Zack Walker is a natural worrywart, but nobody would fault him for being highly concerned when he receives a phone call about a bear attack at his father’s fishing camp. But the bear is the least of their worries. The farmhouse next door is being rented out to a family that keeps trespassers out with dogs and guns, and that espouses radical right-wing views…views for which the patriarch is prepared to kill.

The Zack Walker series was written early in Barclay’s career as a thriller writer, and it’s certainly lighter than his stand-alone books. I liked the setting—I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was partly based on Green Acres, the trailer park and campground that his parents ran when he was a teenager. But I found it hard to get into this one, primarily because the villain of the piece is all too real these days.

If you’re a Barclay completist, you might want to read this, but if you’re happy with his thrillers, that’s fine too. ( )

From Amazon:

Newspaper writer, family man, and reluctant hero Zack Walker has stumbled onto some dicey stories before, but nothing like what he’s about to uncover when a mutilated corpse is found at his father’s lakeside fishing camp. As always, Zack fears the worst. And this time, his paranoid worldview is dead-on.

While the locals attribute the death to a bear attack, Zack suspects something far more ominous—a predator whose weapons include arson, assault, and enough wacko beliefs to fuel a dozen hate groups. Then another body is discovered and a large supply of fertilizer goes missing, evoking memories of the Oklahoma City bombing. But it’s when he learns that his neighbor is a classic Lone Wolf—FBI parlance for a solo fanatic hell-bent on using high body counts to make political statements—that Zack realizes the idyllic town of his childhood is under siege. The fuse is lit to a catastrophe of unimaginable terror. And with time running out, Zack must face off with a madman.

My Thoughts:

I am not sure what to think. It is supposed to be a mystery/crime thriller but the "bad guys" and their plans are very obvious. I really liked Zack, a science-fiction writer turned reporter, who has an awkward relationship with his dad. They get to know each other better in this book and Zack learns some truths about his family. Zack is not your average crime novel protagonist- he is no tough guy, just a truth seeker. The book also had some nice humor and was engaging, just not suspenseful. The one thing that I found rather redundant was the stupidity of the chief of police.
( )

Zack Walker is having a calm lunch with his friend Trixie when he gets a phone call no-one wants to get. At his father's lakeside fishing camp a mutilated body has been found and his father is missing. He rushes to the scene and finds himself embroiled in a lot of complicated and messy local politics, some of which looks like it might end up with him dead.

It's not bad, there was a lot of obviousness flagged, some of the interaction was very good and well done. Some of it was nicely complicated and characters weren't always black and white. ( )

http://www.book-blog.com/2009/12/book-blog-post-2.html ( )