Book Summary.... 14 year old Cynthia wakes up one morning to find her usually lively house eerily quiet. The night before, Cynthia had a terrible row with her father who discovered she had gone out drinking with an older boy. As a result, Cynthia at first thinks this is her punishment, a bad hangover and silence from her family. Except 25 years later, she still hasn't solved the mystery of her missing family. From that day forward, Cynthia has not set eyes on her mother Patricia, her father Clayton or her older brother Todd. Now with a family of her own, Cynthia is still struggling to come to terms with the mystery and is still plagued with ...  Read the complete review

I've been slowly making my way through the Richard and Judy Summer Reads for 2008, and have so far read of them, thoroughly enjoying them all, so I had high hopes for this one too. I'm not really a fan of thrillers myself, I much prefer chick-lit, but after some rave reviews that I read, I was willing to give it a go. No Time for Goodbye tells us the story of Cynthia Bigge, who was a normal 15 year old girl living with her parents and brother Todd until one day they just disappear. Cynthia wakes to find the house empty and with no trace of her family. Twenty Five years later, Cynthia still hasn't a clue about what happened to her family, now married to Terry ...  Read the complete review

In a search for new writers to experience, I stumbled across this debut novel from Linwood Barclay on Bookmooch and decided to give it a go. Reading very much like a Harlan Coben book (the initial premise reminded me greatly of Tell No One), No Time For Goodbye is a competent thriller, and an engaging one at that, but at times far less than perfect and as such the end result is a novel that feels far from polished! Cynthia is 14 when her entire world is thrown upside down by the disappearance of her whole family. Cynthia is in the bad books after a night out drinking with the son of a local gangster and has passed out in her bedroom after being dragged home by ...  Read the complete review

I have just finished reading 'No Time for Goodbye' written by Linwood Barclay. The genre of this book is somewhere between a mystery and thriller, and therefore this is a genre I have not read in a while. However, this is a book title that is also listed as one of 'Richard & Judy's summer reads' which is usually an indication that it's going to be a decent read. I'll start this review by saying I enjoyed this book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the back cover sounded interesting - the main character Cynthia, 14 years old, one day wakes up in the morning to find that her mum, dad, brother - her entire family have vanished. Her house is silent, ...  Read the complete review

Rarely does a book grab me on the first few pages and make it hard to put down. However, despite being warned that this would be the case, I hesitated starting it. The long and short of it is that when I did finally start it, they were right: I couldn't put it down! Linwood Barclay manages to find a clever little niche in his writing style, providing enough description and detail whilst maintaining a fast and flowing pace to keep the interest levels high from more than one angle. The plot is quite a strong one from the start. Cynthia had a huge row with her parents when she was a young teen - then they disappeared. her father, mother and brother. Years later, ...  Read the complete review