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Linwood Barclay

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.linwoodbarclay.com/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/linwood_barclay

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers

Influences

Margaret Laurence, Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald)

Member Since

March 2014

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Linwood Barclay is the #1 internationally bestselling author of seventeen novels for adults, including No Time for Goodbye, Trust Your Eyes and, most recently, A Noise Downstairs. He has also written two novels for children and screenplays.
Three of those seventeen novels comprise the epic Promise Falls trilogy: Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. His two novels for children – Chase and Escape – star a computer-enhanced dog named Chipper who’s on the run from the evil organization that turned him into a super-pup.
Barclay’s 2011 thriller, The Accident, has been turned into the six-part television series L’Accident in France, and he adapted his novel Never Saw it Coming for the movie, directed by Gail Harvey and starring Eric Linwood Barclay is the #1 internationally bestselling author of seventeen novels for adults, including No Time for Goodbye, Trust Your Eyes and, most recently, A Noise Downstairs. He has also written two novels for children and screenplays.
Three of those seventeen novels comprise the epic Promise Falls trilogy: Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. His two novels for children – Chase and Escape – star a computer-enhanced dog named Chipper who’s on the run from the evil organization that turned him into a super-pup.
Barclay’s 2011 thriller, The Accident, has been turned into the six-part television series L’Accident in France, and he adapted his novel Never Saw it Coming for the movie, directed by Gail Harvey and starring Eric Roberts and Emily Hampshire. Several of his other books either have been, or still are, in development for TV and film.
After spending his formative years helping run a cottage resort and trailer park after his father died when he was 16, Barclay got his first newspaper job at the Peterborough Examiner, a small Ontario daily. In 1981, he joined the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper.
He held such positions as assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, and Life section editor, before becoming the paper’s humour columnist in 1993. He was one of the paper’s most popular columnists before retiring from the position in 2008 to work exclusively on books.
In 2004, he launched his mystery series about an anxiety-ridden, know-it-all, pain-in-the-butt father by the name of Zack Walker. Bad Move, the first book, was followed by three more Zack Walker thrillers: Bad Guys, Lone Wolf, and Stone Rain. (The last two were published in the UK under the titles Bad Luck and Bad News.)
His first standalone thriller, No Time for Goodbye, was published in 2007 to critical acclaim and great international success. The following year, it was a Richard and Judy Summer Read selection in the UK, and did seven straight weeks at #1 on the UK bestseller list, and finished 2008 as the top selling novel of the year there. The book has since been sold around the world and been translated into nearly thirty languages.
Barclay was born in the United States but moved to Canada just before turning four years old when his father, a commercial artist whose illustrations of cars appeared in Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post (before photography took over), accepted a position with an advertising agency north of the border. Barclay, who graduated with an English literature degree from Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, was fortunate to have some very fine mentors; in particular, the celebrated Canadian author Margaret Laurence, whom Linwood first met when she served as writer-in-residence at Trent, and Kenneth Millar, who, under the name Ross Macdonald, wrote the acclaimed series of mystery novels featuring detective Lew Archer. It was at Trent that he met Neetha, the woman who would become his wife. They have two grown children, Spencer and Paige.
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Linwood Barclay’s books

Average rating: 3.96 · 365,003 ratings · 36,998 reviews · 82 distinct works • Similar authors

	No Time for Goodbye (No Time For Goodbye, #1) 4.02 avg rating — 43,330 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Never Look Away 4.04 avg rating — 20,881 ratings — published 2010 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Find You First 4.06 avg rating — 20,174 ratings — published 2021 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Take Your Breath Away 4.02 avg rating — 19,893 ratings — published 2022 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Accident really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 19,888 ratings — published 2011 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Too Close to Home really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 18,343 ratings — published 2008 — 87 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay (Goodreads Author), George Newbern (Narrator), Jared Zeus (Reading) 3.85 avg rating — 18,615 ratings — published 2018 — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Elevator Pitch 3.83 avg rating — 18,171 ratings — published 2019 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Broken Promise (Promise Falls, #1) 3.97 avg rating — 16,652 ratings — published 2015 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Trust Your Eyes 4.11 avg rating — 15,553 ratings — published 2012 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Linwood Barclay…

3 posts
Linwood Barclay's Blog: Linwood Barclay

The Broken Promise Tour

I'm sitting on a tiny balcony of The Garland Hotel in Burbank, which apparently, in an earlier incarnation was owned by Beverly Garland, the actress, whom I only remember from My Three Sons, near the end of the series, when she was Fred MacMurray's wife. Does that date me, or what?
It's a nice place, and soon I will be going to the Burbank Library's Buena Vista branch to give a talk on Broken Promi Read more of this blog post »

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Published on July 29, 2015 16:01

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Series by Linwood Barclay

No Time For Goodbye (2 books)
by

Linwood Barclay (Goodreads Author)

3.98 avg rating — 52,931 ratings

Promise Falls (4 books)
by

Linwood Barclay (Goodreads Author)

3.99 avg rating — 49,668 ratings

Zack Walker (4 books)
by

Linwood Barclay (Goodreads Author)

3.94 avg rating — 14,438 ratings

Chase (2 books)
by

Linwood Barclay (Goodreads Author)

3.92 avg rating — 1,595 ratings

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

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The Beat Goes On (Inspector Rebus, #3.5, #13.5 & more)

by Ian Rankin (Goodreads Author)

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And Sometimes I Wonder About You (Leonid McGill #5)

by Walter Mosley

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Linwood’s Recent Updates

Linwood Barclay answered Chuck Karas's question: I recently read Whistle and loved it! This was your first attempt at horror and I thought it was one of the best I've read in a while. Are you planning more in the horror genre? So glad you enjoyed it. I had a blast writing it. As a departure, it didn't sell quite as well as my other books, but I am thinking about another one along those lines. We'll see ....
Mar 16, 2026 05:45AM · 5 likes · like
Linwood Barclay answered Amy Hartwick's question: Are you still interested in converting your books into movies and series? If so, which books do you think should be adapted? Well, all of them, of course. Two of my books have been made into series in France, and a third looks likely. There was one movie, made in Canada. Other books of mine are currently optioned and may yet become TV shows. The ones I would most like to s See Full Answer
Nov 22, 2025 05:39AM · 5 likes · like

More of Linwood's books…

Quotes by Linwood Barclay (?)

“Sometimes, it's easier to tell a stranger something very personal. It's like there's less risk, opening yourself up to someone who doesn't know you.”
― Linwood Barclay (No Time For Goodbye)

196 likes

“Dear Anyone: This is a letter from one anyone to another anyone, no names required, because nobody really knows anyway. Names don't make a hell of a lot of difference. The world is made up entirely of strangers. Millions and millions of them. Everyone is a stranger to everyone else. Sometimes we think we know other people, especially those we supposedly are close to, but if we really knew them, why are we so often surprised by the shit they do? Like, parents are always surprised by what their kids will do. They raise them from the time they are babies, spend each and every day with them, think they're these goddamn fucking angels, and then one day the cops come to the door and say hey, guess what parents? Your kid just bashed some other kid's head in with a baseball bat. Or you're the kid, and you think things are pretty fucking OK, and then one day this guy who's supposed to be your dad says so long, have a nice life. And you think, what the fuck is this? So years later, your mom ends up living with another guy, and he seems OK, but you think, when's it coming? That's what life is. Life is always asking yourself, when's it coming? Because if it hasn't come for a long time, you know you're fucking due. All the best, Anyone.”
― Linwood Barclay, No Time for Goodbye

62 likes

“It occurred to me that with all of today's technologies, there were now more ways than ever to know with abosolute certainty that no one wanted to get in touch with me”
― Linwood Barclay, Fear the Worst

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Polls

Here's our list of 10 great nominations for the September-October group read. Place your votes and plan on joining us in our excellent discussions. Voting will end on the 19th.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

8 votes 19.0%

The Ruins by Scott B. Smith

6 votes 14.3%

Never Look Away: A Thriller by Linwood Barclay

6 votes 14.3%

The Book of Reuben by Tabitha King

4 votes 9.5%

The Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns

4 votes 9.5%

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

4 votes 9.5%

Hell House by Richard Matheson

3 votes 7.1%

The other by Thomas Tryon

3 votes 7.1%

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

2 votes 4.8%

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

2 votes 4.8%

42 total votes

5 comments

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Linwood’s Quotes

“Raylan got ready.”
― Elmore Leonard

tags: brilliantly-simple

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message 1: by K.S.

Apr 26, 2017 12:51PM

Thank you very much for the add! I just discovered your novels last spring and am working up my collection to owning almost all of them. I am in school for Creative Writing and your writing style is simply all consuming and quite enjoyable.

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