Trust Your Eyes

By: Linwood Barclay

Narrated by: Ken Marks, Rick Holmes

Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never so much as stepping out the door. He pores over and memorizes the streets of the world. He examines every address, as well as the people who are frozen in time on his computer screen. Then he sees something that anyone else might have stumbled upon - but has not - in a street view of downtown New York City: an image in a window. An image that looks like a woman being murdered.

Thomas's brother, Ray, takes care of him, cooking for him, dealing with the outside world on his behalf, and listening to his intricate and increasingly paranoid theories. When Thomas tells Ray what he has seen, Ray humors him with a half-hearted investigation. But Ray soon realizes he and his brother have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy. And now they are in the crosshairs.

©2012 Barclay Perspectives, Inc. (P)2012 Recorded Books

The latest Linwood Barclay does not disappoint.

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.

expect the unexpected

This author has a unique ability to involve readers with his characters. They are people you could know, or work with. They could live next door. He writes about normal everyday people doing what everyone does, and then something unusual happens to one of them. Something unexpected. This is such a story.

Imagine memorizing every street location in the world, along with every apartment building, toy shop, restaurant, beauty shop, and any other structure on each street. That is the goal of one of our characters. Thomas keeps himself glued to his computer almost 24 hours a day cruising a website called Whirl360 which gives him access to the world. It's all he has done for years. He's not great at coping with the real world, and this has been his life. ---until his father dies in an accident and his brother, Ray, comes to stay with him.

One day Thomas sees a supposed murder taking place in an apartment window. He tells his brother and the story is off and running. They start to investigate to see if it really was a murder--never knowing what horrible chain of events will follow.

Once you start listening --it will be hard to find a place to stop. We care about what happens to these people, and the suspense is building. A shocker at the end.

This was my first book by Linwood Barclay- and I was happy I tried it.

Very Well-Written!

I've read around 100 Audible books. This one is so interesting and so well written that it has to be in the top five. Pieces of the puzzle don't come together until the end and the characters are well done. The narrator was great, too. Definitely give it a two thumbs up.

entertaining, not great

thus book was entertaining enough but not a great listen or anything like that. it was fine to have on while running, cleaning, and cooking.

Very good mystery

I thought I had most everything figured out by chapter 50, but there were twists & turns up to the very end that surprised me! At one point I had to re-listen to a passage that mentioned about a character talking to a ghost & thought … wait a minute, what? & then had to listen to more to figure a really big twist. I liked it!