Linwood Barclay, No Time for Goodbye

No Time for Goodbye

Linwood Barclay

Bantam, Oct 2007, $22.00 338 pp.

ISBN 9780553805550

One night fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge is caught lying by her parents. She is also caught with her older boyfriend and is drunk. Her father finds her and drops her off at home where she promptly blacks out. The next morning she wakes up and the house is quiet. There is no sign of her parents and both their cars are gone. Cynthia never hears from them again but she never gives up hope that one day she'll have answers as to why her parents and brother deserted her.

Twenty-five years later, Cynthia is married with a daughter of her own, still living in her hometown. A TV show wants to reenact the disappearances and Cynthia believes that there is chance that someone will call with some answers. That doesn't happen but strange things begin to occur like a brown car is always in Cynthia and Grace's vicinity, a man watches their house and the father's fedora not seen for twenty-five years is sitting on the kitchen table when the family comes home. Cynthia's aunt who received anonymous bundles of cash for her niece's education is murdered as is the private investigator they hired to learn into what happened that night. Surprisingly, Vinnie, Cynthia's ex-boyfriend, tracks down a clue that might answer all her questions if it doesn't get them killed first.

Linwood Barclay is a master thriller writer who knows how to keep his audience on the edge of their seats. Surprisingly the story is told in the first person by Cynthia's husband who is totally in love with her and will protect his family at all costs. His teaming up with his wife's ex-boyfriend, the head of a criminal empire, is proof just how far he is willing to go to get some answers. . Fans of Mary Higgins Clarke, Dean Koontz and Phillip Margolin will have to read this fantastic work of psychological suspense.

Harriet Klausner