Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Linwood Barclay: NO TIME FOR GOODBYE



Linwood Barclay
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
10 hours 52 minutes
audiobook


The story is easy to tell. When fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge wakes up one morning after an argument with her parents, her entire family is gone. The police can't find them anywhere, and neither can they find their cars. Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by her family's disappearance. Now married and with a daughter of her own, Cynthia is very protective, fearing to lose another family member. After she appears in a TV show, she and her husband Terry are visited by a psychic, receive a series of bizarre phone calls, and become the victims of a break-in, although nothing is taken. Instead, something is left—a hat that Cynthia is convinced belonged to her father. With each event, Cynthia grows more and more paranoid and Terry is about to lose his patience when they hire a private investigator. Soon they must realize that this was just the beginning.

All in all it was an interesting read if, yes if, Cnythia hadn't been so paranoid she would have made the most laid-back person consider either suicide, homicide or (for the less violent ones) running away and never turning back. I don't remember any book where I hated a main character as much as I hated Cynthia Archer née Bigge and I was constantly surprised that Terry didn't speak up for himself and his daughter more.

The Archer's about 11 year old daughter was dropped off by her mother right in front of the school. Not by her father, by her mother, because Mommy didn't trust Daddy to do the job just right.

Possible spoiler ahead!

Come to think of it, I wonder whether Cynthia didn't bring her to class actually, as once Terry had finally managed to persuade his wife that their daughter was old enough to walk the short way to school, the poor girl had to call her mother from the cell phone she got for exactly this reason and hand the phone over to her teacher.

No more spoilers from now on!

On top of that there were some plot twists that were simply unbelievable. If you want to read it and are willing to suspend disbelief, go ahead, though, as it was otherwise an interesting story line. With the idea, though, another author could have made a whole different book.

Rating: 2/5

6 comments:

  1. Not sure if this is my kind of book, but it does sound interesting.

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  2. Beth, I also thought it would be interesting - but apparently not so. At least in my opinion...

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  3. Kathrin -

    Thanks for the review. The cover and description made this book seem really good and I might have wanted to read it. But I think I'll pass now.

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  4. Glad I could help, Monique! Even if it means one less book for you to buy ;-)

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  5. One of the best books i ever read, you make it sound so dull.. its a page turner.. [=

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  6. You don't even dare leave your name?
    Well, to me the book wasn't boring, I just think there were unbelieveable twists and one of the main characters was absolutely horrible. That's all. If you think otherwise, I certainly won't tell you your opinion is wrong, because each book is different for the readers. One of the books I love might be a book you simply can't finish. That's in the nature of writing (and actually everything else).
    So I won't argue with you about your opinion, and I ask you to please respect mine.

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