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When Cynthia Bigge was fourteen years old, she woke up one morning to find that her family had disappeared. She’d gotten into a fight with her parents the night before—because she’d snuck out of the house with her seventeen-year-old boyfriend, Vince. Her dad had found them drunk in the mall parking lot and dragged her home, and the fight that followed—what she remembered of it—hadn’t been pretty. The next morning, they were all gone—Cynthia’s parents and her brother, Todd. And she never saw or heard from them again.
Twenty-five years later, Cynthia is still haunted by her family’s disappearance—and she’s still looking for answers. She even agreed to go on a TV news show—hoping that it might reach someone who knows what happened. Though her husband, Terry, hoped she’d eventually learn to let go of the past—to accept that her family is, most likely, no longer alive—her obsession only seems to be growing. So when things start happening—things that could finally lead them to the truth—Terry’s not sure if it’s real or if it’s all in Cynthia’s head.
You know you’ve read too many mystery novels when you can figure out most of the story after just one clue. And that was the case for me with No Time for Goodbye. But it’s a credit to the author that—even though I was almost positive that I had all the answers long before the main characters did—the story still held my interest.
Of course, I didn’t have all the answers right from the beginning. Barclay does throw in a few surprises and a few unexpected twists along the way. And while some of them are rather hard to believe, they do keep things interesting nonetheless.
Most importantly, Barclay builds strong characters that you can’t help but care about. It’s not hard to understand Cynthia’s fears—or why she spends her life constantly looking over her shoulder. But, at the same time, you can understand Terry’s concerns, too. Since he’s the story’s narrator, you get to know him even better than you get to know Cynthia. He’s a caring man who loves his wife and their eight-year-old daughter, Grace, and it’s easy to see why he’s worried about Cynthia—and about how her fears might be affecting Grace. The more you get to know the characters, the more you’ll want everything to work out for them. You’ll want them to find the answers—so they can just get on with their lives.
Then—once you’ve gotten to know the characters—the clues start dropping, and the pace picks up. And once it does, there’s just no putting this book down. It’s a quick and captivating mystery that will keep you turning pages until all of the questions have been answered.
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