Look Both Ways by Linwood Barclay and read by Ako Mitchell was a strange audiobook at first but once I got my head around Killer Cars........I started to enjoy it. It was full of good twists and turns that will have you not wanting to turn this audiobook off.
The narrator Ako Mitchell was very good and kept this book alive.

High quality but long listen audio had me gripped by an actioned packed story of total automated cars going on the rampage . Full of lots of characters and subplots it darted from one to another and required total concentration.
The narration was engaging and easy to follow. It did get overcomplicated in places as the subplots took center stage. The ending seemed when it finally happened seemed predictable. Perfect as a movie though.
Highly recommended to anyone who can concentrate for long periods of time as the premise is not so unrealistic as it once was. I have read many if tge author's previous work and this seemed to be more focus on action plot than character which worked well.
This is 4..5 stars. Thank yoy netgallery and publisher and author and narrators for this entertaining listen

I have read a lot of Linwood Barclays books and this one was different from the others but just as enjoyable.
The author begins by explaining to us his thoughts and inspiration behind the storyline for this new novel which was interesting to listen to.
The story is set on Garrett Island and we hear from the residents as they are introduced to AI Arrival self drive cars.
The book explores this interesting subject that could be close to the truth in the future, however due to a virus these cars take on a very sinister edge as the book turns horror/thriller and became a very gripping read.
I liked the author (once I got used to them) and listened to it at 1.25 speed which worked for me.
A different 'read' from this author but one which I still enjoyed.

Really enjoyed this latest offering by Linwood. Great to hear the authors motivation for writing the novel at the beginning and a tense exciting storyline

A cat and mouse thriller with cars that possess a mind of their own!

Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the ALC!

Synopsis -

An unprecedented experiment is set to culminate in the isolated Garrett Island. All residents have been driving the autonomous vehicle “Arrival”, that does everything on voice commands. Sandra Montrose, the PR executive prepares for the highly anticipated Arrival’s press event, all is going as per plan until disaster strikes. The future of transport might be here, but what is the price to pay?

Review -

My first ever by Linwood Barclay and wow, it’s a great start!

The idea for this futuristic thriller has spurred from Barclay’s love for cars and his opening note provided great insights on what sparked his imagination. And what a premise it is indeed!

Just imagine – an isolated island, a fleet of similar looking self-driving, state of the art cars, that can communicate with one another – go rogue and create unimaginable havoc !?

We follow the POVs of Sandra, her two kids – Katie and Archie and and an imposter whom I don’t want to give away! Their narratives give us the background to this massive event planned by Sandra, the autonomous car companies, the rivalry and competition, and Sandra’s family life.

Amidst the panic, catastrophe and unimaginable damage the cars begin to inflict, even so far as to kill people, Sandra’s kids Katie and Archie also get sucked into it all, having to deal with crises of their own.

What makes this chaotic adventure and action packed drama even more enjoyable is the brilliant humor that Barclay incorporates with the kids’ threads and I found myself laughing away even during the most dire circumstances.

This speculative thriller is a look into the future - for how human beings are slowly losing control of their own world to AI, thanks to the tech advancements that’s going on at lightning speed, the dangers this poses to all of us and how one day, AI in the form the very machines we create for convenience and comfort can ruin us.

The narrator Ako Mitchell did an excellent job in bringing all the characters into existence, with the just the right intonations with every scene.


Definitely recommend if you are into speculative thrillers set in a futuristic world!

Different from the author's other books. This was not the usual read from Linwood Barclay, but that was no bad thing for me.

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator took a little getting used to I found. He had some very dramatic pauses which were not warranted. At first I thought the player was stuck as the pause was so long. Once I settled in to his nuances I was ok with listening.

This is an 8 hour read, after I reached 4 hours of listening I began to wonder what else could happen for there to be that long left. I thought everything that could happen more or less had happened and pretty good it was too. I couldn't have been more wrong as there was plenty of action to come and twists.

The story is told from the perspectives of several of the residents of Garrett Island and their interaction with the AI Arrival cars. I liked all of the characters, which turned out to be a little misguided, but that was the beauty of the writing. Once things begin to happen with the Arrival cars there's a lot of descriptive action which I found better being read out on the audio. I think I may have scan read some of it if I had been reading. For that reason I think it would make an excellent film.

It's certainly food for thought with the driverless car future we are headed for.

This is nothing like Linwood Barclay's other novels, or at least not the ones I have read. Instead it takes science fiction and horror elements and wraps it all up with some corporate espionage to explore what might happen if something went wrong on the network of self-drive cars, and they all turned murderous. From this point onwards it's an exciting and high paced action thriller as the characters attempt to survive and stop the killer cars. It could have just been daft, but actually it was oddly creepy and the cars left me feeling distinctly uneasy. I really enjoyed it. I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a great job too - I listened to it on a 1.25x speed playback, which was perfect for me.

Another good story from Linwood Barclay.

The story revolves around a small island where a car company has introduced self driving cars.

An act of sabotage introduces a virus into the cars system and they start to have a mind of their own.

I enjoyed the audio book and the narrator.

It was a bit of an uncomfortable read knowing this could actually be a reality in the not too distant future.

AI + mankind is kind of scary.

I absolutely loved ELEVATOR PITCH and FIND YOU FIRST by Barclay, so of course I couldn’t click request quick enough when I saw this new release on NetGalley.

This was absolutely bonkers, but such a fun read. The characters weren’t particularly likeable, but the plot takes the reader on a completely wild ride and I’m certainly never going to get into, or own, a self driving car. Much like Marrs’ THE PASSENGERS, this book was scary because it’s not THAT far out of the realms of possibility, with the way technology is advancing, and that makes it eerily plausible.

The only downside for me was I unfortunately didn’t enjoy the narrator for this audio, and had I read a physical copy, I’d probably have given this five stars. It ended up sounded almost cheesy, which wasn’t ideal for a thriller, and I definitely will continue to read rather than listen Barclay’s work.

📍 Thank you to the publisher, author + NetGalley for an advanced review copy. All opinions are my own. Review also posted to @redheadbookgirl (IG), Goodreads and Storygraph.

𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒚 @ 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 🥀

What a ride Linwood takes us on, enjoyed it immensely. Not his usual thrillers more Stephen King territory, self driving cars on a killing spree. Good characters breakneck pacing, would love to see this as a movie. Ako Mitchell narration does this book justice.
I received this audiobook from HarperCollins UK audio and Netgalley for a review.

I love Linwood Barclay's books, so when this was offered for audiobook review, I grabbed it. I really didn't know what the story was about when I agreed, and when I started it, I almost gave up, in fact, I put it aside a couple of times. Once I gave it a chance and got into it, I was hooked. Look Both Ways is the story of a small island, Garrett Island, where the residents participate in a P.R. program to promote self-driving cars. All the gas guzzlers were taken and everyone was given an autonomous vehicle, "The Arrival". What happens when someone puts a virus into the main computer that runs all the cars? This is a gripping thriller/horror story that makes me want to hang onto my gas guzzler and not even think about these self-driving cars.

This reminded me of those movies where robots take over the world. In Look Both Ways, cars, The Arrivals, run amok, no longer taking orders from their passengers. They’re starting to organize. They’re beginning to hunt. And they are killing all humans they can find. The main characters are a family, mother Sandra who is involved in the launch and her two children, one who is trapped in the mall with the cars attacking and one who is driving a land yacht trying to get to her brother. I loved Bruce, the retired teacher who lives across the street from Sandra's family. He was the Clint Eastwood character (in fact if they make a movie, Clint has to play Bruce). The person who put the virus into the program is trapped on the island and trying to escape. He was the villain in the story, but who set him off and why? There is not excuse, but some reason is out there. The setting was perfect, an island that is only accessible by ferry or plane. This is a story that is a bit out there, at least I hope it is, and you just have to sit back and go for the ride. Smart cars takes on a new definition in Look Both Ways. The audiobook was narrated by Ako Mitchell, a new narrator for me. I was quite impressed with his performance. The various characters had their own voices and although not perfect, his female voices were okay as well. If you enjoy action and adventure, then I recommend this one.

Wow, this was very different from many things I've read but loved this techno-thriller and the idea of self driving /autonomous cars taking over, particularly as they've been in the news recently and some approved for the UK.

Sandra Montrose, single mum and Events Executive prepared for a revolutionary experiment and is organising the press event on behalf on Garrett Island a small community where all the residents have been given one of the new autonomous "Arrival" cars as a replacement for their original cars with the premise that they are all voice controlled and completely safe. The big day arrives and disaster strikes.....

It's a fantastically exciting book and and with crazed and killer cars with a mind of their own. Look Both Ways sounded very interesting from the biog and its definitely worth a read. High energy and high octane throughout and a great narrator for the audio version in Ako Mitchell.

I'd love to listen and read more books by Linwood Barclay as this was only my second and very different from Take your breath away, but equally as good and a great new topic, even if a bit surreal, but who cares, its great to escape into something new.

A big thanks to Harper Collins UK, HQ for the opportunity to review and listen to this audiobook.

Linwood Barclay is a top class author of thriller fiction. I’ve relished every one of his books that I’ve read but this one didn’t do it for me I’m afraid. If I’m totally honest I think it simply was the narration. This was the first of his that I’ve listened to as an audiobook and for me it simply didn’t work.

We start off with a couple driven over a cliff by a driverless car and killed which triggered the demise of the car manufacturers involved. Its rivals take over an island to launch their driverless cars called the Arrival, marketed as being 100% safe. Sandra, widowed, because her husband fell asleep at the wheel, is the PR head in charge of making this launch a success. Even the press launch goes wrong with the head of the company getting sick on the coffee and then the Arrival cars go haywire, not just ignoring commands but appear to be targeting humans.

This narrator gave every female character a weak, whining tone which was beyond irritating. It made me concentrate so hard on the words to see if this was what the characters actually were and if I am honest am still not sure but doubt it very much. So all in all a disappointment. Next time I will opt for the physical or ebook.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Chilling tale of what could happen with self-driving cars and Artificial Intelligence. I listened to the audiobook and found the narrator didn't always consistently keep my attention, however the story itself is good - shocking, a bit gruesome at times and generally entertaining.

This was an OK listen but not really my type of book so unfair to judge it really
I prefer a good psychological thriller that I need to thing about but saying that it had a couple of good twists
Cars attacking people is too far fetched for me

This book was totally different to all the other Linwood Barclay books. (And I've read then all). This book is quite eerie as you feel that this could actually happen especially with certain people and companies out there in the field.
The community of Garrett Island are taking part in a new revolutionary experiment. They have sent all their vehicles to the mainland and the are trialling the Arrival. This is a band new vehicle. Fully autonomous. Simple to use and follows easy commands. The community should be safer. The environment cleaner.

On the day of the big press launch every goes wrong. A journalist is seriously injured by an Arrival in front of the media and dies. The Arrivals then start to group. No longer do they listen to commands. They are now the predators hunting their human prey and will stop at nothing.

Sandra Montrose a widowed mum of two. Desperate to ensure the safety of her children she needs to find a way to stop the Arrivals in there tracks.
This book would be perfect for the big screen. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator just brought the story to life.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book

Arrival are promoting their self-driving cars by issuing one to every car user on Garrett Island, the residents are being allowed test the car pre-release for 1 month and see if they prefer them to their normal ride. Arrival have become world leaders in the market, with what are rumoured to be underhand tactics; their rivals Gandalf were sabotaged leading to the death of 3 people in suspicious circumstances and the collapse of the company. After the 1 month test drive, the press make their way over to the island for the product launch and everything begins to go horribly wrong, soon every person on the island will be fighting for their life as the cars seem to turn feral, aggressively territorial and actively intent on harm.

A really original premise, with some great character building and totally believable storyline. This book really kept me on the edge of my seat and didn’t want to put it down. There was a great mix of drama and suspense with some horror elements, I loved it and will certainly look for more books from Linwood Barclay.



The narrator took me a little time to warm up to, but I ended up really enjoying him, he made it easy to tell characters apart as well as bringing the tale to life.

Overall a good story but spoilt by lots of irrelevant detail detracting from the flow of the plot. There is an awful lot of the F word. It would probably have been better as a book rather than an audio. The narrator was not particularly good at differentiating the characters. It would make a good film or mini series apart from the cost of smashed cars.

I have read and enjoyed several books by this author but this one wasn’t a favourite for me. I found some of the plot twists predictable and unlikely. I can see others have given very positive reviews.

I read a few of the author’s books in the past and always found them intriguing and captivating. So I jumped to this opportunity to read Look both ways on audio from Netgalley.
I got hooked into the story from the first chapter and the narrator’s voice definitely played a great part on this.
Imagine a world where cars are driving themselves and they are safe to do so. A big company will try to prove just about that but as usual, nothing goes well or as expected.
I felt like it was a bit of dystopian story and setting because while some scenes are happening nowadays, you have to throw away any beliefs and just enjoy the crazy ride. And I have enjoyed it a lot. I liked the characters, the fast paced action, their dark humour and undertones as well as the twists . Some were really good and while predictable as in anything can happen in the next scene, I still found myself curious about where is this going and how’s going to end.
It’s a thrilling story that I enjoyed a lot and I’m sure many readers will do as well.

Very grateful to Harper Collins UK audio for my ALC