Book Review: No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

I haven't written a book review in a long time and the pile of books that I need to write about is just getting bigger and bigger!

Today I want to talk about No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I had never hear of Linwood Barclay before but I probably will check out some of his other books!

The house was silent. No sound of her parents getting ready for work, or her brother late for school. Were they punishing her for last night? She'd been out on a date when she should have been studying, and had a huge fight with her father. So where was everyone now? Why had her family disappeared?Twenty-five years later the mystery is no nearer to being solved and Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Where her family murdered? Abducted? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her?Then a letter arrives, a letter which makes no sense. Soon Cynthia begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...

The book is written in 1st person, which is something I usually cannot stand but with this book it wasn't a problem. What I found a unique touch to the book is that the speaker of the book isn't Cynthia (the main character) but her husband Terry. It gives the book such a strange (in a good way) vibe, you feel like an audience to the events that are happening since you are not reading them from the view of the main character.

The story line was as well good, not great since it was very predictable but I enjoyed it (even though I knew exactly how it would end). The characters were great, and I liked how Linwood added some extra character for some suspense. There weren't too many character, which is good because it can be come confusing, but just the right amount of them.


There are couple of chapters that are about two mysterious people that aren't named until the last chapters of the book, those chapter still give so much away so only the first chapter is mysterious and the rest obvious. I think that that part is the only thing I don't really like about the book, I felt they were more of a page filler than important for the story line. I even felt like they destroyed the suspense of the story!

At last, my favorite part about writing book reviews the quotes.

"I'd never been to a shrink before. About all I knew came from watching The Sopranos' Dr Melfi help Tony work through his problems. I couldn't decide whether ours were more or less serious than his. Tony had people disappearing around him all the time, but he was often the one who'd arranged it. He had the advantage of knowing what had happened to these people." Page 71  

"I acted on impulse. I opened the closet, picked up the typewriter - God those old machines were heavy - and put it inside, on the floor. Then I draped some other things over it, an old pair of pants I'd used to paint in, a stack of old newspaper." Page 229

"If I could have brought myself  to call Detective Wedmore I could have asked her outright where I might find Vince Fleming and saved myself some time. She'd already said she knew the name. Abagnall had told us he had a record for a variety of offences." Page 271

What kind of name is Abagnall? I think that is the only name were I was dumbfounded by, I mean, how do you even pronounce it Ab-a-gnall? Ab-gnall? Who knows!

All in all I did like this book! Which I feel sometimes is a rare occurrence!

Have you read this book or any other book by Linwood Barclay?

Bisous