ISBN-13: 9780553805550
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: September 2007
400pp
No Time for Goodbye starts off with a bang when Cynthia Bigge, a fourteen-year-old girl wakes up and find her family missing. Initially she thought her parents were angry at her for being drunk and staying out late with her boyfriend, but with no note or any trails to indicate their disappearance, she knows something bad must have happened to them because her brother, Todd, is gone too.
Now twenty five years later, she is married to Terrence Archer and they have an eight-year-old girl, Grace. Though years have passed, Cynthia has not given up hope and continues to find any hints or clues that leads to her family's disappearance. She even appeared on a popular TV crime-stopper program 'Deadline', hoping that the viewers will provide her with some answers but unfortunately there is none.
It further infuriates her when they found a psychic who claims she is able to look into her past but she had asked her for money if she wants to learn more about it. On top of this, she is also suspicious of a brown car who seems to be following her and Grace around their premise, and when she mistook a man as a grown up version of her brother, Todd at a foodcourt one day, Terry wonders if she is imagining everything or worse, having a mental breakdown. Cynthia is also very protective of Grace's safety and always insisting that they should never allow her out of their sight.
Cynthia's aunt, Tess, is the one who has raised Cynthia since the disappearance of her family. When she knew she is old and sick and is dying soon, she told Terry that she had been receiving some money in an envelope from an anonymous someone in several occasions. The total sum amounts to forty-two thousand dollars and she had been instructed that these money is to get through Cynthia's education all the way after she was graduated from the university. Tess has never told this to anyone until now. Terry begins to wonder if these money comes from Cynthia's parents, or from someone who is responsible for their disappearance but of course he has no answers.
Hating to wait around and getting to nowhere, Cynthia hires a private detective, Denton Abagnall, to dig into the case but it turns out a dead end for her when she later learns that both her aunt and the detective being murdered. She is very sure that their death are not coincidences and that it has to do with her parents' disappearance. Meanwhile, she is also feeling hurt that Terry seems to have doubts in her so she left the place, bringing Grace with her. When Terry finds out she has left, he panicked. He has no one to turn to when a name strikes in his mind; he is Vince Fleming, ex-boyfriend of Cynthia and he was with her before the night her parents disappeared.
Together with Vince's help, they went in search of Cynthia and Grace but soon they will learn something more about the case that will bring danger to them but to Cynthia and Grace as well.
Reading
No Time For Goodbye is like a roller coaster ride to me. The story is fast-paced and there are always full of surprises.
Linwood Barclay really knows how to build up the suspense and keep you guessing until the end. It is told from Terry's POV which I think it works well with this story. I was quite blown away after reading the end of the book; the author has done a great job in plotting the premise thoroughly because each intriguing scene is like a piece of puzzle, it is only when they are all pieced together do they form the whole picture, and that is where the whole mystery is solved.
Other than the thrilling part, there are also several scenes that left a smile on my face. One is Grace's passion for meteors and asteroids; she has a cheap telescope and she use it to keep a look out for them as she often told her parents she does this before it is too late and they will hit onto earth.
Also, I find it sweet that Detective Denton Abagnall's wife always make an effort to call her husband informing him what dishes she will prepare for him when he is out solving the cases, so that there is something he can look forward to when he goes home. I felt pity about his death because he is one of the characters I liked, besides Aunt Tess that is.
This is one of the best suspense thrillers I read this year. I will definitely keep a look out for Linwood Barclay's books in future.
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