Look Both Ways

A Novel

By: Linwood Barclay

Narrated by: Ako Mitchell

Inspired by his decades-long love of cars, internationally bestselling author Linwood Barclay envisions a world in which automotive technology outpaces our wildest dreams—and our darkest nightmares—in a gripping new novel of action and suspense

These headlights are watching you…

The media have descended on Garrett Island, a small, isolated community that is the setting of a visionary experiment. All the residents’ cars were sent to the mainland and for the past month the islanders have been “driving” the Arrival, a revolutionary autonomous vehicle. With a simple voice command, an Arrival will take you wherever you want to go and, because the fleet is networked and aware of one another, car travel is now 100% safe. The future, it seems, has arrived.

As the excitement reaches a fever pitch, Sandra Montrose—islander, single mom, and public relations executive—prepares for Arrival Inc.’s flashy press event. Sandra is more than ready for this new world. Her husband died after falling asleep at the wheel and she’s relieved that her two teens, Archie and Katie, will never need driver’s licenses.

But as the celebratory day gets underway, disaster strikes. A visiting journalist has vanished, possibly murdered. Before long, the Arrivals run amok, no longer taking orders from their passengers. They’re starting to organize. They’re beginning to hunt. And they seem hell-bent on killing any human they encounter.

Is this all just a tragic accident, a technological malfunction with deadly consequences? Or were the vehicles programmed to act this way in a cruel act of corporate sabotage? Or could it be that the Arrivals have a mind of their own?

Fasten your seatbelts—it’s going to be a bumpy ride

©2022 Linwood Barclay (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Quite a twist

I enjoyed this book very much. Quite a surprising plot twist. A great listen.
Timely story …bravo!

Good premise....

... however (SPOILER), no reason is given for why a computer virus would turn the cars into sadistic hunters intent on killing humans.

Had the virus been intended to act as such, it would make sense, but it was a simple glitch virus intended to make the cars look bad.

The maniacal AI that took over made no sense.

The offspring of Christine and I, Robot

With the current mental state of our society and its ever increasing acceptance of AI, Linwood Barclay has married the science fiction of Asimov’s I, Robot and Stephen King’s Christine. A small New England tourist town has been persuaded to surrender the of year round residents and municipal vehicles to participate in a public relations rollout of self driving cars. Problem is that the cars have a mind of their own, lacking compassion, a conscience and a willingness to follow the commands of their human drivers.

No Plot here

I liked nothing. I have listened to at least 10 of Linwood Barclay novels. Most are very suspenseful with lot of twists. This one had nothing but young teenagers talking to self driving cars. Horrible novel

Another good one

Story was interesting and entertaining. Good narration, great story. Very likable characters. Characters make a book for me.

IMPRESSIVE NARRATOR AND AUTHOR

Great narrator for a terrific and fun story. In the hands of a lesser-skilled reader, the multiple characters could have spelled disaster for the listener, but Mr. Mitchell kept the pace lively and the differing voices credible without any breaks in the flow of the story. Applause to both Barclay Mitchell!

Linwood Barclay is awesome

Another great read from a fantastic author. I have loved everything I've ever read by Linwood Barclay.

Definitely Not Barclay’s Usual!

Well, because I do love this author’s work, I listened to this rather bizarre book. If anyone is ever in doubt as to how they feel about a driverless car, you will certainly know how you feel after this book! You definitely have to suspend belief and may even find yourself questioning if this truly could happen. I don’t usually enjoy this type of far fetched action-packed unrealistic storyline , but I did enjoy the characters and it held my interest. A lot of the car scenes were too drawn out to my liking, but I did like the twist and turns that took place among the characters. I guess I recommend? Excellent narration! The author’s forward is very interesting, and he explains why he wrote this book.

Predictable

Not as gripping as most of his books and seemed mostly predictable by the end but too unlikely the characters figured things out out so easily and too many coincidences to be believable

I loved it

This is my 6th or 7th book written by Linwood Barclay. I loved all of them. They all have lots of action and in-depth characters. I bought several more- can’t wait to start another.