Trust Your Eyes

Thomas is a mentally disturbed person diagnosed with a strange type of schizophrenia. He stays glued to three computer screens in his room, "traveling" all over the world memorizing streets and places using a Web site on the computer. Thomas can come off as being really annoying, but that's just a part of that type of illness and the brilliance with which Barclay has conveyed. Thomas sees in an apartment window on a street in NY while he is scanning the area using a Web sit, What Thomas sees disturbing, very disturbing. Thomas insists he witnessed a homicide over the web

Thomas's brother Ray has come to stay with him to help get things in order after the alleged accidental death of their father. a task that he is sorely prepared to undertake. The job is further complicated by the fact that Thomas insists that he is employed by the CIA and listening to his intricate and increasingly paranoid theories. Ray soon realizes he and his brother have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy. hey both soon learn that getting involved was huge mistake and now their lives are at stake.

I couldn't stop listening, and I was engaged trying to figure out just where this was going. I have to admit that with this novel and The Accident, I had a hard time getting into the first hour, but once I'd stepped into the story, I was trapped in Barclay's world. The main character does not do the expected, and the second main character Thomas is totally different from any other character I've seen. Thomas hears voices and is unreliable; at the same time he is emotionally childlike and pure, so he relates plot events that are totally reliable. The main character tries hard not to get frustrated with Thomas, and as a result pursues situations and bad guys that no sane person would. Of course he doesn't realize the troubles that will ensue. The action is riveting. The bad guys are maybe a little extreme, but the contrast between good and evil here makes for great fun. The use of 2 readers makes listening easier, and the narration is wonderful.

I dont read books twice. But this book was one of the most engrossing and twisted books I have read in a while. It was absolutely fantastic. The characters were unique and intriguing. You say to yourself, how the heck is Linwood going to pull his natural and twists that he does in every book, but somehow he does it. Even the very last sentence will blow your mind.

The last sentence.

No, but the guy that does Ray's voice is fantastic, the other guy is just decent.

Laugh, think about it, enjoy it, loved it.

Don't even waste time reading reviews, just start the book, give it a bit, and you will be COMPLETELY engrossed.

Ray Kilbride faces a challenge. He has a full-blown flourishing career as an illustrated writer particularly of political cartoons. But his dad suddenly dies as a result of an accident where the lawn mower tractor tips over while he is mowing the lawn. Ray is forced to come home to rural New York to deal with clearing up his father’s effects, deciding what to do with the house, and, most of all, trying to figure out what he can do about his brother, Thomas, who is schizophrenic and lives totally in his bedroom on his computer. He seems unable to do anything to care for himself. But Ray is determined that he will find some way for Thomas to live which doesn’t involve Ray’s living with him and taking care of him. Then Thomas becomes obsessed with a new computer program, which allows him to zero in on individual streets and residences in cities. He believes that it is his duty to learn all the streets of all the big cities in the world because he is convinced that at some point, electronic maps will be totally lost and we won’t have paper maps anymore. So it will be up to Thomas, with his prodigious memory to help people figure out where to go throughout the world. He believes he is in contact with the CIA and that former President Clinton is his liaison to the CIA. This finally gets him and brother Ray into a world of trouble when Thomas, viewing a street in New York City, becomes convinced that he is seeing a murder through a third story window. At first no one will believe him, but then Ray attempts to help him figure out what is going on, and the brothers are in the crosshairs of some very dangerous people. This is an excellent book, an audio page turner I couldn’t turn off from start to finish.

I have always enjoyed Barclay's books, and was anxiously awaiting the publication of this one.I admit that I immediately downloaded it and started listening to it, the moment it was available here on Audible. Well, after hearing the narrator announce that I had made it to chapter 12, and I was still finding, "Trust Your Eyes," to be slow, uninteresting and peopled with only one character I liked, that being the briefly appearing psychiatrist, I asked my husband what he thought. He said he thought I would never ask, judging it to be tedious. So I did the thing I do rarely, I deleted it.

"The Accident," had been so fast moving, so engaging, from the very beginning, this one was, for me, a major disappointment. Should I have finished it, prior to reviewing it? Maybe, but I think by chapter 12, I should be interested in what is happening, or at least wondering about what will be happening...but I was not. I don't like writing negative reviews, and usually just write about the books I love, but I had read the reviews on Amazon, and almost everyone seemed to think this book was the best Barclay book they had ever read, which confounded me. Perhaps Audible listeners will feel the same, and it will wind up with a wondrous rating, but not from me. There are far too many books out there that do engage me from the very beginning, and whose narrators add to the enjoyment of the listening experience, and i did not find that the two narrators of "Trust Your Eyes," added any enjoyment or excitement. Okay, maybe it all started revving up in chapter 12; maybe the crazy brother and his older brother, who is trying to deal with the map and Internet obsessed brother, stop their repetitive conversations and begin to be relentlessly chased at a mind boggling pace and I would have been unable to tear myself away to feed my face...although I don't think I would have cared. (BTW, the schizo brother believes he has an ongoing relationship with the government, via Bill Clinton...so he sort of lost me, right there.) Maybe the bad girl waitress, looking to lie money out of her mom or blackmail money out of a rich lover with political aspirations will wind up to be the possible victim of foul play we first hear of at the very beginning of the book, but I definitely have next to no empathy for her; she is far too much like people I have been hit up by. I usually appreciate Barclay's victims often being people who are less than lily white, but in this instance, I was not intrigued...I was just bored by it all. I must be getting jaded in my old age, but this sure did not do it for me, and I am not investing any more time in it; there are far too many books out there that will keep me interested and anxiously listening, nonstop, to the very end, to spend one more moment on "Trust Your Eyes,"

I have an autistic sibling and thought the portrayal of the handicapped brother was right on - in terms of the lack of socilazing skills - I know they said he was schizo but he was so like Asberger's people. That said - I've read other Barclay books and he does have a way to hook you! The story told by multiple view points and at different times, made for a good listen!

Interesting story

All of it

Yes. Always good.

If I had the time yes!

Well worth the credit!

Good story. Good plotline. More then anything, I liked hearing about the relationship between Ray and his brother. An entire book just on the two of them fitting into life after the dads death (not a spoiler) would have been a good read. How about a follow up book?

The narration of Ray and his brother was pretty good, but I thought the other narrator was weak and not very expressive.