No Time for Goodbye – Linwood Barclay

Synopsis from Amazon
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…

My thoughts:

Brilliant! A excellent thriller that I finished in 3 days. So many twists and turns that apart from one character I really had no idea how the book would end! Very well written and you can imagine what it must have been like for the Cynthia, the daughter.

I would definately recommend this book. 10/10

No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Blurb from Amazon;

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…

I purchased this novel in response to Book Club Forum  member recommendations. I wasn’t disappointed. I haven’t read a book so rapidly for a long time. From the start this mystery book is pacy but full of detail. You are quickly drawn into liking Cynthia and her family and wondering along with them what on earth happened to her family? The plot is revealed piecemeal and as a reader who continually tries to work out the ending of books, I found myself still baffled even though more than half way through which in turn drove me on to read late into the night to find out what occurred. All in all excellent to read and I would highly recommend this to anyone. Not an intellectual read but an attention grabber with a thoroughly worked on plot leaving no scrappy endings.