No Time For Goodbye Explained

No Time for Goodbye
Author:Linwood Barclay
Cover Artist:Getty Images & Alamy
Country:Canada
Language:English
Genre:Thriller
Publisher:Orion Publishing Group
Pub Date:December 32, 2007
Pages:448
Isbn:978-0-7528-9368-6

No Time for Goodbye is a thriller novel written by the Canadian author Linwood Barclay. The book was featured on the Richard & Judy summer reading list in 2008[1] and The Sunday Times reported in its 2008 year-end bestseller list that the novel led the paperback and hardcover fiction list with sales of 636,105 copies.[2]

Summary

The novel starts with 14-year-old Cynthia Bigge waking up one morning in May 1983, to find her father Clayton, her mother Patricia and her brother Todd have all mysteriously disappeared from their home. The previous evening she had had a fight with her parents after secretly meeting with a boy, Vince.

After her parents and brother's disappearance, Cynthia is adopted by her aunt, Tess Berman. She later marries Terry Archer and they have a daughter Grace. Twenty-five years after her family's disappearance, a revelation by Cynthia's aunt and some strange events in and around their home lead Cynthia and Terry to discover what happened 25 years earlier.

Critical reception

The novel received mainly positive reviews. Emma-Lee Potter of The Daily Express called the novel "a fast-moving roller-coaster of a read"[3] and Laura Wilson of The Guardian wrote, "Barclay succeeds in both banging the gong and serving up a riveting, rewarding and, for the most part, plausible three courses, though you may need to take a deep breath somewhere around the coffee stage."[4]

References

  1. Web site: Richard and Judy unveil book list . BBC News . June 15, 2008 . December 5, 2013.
  2. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-10-fiction-paperbacks-for-2008-0skrqwqxvjk "Top 10 fiction paperbacks for 2008"
  3. Web site: No Time For Goodbye . Amazon.co.uk . December 5, 2013.
  4. Laura Wilson, "No Time For Goodbye review", The Guardian, December 22, 2007