No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Cynthia Archer, 14 years old, is discovered in a car with an older boy by her father and she and her father argues and Cynthia screams that she hates her parents. When she woke up the next morning she discovers that she is all alone, her father, mother and brother have all disappeared.

25 years later Cynthia is trying to find the answers to what happened all those years ago and agrees to do a dramatisation for TV, hoping that someone will have the answers and to get her family back. Once aired it becomes clear that someone does not want Cynthia to investigate the disappearance of her family and she, and her own family, comes under threat.

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At first this was a very exciting book and I liked the way it was written and the suspense was built up in a very thrilling way, urging me to read on. Sadly, this was not kept for the second part of the book and it sort of died on its arse becoming very predictable and all the excitement just vanished, very much like Cynthia Arher's family. All in all it wasn't a bad book - it just became one of the others, the ones that are all alike and one that I will have forgotten in a not too distant future. Read it if you fancy something familiar but be warned - bring another book to read as soon as you finish No Time for Goodbye.

Without A Backward Glance by Kate Veitch

The McDonald family were just about to celebrate Christmas when mother of 4, Rosemarie, told her children that she had to go out to buy some lights for the tree - she never came back. The lives of the four children changed forever as they had to adjust with a life without their mother. The family all moved on with their lives without speaking about the pain cased by the abandonment and how it affected them and the choices they made.

40 years later one of the children, James, encounters their mother by chance and everything that was kept under wraps surfaces again. Secrets kept for almost 40 years threatens all their relationships and they all have to face their past whether or not they want to.
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This was a book that I picked up by chance as I'd finished all the books I'd brought with me for our holiday and as I left those books at the "leave one - take one" shelf at the hotel I had a quick glance at Kate Veitch's book and decided to take it.

I had no particular expectations as I'd never heard of it before and it was a decision made within 1 minute. It's an easy book to get in to and the characters are described in a very refreshing, honest way, I can see parts of myself in their traits and those of my own siblings. The characters as real as fictional characters can be and I found myself engrossed in their lives, feelings and decisions. I agreed and disagreed with their behaviour towards their mother and sometimes thinking "that was harsh" or "don't make it easy for her" etc etc.

Without A Backward Glance is Veitch's first novel and it's certainly one of the better "first novel" I've ever read and I'm looking forward to finding other books by her. This is not the type of book I usually read/pick up for a holiday but it was a good choice and I'd like to thank whomever put it on that shelf for allowing me to find Kate Veitch.