Linwood Barclay

Last updated
Linwood Barclay
Linwood Barclay - Eden Mills Writers Festival - 2013 (DanH-1952) (cropped).jpg
Barclay at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2013
Born1955 (age 6869)
Darien, Connecticut,
United States of America. [1]
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater Trent University
SubjectCrime, humour
Notable works No Time For Goodbye; Trust Your Eyes
SpouseNeetha Sands Barclay
ChildrenSpencer Barclay, Paige Barclay [2]
Website
linwoodbarclay.com

Linwood Barclay (born 1955) is an American-born Canadian author, noted as a novelist, humorist, and (former) columnist. His popular detective novels are bestsellers in Canada and internationally, beginning with No Time for Goodbye in 2007.

Contents

Biography

Linwood Barclay was born in Darien, Connecticut, son of Muriel and Everett Barclay. His father was a professional illustrator who moved his family to Canada in 1959 where he had accepted a job with William R. Templeton Studios in Toronto. In 1966 the family purchased a vacation campground in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, which they ran for about five years until his father died from lung cancer when Barclay was sixteen. [3]

Barclay recognized his interest in writing detective fiction at an early age, inspired by the works of Ross Macdonald, who had grown up in Kitchener, Ontario. [4] After graduating from high school Barclay studied literature at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where one of his teachers was the noted novelist Margaret Laurence. While attending university, he began a correspondence with Macdonald that proved inspirational for Barclay. They met once, at which time Macdonald inscribed one of his books to Barclay: "For Linwood, who will, I hope, someday outwrite me". [4]

After graduation with an English literature degree from Trent, he could not sell any of his novels so he found work on a number of local newspapers beginning with the Peterborough Examiner . [3] He subsequently moved to the Toronto Star in 1981. In 1993, following the death of Gary Lautens, he began to write a thrice-weekly humour column for the paper. He also released podcasts of his articles and published three collections: Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog, Father Knows Zilch: A Guide for Dumbfounded Dads, and This House Is Nuts!. Between 2004 and 2007, while still writing his column, he published four mystery/comedies, all featuring a sleuth named Zack Walker who works as a newspaper columnist by day. The books were published in the United Kingdom and were modestly successful. [4]

His break came in 2007 when he published No Time for Goodbye . A runaway bestseller in the UK, it quickly sold a million copies there and elsewhere. [4] He took a one-year sabbatical to promote his novel and he had planned to return to the Star in September 2008. But on June 28, 2008, he wrote his last column, announcing his retirement from the newspaper. His 2012 novel Trust Your Eyes was a finalist for the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read from the UK Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards. [5] At the time of its publication, it was announced that Trust Your Eyes had been optioned by a Hollywood studio. Barclay made the cover of Variety Magazine because of the bidding war it had caused between Universal Studios and Warner Bros. [4] [6] [3]

Barclay lives in Oakville, Ontario, with his wife of more than three decades, Neetha, with whom he has two children - Spencer and Paige. [3]

Bibliography

Non-fiction

Humour

Fiction

YearTitlePublisherNotes
2004Bad MoveBantam1st Zack Walker novel
2005Bad GuysBantam2nd Zack Walker novel
2006Lone WolfBantam3rd Zack Walker novel
2007Stone RainBantam4th Zack Walker novel
2007 No Time for Goodbye OrionFeatured on Richard & Judy's Summer reading list
2008 Too Close to Home Bantam Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel (2009), [7] part of the Promise Falls series
2009 Fear the Worst Bantam
2010Never Look AwayDelacorte PressPart of the Promise Falls series
2011The AccidentOrion
2011Clouded VisionOrionQuick read
2012Trust Your Eyes [8] Doubleday Canada ISBN   9780385669573. Originally titled 360: A Novel ISBN   9780553807950. Part of the Promise Falls series
2013Never Saw it ComingOrionBased on the novella Clouded Vision. ISBN   9781409141419 Features characters that appeared in No Time For Goodbye
2013A Tap on the WindowNew American Library ISBN   9780451414182
2014No Safe HouseDoubleday Canada ISBN   9780451414205. Sequel to No Time for Goodbye 2007
2015Broken PromiseNew American Library ISBN   9780451472670. First in the Promise Falls trilogy
2015Final AssignmentOrionA novella ebook
2016Far From TrueNew American Library ISBN   9780451472700. Second in the Promise Falls trilogy
2016The Twenty ThreeNew American Library ISBN   9780451472724. Third in the Promise Falls trilogy
2017Parting ShotOrion ISBN   9781409163930 Fourth in the Promise Falls series
2017ChasePuffin Canada ISBN   9780143198758. First book in the Chase series, written for kids (ages 9+)
2018EscapePuffin Canada ISBN   9780143198789. Second book in the Chase series, written for kids (ages 9+)
2018A Noise DownstairsDoubleday Canada ISBN   9780385687188
2019Elevator PitchWilliam Morrow ISBN   9780062678287
2021Find You FirstWilliam Morrow ISBN   9780062678317
2022Take Your Breath AwayWilliam Morrow ISBN   9780063035133 Shortlisted for 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger [9]
2022Look Both WaysWilliam Morrow ISBN   9780008525613
2023The Lie MakerWilliam Morrow ISBN   9780063276246

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References

  1. Linwood Barclay, Orion Books
  2. Author bio Archived 2009-07-29 at the Wayback Machine , Orion Books
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Biography". Linwood Barclay. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Medley, Mark (22 July 2013). "The King of Spooky: Linwood Barclay's rise from suburban dad to Canada's biggest fiction export". Toronto Life. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  5. ITV Press Centre (25 October 2013). "Winners unmasked at Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2013 on ITV3". ITV Press Centre. Retrieved 19 February 2014
  6. Sneider, Jeff (19 February 2014). "Todd Phillips to direct thriller 'Trust Your Eyes'". Variety. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  7. 2009 Arthur Ellis Awards Winners Crime Writers of Canada, (retrieved 11/21/2012)
  8. "Trust Your Eyes". Trailer, Bantam. 2012. p. l. Archived from the original on 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  9. "The 2023 CWA Daggers Shortlists Have Been Announced". Ian Fleming. 2023-05-17. Retrieved 2023-07-10.