Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye - Review

No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Linwood Barclay’s gripping thriller about a missing family and the long shadows of the past.

When she was fourteen years old, Cynthia’s parents and brother disappeared one night, following a family row. Now, twenty-five years later, Cynthia is married to Terry and they have a child of their own, Grace. Haunted by her family’s disappearance, Cynthia takes an opportunity offered by the makers of a true crime documentary, hoping some new leads or evidence will be brought to light.

Initially the documentary appears to result in nothing new, while Cynthia’s paranoia over the safety of her daughter continues to grow. Then she receives a phone call, the caller telling her they have a message from her family – that they forgive her. This begins a chain of events that will lead all three of them into danger and ultimately reveal what happened on that night twenty-five years before and the fates of Cynthia’s father, mother and brother.

Narrated by Cynthia’s husband, Terry, the novel follows many twists and turns, featuring a multitude of suspects and red herrings along the way. As the family buckles under the strain, we witness Cynthia’s desperation to find the answers to questions she’s been asking herself for a very long time, giving the novel a raw edge and the mystery a human heart – you don’t want to put the book down, eager to return to the characters and find out what happens next.

Culminating in a thrilling climax, a shocking twist and an emotional denouement, ‘No Time for Goodbye’ delivers on all levels – a phenomenal, suspenseful crime thriller.



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