Publication Order of Zack Walker Books
| Bad Move | 2004 |
| Bad Guys | 2005 |
| Lone Wolf / Bad Luck | 2006 |
| Stone Rain / Bad News | 2007 |
Publication Order of No Time for Goodbye Books
| No Time for Goodbye | 2007 |
| No Safe House | 2014 |
Publication Order of Promise Falls Books
| Too Close to Home | 2008 |
| Never Look Away | 2010 |
| Broken Promise | 2015 |
| Final Assignment | 2015 |
| Far From True | 2016 |
| The Twenty-Three | 2016 |
| Parting Shot | 2017 |
Publication Order of Chase Books
| Chase | 2017 |
| Escape | 2018 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Fear the Worst | 2009 |
| The Accident | 2011 |
| Trust Your Eyes | 2012 |
| Never Saw It Coming | 2013 |
| A Tap on the Window | 2013 |
| A Noise Downstairs | 2018 |
| Elevator Pitch | 2019 |
| Find You First | 2021 |
| Take Your Breath Away | 2022 |
| Look Both Ways | 2022 |
| The Lie Maker | 2023 |
| I Will Ruin You | 2024 |
| Whistle | 2025 |
| Not a Word | 2026 |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
| Clouded Vision | 2011 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Father Knows Zilch: A Guide for Dumbfounded Dads | 1996 |
| This House Is Nuts!: Surviving the Absurdities of Everyday Life | 1997 |
| Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog | 1998 |
| Last Resort: A Memoir | 2000 |
About Linwood Barclay
Linwood Barclay is an American-born Canadian thriller writer, born in Darien, Connecticut, in 1955, who spent three decades in newspapers before his novel “No Time for Goodbye” became an international bestseller in 2007. He has since written more than twenty thrillers, among them “Trust Your Eyes”, the Promise Falls trilogy and “Whistle”.
Barclay’s family moved to Canada just before he turned four, when his father, a commercial artist whose illustrations of cars appeared in magazines such as Life, took a job in Toronto. In 1966 his parents bought a cottage resort and trailer park in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, and Barclay helped to run it after his father died when he was sixteen. He later wrote about those years in the memoir “Last Resort”, which was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
He studied English literature at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where his mentors included the novelist Margaret Laurence. While a student he also began a correspondence with Kenneth Millar, who wrote the Lew Archer detective novels as Ross Macdonald. Barclay’s first newspaper job was at the Peterborough Examiner. He joined the Toronto Star in 1981, held several editing posts and became its humour columnist in 1993, before leaving to write books full time.
His first crime novels, published between 2004 and 2007, were four comic mysteries about Zack Walker, an anxious father who works as a newspaper writer. “No Time for Goodbye”, his first standalone thriller, was a Richard and Judy Summer Read in the UK in 2008, spent seven weeks at number one there and was the country’s top-selling novel of that year. “Too Close to Home” won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 2009.
Several of his books are set in the town of Promise Falls, including the trilogy “Broken Promise”, “Far From True” and “The Twenty-Three”. He has also written two children’s novels, “Chase” and “Escape”, about a computer-enhanced dog called Chipper. “The Accident” was made into a six-part French television series, and Barclay wrote the screenplay for the film of “Never Saw It Coming”.
“Take Your Breath Away” was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2023. With “Whistle” (2025) he moved into supernatural fiction, and “Not a Word” followed in 2026. He lives near Toronto with his wife, Neetha, and they have two grown-up children.
Photo: Dan Harasymchuk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).