards for his mysteries. I find it amazing that, after so many years reading thrillers and mysteries, I keep discovering worthy new authors in the genre every year, almost by accident.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A Tap on the Window is a thriller set in a small town where an ex-policeman named Cal Weaver is building a practice as a private investigator. He left the police department in a nearby community under a cloud and has moved to the place where his brother-in-law is chief of police. Weaver and his wife recently suffered the loss of their teenage son in a tragic accident. Because she claims to have known his son, Weaver gives a teenage girl a lift during a rainstorm — and thus the mystery starts to unfold.

Barclay knows his trade. A Tap on the Window is tautly paced, competently written, and peopled with characters anyone who knows teenagers and small-town politicians has met. This is an engrossing small town thriller.

A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay (2013) 513 pages ★★★★☆

For related reading

If this book intrigues you, check out 5 top novels about private detectives. And for another superb small-town thriller, see All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (Southern noir at its eloquent best).

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