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NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
by Linwood Barclay
Orion, December 2007
320 pages
9.99 GBP
ISBN: 0752888609


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Harlan Coben's standalones seem to have cornered the market in seemingly comfortable suburban families who suddenly find their idyllic life ripped apart by secrets from the past. Linwood Barclay's novel plonks itself very competently into the same New Jersey patch.

Cynthia Archer is still haunted by the nightmare night 25 years ago when her whole family disappeared. At the time she was a rebellious teenager who'd flounced off to bed after a row over an unsuitable boyfriend. Next morning she woke up to an empty house.

She agrees to take part in a TV documentary into the case in the hope that her parents and brother Todd might still be alive. But her decision uncovers a very nasty, very wriggling can of worms, beginning with a sinister letter . . .

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE looks like it will be Cynthia's story, then it disappears into husband Terry's point of view. He's a schoolteacher who sees his comfortable family life rocked by what Cynthia unleashes.

Terry turns out to be the sparkiest character by some way, although moving the story away from Cynthia runs the risk of the reader losing sympathy for some of her actions. There are good cameo roles around them, including Cynthia's Aunt Tess, the PI Denton Abagnall and Terry's problem pupil Jane Scavullo.

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE clops along at a good lick, and Barclay juggles the flashbacks neatly alongside the fast-moving present-day action. He's good at pacing himself, and this is a book that would work well as a film.

Barclay is undoubtedly a writer to watch. NO TIME FOR GOODBYE lacks a little of the sparkle you get with Coben, and you may well guess at least part of the fractionally too neat ending (I did!), but it's a book you won't want to put down.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, October 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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