This a great, pacy and topical thriller and demonstrates perfectly why Linwood Barclay is such a popular author. If I’d been reading the book, as opposed to listening to the audio version, I would have finished it in a sitting.

The opening sequence sets up the thrust of the plot sparely and immediately, with a single incident, shot through with deliciously dark humour, explaining the reason behind the rest of the book’s story.

We are in the world where driverless cars are being launched and one company decides to introduce them across the whole of Garrett Island in order to demonstrate how safe they are. Cue everything going predictably wrong. Barclay’s genius is not in inventing an original premise but in keeping the narrative thrust going with a cast of interesting and compelling characters. If that’s not reason enough to read it, there’s the humour that underpins it and a great depiction of family and friendship dynamics that elevates it above standard thrillers.

My only slight beef was that the narration was a bit slow but much better on 1.25 speed.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HarperCollins UK Audio for an audio book arc in exchange for an honest review.

I would say that this book is a cross between Christine and The Terminator and is one crazy ride!

Garrett Island's inhabitants have had all their cars removed and self-driving and fully automated 'Arrivals' given to them as an experiment. Arrivals are aware of each other and of everything around them ... gone are accidents, speeding, dints and scrapes; well, that's the theory anyway and it works until someone throws a spanner in the works and all hell breaks loose.

There's some great characters; I especially liked Bruce, Kate and Archie. The story is solid and the action comes thick and fast and whilst I found it a very entertaining story which I enjoyed, I think I would have enjoyed it even more had I read the actual book as the narration just didn't do it for me unfortunately and it just didn't seem to be right for the story somehow.

Overall, a great book that makes you think twice about what the future is likely to hold and my thanks go to HarperCollins UK Audio, HQ and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to and share my thoughts of Look Both Ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to listen to this advanced copy of the audiobook.

Get narration, a fast paced plot and a great ending, resulted in me really enjoying this book. The fact that self driving cars are a possibility in the near future adds to the unsettling feeling this story leaves you with. I highly recommend the read.

To read/listen to Look both ways you have to suspend your beliefs for a time and when you do you will get a scary glimpse in to what could be our future by trusting in technology so much, which is what happens on the small island of Garrett, As a publicity stunt a company that provides AI driven cars has taken all the islanders standard cars and given them all a self driving car to see how they can work. Unfortunately someone has other ideas and the body count keeps rising as the story progresses.
The audiobook was narrated by Ako Mitchell and once you get past his strange machine like narration does a okay job.
I haven’t read/listened to a novel by Linwood Barclay before but I will definitely look out for any future releases.

I'm a long term fan of Linwood Barclay's books so I was eager to read this one.

It's a 'technology goes bad' action thriller, Garett Island is the setting for a high profile showcase of driverless cars.

The narrator makes such a difference to an audiobook, I didn't think this narrator fitted the book. His normal voice is clear and laid back, and was fine, his voices for the teens and children went a bit Sesame Street, for some of the men he went full on Scorsese wise guy, and for the women and the female voiced automated cars he went a bit breathy. The voices distracted rather than enhanced the experience for me.

The plot was ok, a big chunk was cars on the rampage, something like Jurassic Park with automated cars instead of raptors. I liked it more towards the end when the thriller elements come to the fore.

Linwood Barclay excels on 'everyday people, ordinary lives' thrillers, which I much prefer to action movie plots.

Overall, three stars for the audio performance, and then I'd rate the book either three stars if you want a proper thriller, or four stars if you enjoy action movie thrillers, which I don't, unless they are done really well.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Audio

I have read nearly all of the authors works and was excited to start this. I am a bit terrified of the thought of AI and this did nothing to make me feel any more comfortable. I loved it though and would recommend to anyone else. Just superb!

I don’t listen to many audio books but I am a massive Linwood Barclay reader so I had to give this one a listen. I’m so glad I did as the narrator was just perfect.

Totally different thriller to Linwood’s usual style and somewhat far fetched, but who knows what the future holds? Let this be a lesson and a learning curve for all the designers of cars which are fully automated! A car which drives and thinks for itself? A car obviously doesn’t have a brain, but if someone plants a virus, anything could happen!

There were quite a lot of characters but the narrator did a really good job of the voices. I would definitely listen to something again by him.

Many thanks to netgalley, the publishers and the author for a copy to listen to.

I listened to this in the same week I read 'The Last Passenger' by Will Dean and I think it's fair to say that both are departures from their previous work which will disappoint some long term fans and intrigue others.
Having head Linwood Barclay read 'hook passages' from a number of his books, (that is - one or two paragraphs to give you a flavour of what they novel is about) there is no doubt the man can come up with brilliant 'what if' scenarios and, from my enjoyment of his other books, write them well.
Here, as the author says in his audio intro, the 'what if' is around automated cars and 'what if' something got into their system to make them...do things they weren't supposed to do. He mentions his good friend Stephen King's creation when asking 'what if there were a whole load of Christines driving around out there?' Now Christine is one my favourite novels, but what intrigued me about it was not the driverless car, but the characters in it. The flip side could end up being a 'Maximum Overdrive', where the story was all about the machines going crazy and the characters being...less well developed.
There are a lot of characters in this - and I found it a little tricky to keep them apart at times - but I have to be honest and say I struggled with the narrator on this audio book - the phrasing and pauses were distracting and I ended up bumping the reading speed up considerably. So maybe that's on me.
Overall, an interesting read and, even with a change in subject matter, Linwood Barclay is always a fun read.

Linwood Barclay is one of my go to authors, I know whatever he writes I will enjoy. So I read the book first and then listened to the audio version, it didn’t disappoint. The narrator has a good voice, sometimes a voice doesn’t seem right for one reason or another.

This is such a good book, imagine the future where cars will drive themselves, when you think some cars will now park themselves, and we know that self driving cars are being worked on. Might be in my lifetime but I’m not sure how I will trust them especially after reading and listening to this book.

One company have asked a place to hand over all of their cars and use these self driving cars for a month, initially all is going well, but when another company who lost their deal on this type of car (they were first to manufacture) due to sabotage, the man who lost everything is determined to ruin the day that these cars are going to be launched. He manages to add a virus to the software of the cars which makes them takeover.

I loved this,great audio to a great book. I look forward to Linwood Barclays next one.

Thank you to #netgalley and the publishers for an audio version of this book. In exchange for an honest, fair review. There is a full review on my blog.

Now that was a fun read!

It’s fair to say that the plot is a bit extreme, but if you can just accept it for what it is you will be in for a great journey.

The writing, the characters, and the sheer enjoyment eclipses any of the absurdity (and there is certainly a little over the top craziness at times). Linwood Barclay does a great job delivering this near future thriller. It certainly had it all, people you love, people you hate, a twist here and there, and conversations with inanimate objects.

And if you are keen to listen to an audio version, as I did, Ako Mitchell does a terrific job over at HarperCollins UK!

Thanks You NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a review copy.

This was a really interesting concept and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this unfold.
Set in Garrett Islamd, we meet the islanders who have been given the opportunity to trial autonomous cars.
We arrive on the island as the press conference launches. Excitement is at fever pitch level as the event starts. Until things start to go wrong.

This was very different to the previous Linwood Barclay books I’ve read but it didn’t stop me from enjoying it.

This is the 1st audiobook from this author and narrator and I think he did an ok job

Linwood Barclay's latest offering differs markedly from his usual fare, inspired by his love of cars, he wittily imagines a scenario where they become the terror of your worst nightmares. Almost everyone is aware of the developments in self drive cars where considerable progress has been made, but still some issues persist. After reading this, I cannot imagine many readers wanting or willing to trust their and their passengers lives to this latest technology. I listened to this on audio, wonderfully and ably narrated by Ako Mitchell, and he has to be good as it is over 13 hours long! Garrett Island has been roped in as part of a high profile, cutting edge experiment for a month, where the small community, including the police, have given up their cars for Arrival self driving cars, a network operated by voice control, with the car following commands to take you anywhere you want.

The cars are aware of each other, and at first, it is all going like a dream, seemingly the answer to the prayers of so many who can begin to envisage a driverless future, and the media have arrived to report on how well it is all going. However, everything is about to come crashing down as the Arrival cars go rogue. Big time. Chaos, mayhem and horror ensue as the cars no longer listen to their drivers, and as one, planning and organising to fulfil their new overriding goal of hunting down and killing every human being they can. Single mother, and the PR for the catastrophic media event for Arrival, Sandra Montrose has 2 children, Katie and Archie, she lost her husband when he fell asleep at the wheel. Sandra finds herself desperate to bring the cars back under control, she is a ferocious mother who will do anything to try and ensure the safety of her children and the Garrett Island community.

This is a darkly fun and entertaining listen, of sabotage, out of control cars, occasionally drifting into bonkers and ridiculous territory, this is a light hearted and compulsive escapist read. There is plenty of suspense and tension, with some boo hiss villains, one of whom will do anything to get off the island. There are some good guys too, my favourite being Archie's imagined 'serial killer' Bruce, with his questionably acquired legacy from his father, who befriends Katie. I can see many fans of Barclay and others who enjoy thrillers are likely to enjoy this. Many thanks to the publisher for the audio.

I’ve read a lot of this authors books and so when I saw this I had to request it.

It’s very different from his usual thrillers, I enjoyed it but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.

4.5 stars

This was a fun, helter-skelter of a ride, reminiscent of 1970s disaster movies like Towering Inferno and Earthquake. Fans of Stephen King might also draw comparisons with his 1983 blockbuster Christine. A total departure for Barclay (he explains his reasons in the foreword), but still a very well-executed, thoroughly enjoyable audio experience.

The setting is Garrett Island, host to an experiment involving autonomous cars called Arrivals.
All the residents have given up their traditional vehicles for a month to test drive these state-of-the-art cars, which are programmed to respond to voice commands and to communicate with each other to avoid accidents.

As the world media converges on the island for a PR event to promote this driverless future, islander and single mum, Sandra Montrose, is in charge of making sure everything runs according to plan. But what should be the crowning event of her professional career quickly turns into a nightmare, when the cars suddenly develop minds of their own and join forces to go on the rampage.

I honestly loved every minute of this. It had everything: a confined setting, thrilling action, accelerating pace, good guys, bad guys, and of course bad guys pretending to be good guys. The back story of industrial sabotage lent an unnerving plausibility to events and helped ratchet up the tension to ridiculous heights.

Kudos to Barclay for stepping out of his comfort zone and trying something different. He absolutely smashed this, and I for one would have no complaints if this type of novel featured regularly in his repertoire.

I have read a few Linwood Barclay books before, but this one was completely different! Look Both Ways is set on Garrett Island, where an experiment is taking place using self-driving vehicles called 'Arrivals'. From early on, we know it isn't going well as the cars are infiltrated and they become destructive. The usually quiet island suddenly becomes the backdrop for some truly horrific events and somewhere that everyone is trying to escape.

I have to admit, I really liked this book! The story isn't something that would usually appeal to me, but I liked the characters and enjoyed watching the different stories all come together.

As always, the book was well written and I felt completely invested in the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

I’ve read quite a few of Linwood Barclay’s books and found them ‘hit and miss” and generally quite formulaic. Look Both Ways is slightly different from the others as it’s more of a sci-fi or possibly a futuristic techno-thriller. Even though it is predictable and borderline ridiculous in places, the book is certainly an entertaining and fun read (as long as you don’t take it too seriously). An extra star for the fabulous audio narration.

With thanks to the author, publishers HQ/HarperCollins UK Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this work in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Terminator in car form!

This was the first book by Linwood Barclay that I have read, and I really enjoyed it. The introduction, read by the author himself before the start of the book, provides some context by explaining how his love of cars was inherited from his father from an early age.

Anyone with any level of interest in artificial intelligence, while appreciating the many benefits it can bring, will no doubt also have considered what might happen if the AI developed such a level off intelligence that humans could no longer control it. This book takes that idea, puts it in a car form, and takes it to the max!

The way the Arrival cars portrayed in the story transformed in an instant from apparently obedient and servile objects to killing machines was scary! Particularly frightening was how they then began to work in tandem with each other to unleash their trail of destruction.

The character development was excellent, with all the main characters really well fleshed out, flaws and all. I particularly enjoyed the character of Bruce, and his relationship and adventures with Katie. Special mention also for the narrator Ako Mitchell, whose portrayal of the characters really brought the story to life.

Don’t hesitate to take this one for a test drive … you won’t regret it!

I was a big fan of Linwood Barclay’s books but haven’t read any for a few years so was delighted to be approved for this one. It got me at the beginning but didn’t hold on to me for much longer than the opening. I like me a bit of futuristic thriller storylines but this just didn’t work for me. There is far fetched and then there’s far fetched. It really was just to hard to believe. The characters lacked substance but of all of them I did like Bruce, Katie & Archie. Really the storyline lacked just that a story. It just wasn’t engaging and I did consider giving up on it. Not for me unfortunately and it’s hard to believe that Linwood Barclay wrote it when you compare it to his previous reads.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK Audio for the opportunity to listen to #LookBothWays

If you are the kind of person who always says please and thank you to your satnav because, in the back of your mind, you want to make a good impression should the machines ever rise up against us, this will be a very satisfying read. A small, picturesque town has agreed to an experiment: for one month, only self-driving cars are allowed. The community has been promised a utopia of efficiency, road safety and comfort. In reality, technology is not without glitches.

This was such a hoot. There is chaos and carnage and all kinds of subterfuge. Even with at least 10 POV characters, the audiobook narrator did a great job keeping everyone's voice distinctive and engaging. I enjoyed listening to this immensely!

Audiobook provided for free on netgalley in exchange for a review.

The premise for this audiobook is very good but I just couldn’t get past the narration. I hate to admit that I didn’t finish the audiobook.