Never Coming Back

Written by Tim Weaver

Narrated by David Bauckham

Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie's house to find the front door unlocked, dinner on the table, and the family nowhere to be found-Carrie, her husband, and two daughters have disappeared. When the police turn up no leads, Emily turns to her former boyfriend David Raker, a missing persons investigator, to track the family down. As Raker pursues the case, he discovers evidence of a sinister cover-up, decades in the making and with a long trail of bodies behind it.

Tim Weaver's thrillers have been hugely popular in the UK, and now Never Coming Back will introduce his beloved character David Raker to American audiences. Set in Las Vegas and a small fishing village in England, the novel is a smart, fast-paced thriller sure to keep readers guessing until the very end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
• Release date: Jul 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9780698162907

Reviews for Never Coming Back

[mm_jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The fourth book in the David Raker series and the best by far. Also the first of the series that found some distribution in the U.S. The first three books provide some wonderful background for the characters, but more graphic violence. The setting is coastal England and Las Vegas, an entire family is missing, Raker is still recovering from his previous case. The beginning of this story is a little difficult to follow as only some parts are given dates, but hang in there for a thrilling tale. I did not foresee the relationship that tied the plot together. Some of the minor characters were distracting, but overall this series has reached solid ground. I look forward to continuing this series.

[amyj96 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like crime novels, you'll love this. I'm not usually a huge fan, but had a great time with this one. It had some very good moments that kept me on edge.I deliberated for a long while as to whether I should give it 3 or 4 stars, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.

[libstaff2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 StarsA modern murder mystery, partially set in small-town Britain and Las Vegas. The book starts off well enough, and as the plot develops, so do the characters and pace. The novel is apparently part of a series, so some characters and their backstories may seem incomplete; however, this book can be read as a stand-alone. The story is gritty and reminiscent of film noir. Recommended for murder mystery fans.Penguin First to Read Galley

[randall6hansen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books I have read this year. Great mystery/thriller that contains great storytelling and is very much a page-turner. Story revolves around a former journalist, David Raker, who has reinvented himself to finding lost/missing people. In this story, he falls into something that is so layered, we think we may never find the entire story -- and then the author slowly peals away the layers like the pedals on a flower. Just a brilliant effort. American debut of excellent UK writer.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books that I've read in a long time! The premise of an entire family disappearing with dinner in the oven and the dog wondering around is what made me buy this book. I read it in one (long) sitting! The main character, David Raker, someone dedicated to finding lost persons, has quickly become one of my favorites. I was surprised to find that he had written other books but they were only printed in England. So, I ordered them from England and one came in yesterday. I have already finished that one as well. Tim Weaver is an author to watch!

[auntmarge64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth in the series but the first I've read, and the only one owned by my local libraries. The first three didn't get particularly good reviews on LT, but the author has certainly found his stride. This is an involved thriller starring an ex-journalist who specializes in finding lost people. A corpse is found along the coast at the southern Devon town where David Raker has moved to recover from a near-fatal attack during a previous investigation. Shortly thereafter, a high school sweetheart shows up and asks him to find her sister's family. A year ago they simply vanished, with no signs of stress, dinner still cooking, wallets and phones left in the house. Just....gone. David is reluctant but agrees to look around, and it isn't long before he is deep into a mystery spanning several decades and two continents. Well-written, smartly-paced, and a few surprises right up till the end.

[karen5uk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tim Weaver is a new author to me however when this latest book (no. 4) in the David Raker series came through the door, I was intrigued. The storyline is one that immediately grabs your attention – a whole family suddenly disappears from their home and apparently no-one knows where they are – the dinner is left cooking on the stove, wallets and phones are left behind and the dog is left wandering around the house. The advance reading copy is a whopper of a book – it’s over 500 pages but it doesn’t drag at all. The story is well paced with plot twists throughout which made me keen to keep turning the pages. David Raker is an investigator who looks for missing people. He becomes involved in this case because an ex-girlfriend, Emily, asks him to look into the disappearance of her sister’s family. They have been missing for 10 months and despite a couple of earlier witness sightings the police have been unable to solve the case. Raker himself is not in the best of places. He is still recovering from a near fatal attack and has relocated to his late parent’s cottage in Devon to recuperate. However he agrees to find out what he can for Emily. Running alongside is a separate strand concerning a body found washed up on a nearby beach. Although it is at first unclear as to the relevance, all does become clear later in the book.The action takes place in Devon and in Las Vegas. The story initially starts in December 2007 in Las Vegas before quickly moving back to Devon and to November 2012. At first I found this very confusing and couldn’t understand how this brief chapter connected to the story. Stick with it though because the story that follows is a real rollercoaster of a read with twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.Our protagonist, David Raker is a well-developed character with a history and seems to be a man of integrity. He is not a superhero but if you were in a hole, he is the sort of person you’d want to help you out of it. I hadn’t read any of the previous books in the series so I wasn’t aware of his back story but that didn’t matter. This book can happily be read as a standalone without the reading feeling disadvantaged. There are many characters in the book (as well as dead bodies!) and the plotline does become complex. The timeframe slips between the past and present however it’s easy to distinguish as the ‘past’ chapters are in a different font. These chapters are vital to the story as piece by piece the reader learns more about the reasons behind the family’s disappearance. I had my doubts about the ending but on the whole I found this to be a tension filled, gripping read and will now be looking out for the previous books in the series.My thanks to Real Readers for the review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tim Weaver’s Never Coming Back finally brings him to the attention of all thriller readers. This book was tense in places, complex, a little horrific at times but with a couple of surprising twists at the end. It is so well written that as you read through the pages the tension builds inside you so that you get anxious for the safety of the hero of the novel David Raker.This is the fourth book in the David Raker series and it opens with him when he is a mere journalist and it on assignment in Los Vegas the book goes full circle and ends in Los Vegas. The main body of the book though is based in Devon, the names of some places have been changed but it is clear it is around the Start Bay area.The bodies start piling up with the start being a frozen body on a beach in Devon which we learn will drive the whole of the book. There is also a reference to the Holocaust and to one of the bloodiest Nazi murder factories in the East, Sobibor Extermination Camp with a nod to the ratlines, and how many Nazis escaped justice.Raker manages to endanger his own life when an ex-girlfriend visits him at home and asks for his help in finding her family who have just disappeared from their home and there is no sign or sight of them. Other than the occasional view and those that saw them end up dead.The body count increases throughout the book including the staging of one murder scene that comes back to bite Raker when he should have gone with his gut instinct. Unlike a lot of thrillers Raker is not a defective detective but an exjournalist who has a specialism in finding those who are lost.This is a fast paced thriller that will elevate Tim Weaver to the high echelons of thriller writers, that is a pleasure to read that draws you in until the last sentence when you can say I wasn’t expecting that! This is a book that is crying out to be read and Raker is a guy needing some love.

[shizz_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Never Coming Back – Tim WeaverI must confess that when I started this latest Real Readers offering I started to get quite frustrated. There were too many time frame changes, too many different sets of characters and locations, the changes from first to third person, the change to italics, (was that because it was more important?) - I was ready to damn the book critically!!Boy, how wrong could I be? Once I got used to that style I couldn’t put the book down. David Raker is unfamiliar to me as a character but I think I like him enough to read some more (apparently this is the fourth). The other characters had enough depth to elicit an emotion from me towards them. They were people rather than characters with a narrative function.The violence was chilling but the tension was supreme all the way through to the final dénouement. I felt almost scared in places. The writing was tight yet flowing. The clues were there some were obvious, others not so which is where you get such a buzz from a thriller. When you can’t second-guess you know you have a good writer.I don’t do spoilers but I did suspect the genesis of the cover up and I found the ending sentimental I try to avoid spoilers so I can’t specify why but for me it was unrealistic and there was a point where it was predictable. However it would appeal to the ‘happy enders’ if they read that far? It was almost as if someone else had written the final few pages. But there is no such thing as perfection and I happily recommend this book to thriller lovers.I was thoroughly thrilled!!

[sf6w · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Tim Weaver book that I have read but not my first thriller – however, this is poles apart from any other thriller that I’ve ever read – this book is in the top tier of a whole league of its own - this, people, is a THRILLER!!! It should come with an advisory notice on the front cover warning potential readers of the effects on their daily routines if they open this book – of the unanswered telephone calls, the unnoticed text messages, the unwashed dishes, families being left to fend for themselves at mealtimes… all because you will not be able to put this book down!The tenacious and quick-witted investigator of missing people, David Raker, is the central character of this book. The story, set in both Devon and Las Vegas, revolves around the complete disappearance without trace of Paul and Carrie Ling, and their two daughters. The fact that they literally drop right off the radar is the intriguing hook that grabs the reader right from the very start, before long the plot deeply immerses you inside the mystery and drama as it unfolds and it won’t let you up for air! This well written story never relinquishes its tension or its complexity until the very last full stop – its plot, violent at times, is extremely convoluted and with multiple twists at the end but never loses its credibility or believability. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it!! Pick this book up – you won’t regret it! Story telling at its very best!

[ivydtruitt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

David Raker isn’t your typical private investigator, David finds missing people. After a near death encounter David returns to his home village to recover. After a body washes up on the beach David is asked by a former girlfriend for a favor. Her sister Carrie, her husband Paul, and nieces Annabelle and Olivia have disappeared. Would he please find them?NEVER COMING BACK introduces Raker on his first trip to Las Vegas as an investigative journalist in 2007. We next meet him five years later at his parents’ old cottage in Devon recovering from a near death encounter with a knife. When a body washes up on the beach it stirs up the village and leads to an encounter with Emily, a girlfriend from his late teens. She wants David to find her sister and her sister’s family. They disappeared without a trace under odd circumstances over a year ago. David isn’t quite up to snuff but agrees to see what he can turn up.NEVER COMING BACK is quick paced with plenty of twists, turns, and surprises to keep readers guessing right up to the end. Despite changing viewpoints and alternating between past and present it isn’t hard to follow. The settings are descriptive giving readers a sense of immediacy and “being there”. The characters are extremely well fleshed and believable. The writing, mystery, characters, and location all add up to an absorbing reading experience. NEVER COMING BACK is hard to put down once you’ve picked it up. That being said I did have a few issues. The lesser issue is Cornell, the villain in NEVER COMING BACK. Cold and unfeeling, killing without compunction, there’s little Cornell holds dear but he’s willing to kill anyone who threatens it, whatever it is. Cornell and the fear he evokes in those who encounter him becomes heavy handed and repetitive. My biggest issue is that here in the States NEVER COMING BACK is the first David Raker release; however it isn’t the first in the series. There are five years worth of Raker’s experiences missing. He’s a widower, avoiding Liz (whoever she is), and recovering from a nearly fatal stab wound to the stomach. What was the catalyst that turned him from investigative reporter to missing person investigator? Why does he feel so responsible for the missing? How does he support himself and pay people like Spike? What are the origins of his contentious relationship with Healy? What case led to the man who took numerous lives and almost took Raker’s? What about Liz and their past? Obviously I have a lot of questions. I felt the loss of those years and the evolution of David from the man introduced in Las Vegas to the convalescent re-introduced five years later in Devon. I’d love to find the prior books and get caught up before I read further. If that isn’t possible it won’t prevent me reading David Raker’s continuing investigations but I’ll always have that niggling sense of missing pieces.

[tina1969_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

David Raker finds people. He is called in by an old girlfriend to help find her missing sister and her family who just disappeared into thin air.This is the first David Raker book which I have read, but it is the fourth in the series. Again my pet hate is not reading books in order. It didn’t make that much difference but I did feel that the book jumped about a bit at the beginning and I think that if I had read the others first it may have made a bit more sense at the start. Saying that the story did all come together at the end.This book was a really good thriller. There was plenty going on and plenty to keep the reader guessing and there are clues along the way, but as a reader I didn’t spot them. Every page towards the end throws something different and a new twist to keep the reader on the edge of their seat.This is the sort of book that I like. It’s fourth in a series and if this book is as good as what the first three are then I will seek them out. David is also a likeable character and somebody that I feel I could follow in further works.Overall a very engaging thriller with plenty to keep the reader interested till the last page.