A Tap on the Window

One of the Boston Globe's Best Crime Novels of the Year!
One of Suspense Magazine's Best Books of 2013!

Hailed as a suspense master by Stephen King, Linwood Barclay now reveals the dark side of a small town and the even darker secrets that hide there...

It s been two months since private investigator Cal Weaver s teenage son Scott died in a tragic accident. Ever since, he and his wife have drifted apart, fracturing a once normal life. Cal is mired in grief, a grief he can t move past. And maybe his grief has clouded his judgment. Because driving home one night, he makes his first big mistake.

A girl drenched in rain taps on his car window and asks for a ride as he sits at a stoplight. Even though he knows a fortysomething man picking up a teenage hitchhiker is a fool, he lets her in. She s the same age as Scott, and maybe she can help Cal find the dealer who sold his son the drugs that killed him. After a brief stop at a roadside diner, Cal senses that something s not right with the girl or the situation. But it s too late. He s already involved.

Now Cal is drawn into a nightmare of pain and suspicion. Something is horribly wrong in the small town of Griffon in upstate New York. There are too many secrets there, too many lies and cover-ups. And Cal has decided to expose those secrets one by one.

That s his second big mistake.