Stone Rain | 
 enlarge | Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
Buy New: $6.99
New (31) Used (11) from $2.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 20286
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0553804561
EAN: 9780553804560
ASIN: 0553804561
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Metropolitan newspaper writer Zack Walker has a knack for stumbling onto deadly stories. But it’s one that his good friend Trixie Snelling doesn’t want told that’s about to unleash a storm of trouble. As a professional dominatrix in the suburbs, Trixie has her share of secrets, but Zack has no idea what she’s really hiding when a local newspaperman threatens to do an expos on her…not until Zack finds a dead body strapped to the bondage cross in her basement dungeon.
Now Zack is implicated in a murder, Trixie is missing, and everything he thought he knew about his friend, his town, even his own marriage, reveals a darker side. Zack’s twisted trail to the truth will lead to a long-unsolved triple homicide, bikers, drug wars, and a stone-cold killer hell-bent on revenge. It’s a story that’s already cost him his job and possibly his wife, and, if Zack’s not very lucky, it will cost him his life.
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| Customer Reviews:
 another wonderful Barclay book January 24, 2008
I know a book I just read was special when I have trouble getting into another author's book right after. I just read all of Barclay's & I wish he'd published more. He writes page-turners!
Stone rain pour laughs and thrills January 1, 2008
I am an unabashed fan of Linwood Barclay's books. His character development is first rate, his plots are right in line with what really happens in life stretched out just a tad and he is hysterically funny. His hero, Zack, (if one can call an obsessive-compulsive worrier who lucks out when confronted with danger a hero) mirrors the way our society is trying to protect everyone to the point that we take all the fun out of life. I find myself laughing out loud at the twists and turns, Zack's interior monologues and ludicrous - yet somehow logical- solutions to the problems he encounters. That's a rarity for me, because most authors seem to try too hard for my taste. I wish someone would pick up these characters and make a series or movie (as long as they do it well and are faithful to his voice), so more people would read Barclay's books. If you like mysteries, love a laugh and want a fun read that you can't put down, give Barclay a try. Start at the beginning with his first book, though, because while they stand alone, there's more impact if you follow Zack from his very first encounter with criminal behavior. Stone Rain is the fourth, and I have to wait months for the next in the series.
Oh no, now I'M worried other readers won't get Barclay's sense of irony. I guess Zack is a little contagious!
The male Stephanie Plum October 5, 2007
Zack Walker is the male equivalent of Stephanie Plum. He gets himself into some ridiculous situations and in extricating himself, leads to more misadventure.
I liked hearing more about Trixie and how she chose the profession she did. And Zack proves that he really is a good guy.
Linwood Barclay has scored another hit with me and I can't wait for the next installment in this series!!
 Lighten up, Linwood! September 24, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Linwood Barclay is often described as a "Canadian Dave Barry". He probably hates this, but it is/was apt in his first few books, which I loved.
Barclay has created a lovable, delightful character in Zack Walker, a rather obsessive, anxious unsuccessful SF author (you gotta love a guy who writes a book about a time traveler who goes back to the past to kill the guy who invented the hot-air restroom hand dryer!) working on a large metropolitan daily newspaper. His family are wonderful foils, and there are some other good series characters, such as a gay black ex-cop PI to keep the interest up.
Brclay is a master of quotable lines, the kind I have to read out loud to my long-suffering husband.
As one professional review said, however, the books are getting "incrementally darker". Barclay's books all have "earthy" humor, and there has to be some bad stuff going on if you are going to have a mystery/thriler, but to me he crossed the line in his latest book. There is too much unpleasantness, including child sexual abuse, for me to find "pleasure" in a book like this. I can't laugh in the midst of the nastiness.
Read Bad Move and Bad Guys, and enjoy. Lone Wolf begins to get rather dark, and if you find it a bit unpleasant, do avoid Stone Rain. From the excerpt provided in Stone Rain, it looks like the next Barclay may coninue the unfortunate trend. I hope Barclay will return to his forte of humor-laced mystery soon.
exciting crime caper May 2, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In the last three years science fiction writer and reporter for the Metropolitan Newspaper Zack Walker has written some deadly stories that have fallen into his lap. He has crossed paths with criminals and his first person accounts are widely read although his editor would like to fire him and his wife Sarah would like to kill him for scaring her. He promises her to walk away from danger in the future, but he knows how difficult adhering to this pledge will be because he never looks for trouble but it always seems to find him.
His good friend Trixie, a dominatrix who works out of her house, asks Zach to talk to suburban newspaper reporter Martin Benson, who heard a rumor about her and wants to interview her. Trixie wants Zack to persuade Martin to drop the story, and especially not to take any pictures of her. When Zack refuses claiming journalistic ethics, Trixie tries to manipulate both men, but her picture appears in the Suburban anyway. This leads to Trixie running away with dangerous men sent by her former boss to get his money back from her on her trail. They use Zack and his wife to try and find Trixie otherwise Zack won't have to worry about his wife killing him. The crime boss will.
Linwood Barclay has written an exciting crime caper whose protagonist likes and needs action, but dives head first into disorganized dangerous dilemmas. Readers will empathize with Zack's wife who has to put up with his shenanigans There is plenty of action in STONE RAIN, but the heart of this tense thriller is the hero, who is in trouble with the law, his boss, his wife, and Trixie's enemies; just a normal day at the office for the Zackster.
Harriet Klausner
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