All the Stars in Alignment

Canadian novelist Linwood Barclay’s latest thriller, No Time for Goodbye, is not only the biggest-selling book in the UK, but has now topped the lists in Ireland, as well. It’s even pushed Harry Potter off the charts. As The Bookseller reports:

Linwood Barclay’s No Time for Goodbye is the UK chart-topper for the fourth week in a row, a feat that was never achieved by Orion Publishing’s huge success in recent mass-market fiction history, Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth.

The title sold 41,345 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market through the seven days to 26th July, some 15,800 copies ahead of his nearest rival Katie Price. The celebrity author’s Angel Uncovered (Century) rose one place into second position despite a week-on-week decline in sales by 3,306 copies to 25,528.

All of this indicates how important a summer reads nomination from British TV-magazine hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan can be to a writer. It was especially significant in Barclay’s case, because No Time for Goodbye marked his UK debut. Orion did him a welcome service, too, I think, in lightening up the cover for this book’s paperback release, which makes it more accessible to a general readership, as opposed to hardened genre enthusiasts.

I received a nice e-mail note from Barclay this morning, after news broke that he’s still No 1. The author seems shocked to realize how huge No Time for Goodbye has become in Britain and Ireland. But even his success has taken the edge off neither his work ethic (he already has a new title on its way to market), nor his sense of perspective. He tells me:

This morning I will be typing up the last few paragraphs of my next book and sending it off to [his agent] Helen [Heller], and I am exhausted. I want to sit on the deck, read, drink girly wine coolers (I’ve never been much for the hard stuff), and maybe run my model trains. I am an exciting person, there’s no doubt about it

Best wishes,
Linwood

In case you’ve not read his wonderful novel, it’s time you did, especially as Linwood Barclay is scheduled to attend Bouchercon in Baltimore this fall. Am I’m going to Baltimore, too, it will be another opportunity for me to trade stories--and maybe a wine cooler or two--with this helluva nice guy.