No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.46 You Save: $3.53 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of No Time for Goodbye
Book Review: Poorly written plot with an abundance of profanity
Summary: 2 Stars
I have read a number of Linwood Barclay's books and found them to be thrillers that warranted a one-sitting read. This one lost my interest after the first few chapters. The characters were not well developed and I found myself wishing that Cynthia would just get on with her life and let it go. I was also distracted with the constant profanity and use of the name of the Lord in vain. Every character used profanity without reserve. The plot was intriguing in its inception but failed miserably to deliver with its banal evolution.Book Review: Resolving a 25 year old mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
Cynthia Bigge is a 14 year old who went on a date with a high school senior who is connected to crime, gets roaring drunk, and when confronted by her father, she has a huge argument with her parents and stomps off to bed to sleep off the drunkeness. When she wakes up, her whole family is gone.
Twenty five years later, Cynthia is married and is raising her own daughter when she starts getting clues about her family. Having undergone such a traumatic experience when she was young has poisoned her outlook and she seems unstable. These clues from the past threaten to destabilize her further. Her husband tells us the story from his perspective and it is easy to see how the various clues and hints that appear out of seemingly nowhere are creating a sense of desperation with Cynthia.
Of course the Archers get the police involved and when they do not do much, the Archers get a private detective involved. The detective ends up getting killed as does Cynthia's only remaining family member - her aunt Tess. This gets the husband mobilized and he starts looking for clues as to what is going on.
While all this is going on, the author threw in an interesting literary device. At the end of every chapter there is a section in which two other people are talking. It is not clear immediately who they might be, but as the story progresses, it is clear that these are people who are involved in the story line. After a little bit, one gets the impression that these people are probably Cynthia's long lost mother and brother, but you are never quite sure till the end who they really are.
The story evolves at a rapid pace and there are some good action sequences as well as an increasing sense of foreboding that builds over Cynthia and her daughter Grace. This mystery thriller positively haunted you as one more layer of information was provided and then another until you reach the explosive ending. It was a great, fun, read, and only the last few chapters made me take one star away. That was because of the parallel plot and twist that were introduced that involve a character that appears in the book as a friend, but ends up being something compeletely different. I felt that this tenuous plot device was unnecessary and detracted from the story line.
I highly recommend this book and enjoyed the very final plot twist - which was a tearjerker!
Book Review: Riveting: Don't start this late at night
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book riveting, a real page turner. A young girl wakes up and her family is gone, never to be seen again. How does she go on with her life? How does it haunt her? This is filled with mysterious details large and small: why were their beds perfectly made? Why is her daughter named 'Grace'? If a killer came in the middle of the night, how did he get three healthy people out of the house without waking the fourth?
The book has some false notes: the characters could be a bit more dimensional; why is one key student always referred to by her full name, not just her first name? But overall it's excellent and well worth the time.
I'm one of those people who usually spots what's going on early, but not in this case. Loved it, glad I stayed up late to read it, would definitely recommend you not start it until you have the time to read the whole thing.
Book Review: Slow Start but Nice Read Overall
Summary: 3 Stars
"No Time For Goodbye" is an engaging read for the most part, although it does take some time to truly get going. Linwood Barclay does a great job of developing the characters and making the reader actually care about them, something that should not be taken for granted as so many authors seem to fail in this regard. The multi-level plotline is terrific right up to the very end.
The major downfall of this book is the fact that it does drag quite a bit in its first half, as Barclay attempts to set his stage. Some of this setup falls into the empty filler category. A good chunk of the first half could be eliminated without taking too much away from the final product. Also, the writing itself, including the dialog between the characters, is somewhat banal. This simplistic style tends to make the book drag at times, leaving the reader wondering where it is headed.
The flaws are not enough to completely take away from the overall quality of the book; it is a compelling read and worth the time if you are patient with it from the start.
Book Review: Slow moving thriller focuses on characters instead of twists and turns.
Summary: 4 Stars
Linwood Barclay's thriller NO TIME FOR GOODBYE receives exceptional praise from well known authors on the back cover. Tess Gerritsen, Joseph Finder, and Peter Robinsion all say this book is a suspensful page turner full of twists and turns and that it has a stunning conclusion. One author even compares Barclay's book to those of Harlan Coben. This is very high praise, and some of it is merited and some isn't.
The plot is certainly like one of Coben's. Cynthia Bigge wakes up one morning and finds her entire family missing. Her parents and older brother have just vanished. No note, no message, no trace. Fast forward twenty five years later, and Cynthia is married to Terry Archer. They have a daughter. Cynthia never has heard anything about her family. She's become desperate enough to try one of those TV news magazines that recreates the incident and asks viewers for help.
The Archer's don't have much money, he's a school teacher and she works at her friends dress shop. But they do what they can and hire a private detective. Soon, things begin to happen. Cynthia notices a strange car following her daughter to work. Her father's old hat shows up on her dining room table. She thinks she sees her brother at the mall.
The plot is very intriguing, and the novel really picks up about halfway through, but overall, it moves kind of slow. There aren't really many twists and turns. The plot just moves slowly in the direction of revealling the truth. Instead of twists filling up the pages, Barclay focuses on character development. We really know the Archers and their pain.
I thought the conclusion was revealed too early in the novel, but then the book does spiral to a thrilling ending. The explanation for all that happened is certainly plausible, but the villian's abilities were someone exaggerated. Anyway, this is a good book, but a little slower moving than I expected. I give it four stars, but it is really between 3 and 4.