No Time For Goodbye
A gripping crime thriller about a missing family for readers who love Harlan Coben
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4.4 • 238 Ratings
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
A reissue of Linwood Barclay's brilliant first thriller - the fastest-selling Richard & Judy title to date - from the author of FIND YOU FIRST
On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. But when she leaves her bedroom, she discovers the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared.
Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her in such a cruel way? Now married with a daughter of her own, Cynthia fears that her new family will be taken from her just as her first one was. And so she agrees to take part in a TV documentary revisiting the case, in the hope that somebody somewhere will remember something - or even that her father, mother or brother might finally reach out to her . . .
Then a letter arrives which makes no sense and yet chills Cynthia to the core. And soon she begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made . . .
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Linwood Barclay’s debut novel opens with a chilling premise: 14-year-old Cynthia Archer awakens from a night of drinking to find her family missing. A quarter-century later, Cynthia’s a parent herself but still waiting for answers; when she goes public with her story, she unleashes a dangerous chain reaction. A domestic thriller that’s as relatable as it is suspenseful, No Time for Goodbye kept us fully invested through every twist and turn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barclay (Bad Guys) tugs hard on the heartstrings with the tragic tale of Cynthia Bigge, whose parents and brother vanished without a trace the day after she had a tempestuous teenage argument with her father. Twenty-five years later, raising a daughter with her husband, Terrence Archer, in Milford, Conn., but still haunted by her family's disappearance, Cynthia goes on TV to talk about what happened and plead for clues. A mysterious phone call leads her to believe her father, at least, may still be alive, but as her excitement grows, so do Terrence's worries. It soon appears that someone is playing a unexpectedly vicious game with Cynthia's emotions, and that her family held secrets she never suspected. Though some plot twists require significant suspension of disbelief, skilled characterization and convincing dialogue more than compensate.
Customer Reviews
Had me hooked
I finished this in 3 days. Found myself reading it whilst waiting for the kids to come out of school. Very good
Great read
Loved this book, great characters and plenty of plot twists
Kept me entertained for hours
How can three people disappear into thin air?
No Time For Goodbye is a mystery thriller about a girl whose family just vanishes whilst she's sleeping off a drunken evening spent with one of the town's bad boys.
Cynthia had to live with not knowing what happened to her mum, dad and brother for 25 years. When a local TV station decides to produce an anniversary program, strange things start to happen and Cynthia's life is thrown into disarray. It's down to Terry her husband and narrator of this story to keep a level head and help Cynthia find out what happened.
The story starts off at a steady pace but it's like there's a switch and suddenly you're zooming along with Terry with more and more jigsaw pieces falling into place.
This is the first Linwood Barclay book I've read and it won't be the last. It kept me guessing with all the twists and turns. Linwood Barclay is a fantastic storyteller; I'd recommend this to anyone who loves a good thriller!