Look Both Ways

Linwood Barclay divides opinion and will do so again with his latest book which, in his own words, is very different from his prior novels. In the book’s preface, he explains that cars have been his passion since he was four. Here he has chosen to make autonomous cars the centrepiece of the plot even though he believes the perfect self-drive vehicle is a long way off.

Garrett Island, a somewhat isolated yet well-to-do island, is the setting for his story. The island has been emptied of nearly all traditional vehicles, by agreement, as Arrival Inc. is gifting residents autonomous vehicles for a month. A huge event is staged to promote the initiative. Arrival’s CEO is Lisa Carver and the event’s organiser is Sandra Montrose, an islander.

Arrival has all but extinguished its main competitor, Gandalf, which had earlier suffered a major incident and public relations disaster. Believe it or not, a film producer and his young starlet companion advised their car that they just wanted to go to his beach house and crash. The car obliged by crashing and both occupants were killed.

Brandon Kyle, Gandalf’s CEO, and now a broken man, believes Carver and/or Arrival orchestrated the crash and he now seeks revenge. There’s no better way to do that than hop into a disguise, attend Arrival’s island promotional event and sabotage their cars.

At the event, he quite easily gains access to Carver’s laptop, inserts a pen drive and, all of a sudden, Arrival cars on the island, and internationally, malfunction. This causes havoc as they specifically target and chase people. Messaging to the cars changes from DO NO HARM to DO HARM. Needless to say, the body count skyrockets both from the actions of the uncontrolled cars, as well as murders along the way.

Too much of the book – most of the middle, in fact – is spent with cars chasing people and virtually none of the book is spent on people, or even anyone, seeking solutions to the rampages. Tech people, or anybody who could possibly have dealt with reversing the carnage, don’t make an appearance. There is also little reference to corporate shenanigans which could have added a bit of spice to the tale.

At times, I felt as though I was re-reading The Day of the Triffids without some of the substance. It is true that it will be years rather than decades before the referenced technology and its ubiquity are in place. But, no doubt, Barclay is signalling his concerns with the way technology is developing with the removal of too much control from humans.

The book's theme is certainly topical. A late major twist and the late pick-up of pace didn’t quite rescue Look Both Ways for me, however, with both reinforcing the view that some intrigue or mystery was missing from earlier pages. By Barclay’s standards –and I am generally a fan – this one is a little wide of the mark.