Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay
Linwood Barclay at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2013
Barclay at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2013
Born 1955
Darien, Connecticut,
United States of America.[1]
Language English
Nationality Canadian
Alma mater Trent University
Subject Crime, humour
Notable works No Time For Goodbye; Trust Your Eyes
Spouse Neetha Sands Barclay
Children Spencer Barclay, Paige Barclay [2]
Website
www.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.

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

  • Last Resort: A Memoir (2000, finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour)

Humour

  • Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog
  • Father Knows Zilch: A Guide for Dumbfounded Dads
  • This House Is Nuts! : Surviving the Absurdities of Everyday Life

Fiction

YearTitlePublisherNotes
2004Bad MoveBantam1st Zack Walker novel
2005Bad GuysBantam2nd Zack Walker novel
2006Lone WolfBantam3rd Zack Walker novel
2007Stone RainBantam4th Zack Walker novel
2007No Time for GoodbyeOrionFeatured on Richard & Judy's Summer reading list
2008Too Close to HomeBantamArthur Ellis Award for Best Novel (2009)[7]
2009Fear the WorstBantam
2010Never Look AwayDelacorte Press
2011The AccidentOrion
2011Clouded VisionOrionQuick read
2012Trust Your Eyes [8]Doubleday Canada ISBN 978-0-385-66957-3. Originally titled 360: A Novel ISBN 978-0-553807950
2013Never Saw it ComingOrionBased on the novella Clouded Vision. ISBN 978-1409141419 Features characters that appeared in No Time For Goodbye
2013A Tap on the WindowNew American Library ISBN 978-0451414182
2014No Safe HouseDoubleday Canada ISBN 978-0451414205. Sequel to No Time for Goodbye 2007
2015Broken PromiseNew American Library ISBN 978-0451472670. First in the Promise Falls trilogy
2015Final Assignment OrionA novella e-book
2016Far From TrueNew American Library ISBN 978-0451472700. Second in the Promise Falls trilogy
2016The Twenty ThreeNew American Library ISBN 978-0451472724. Third in the Promise Falls trilogy
2017Parting ShotOrion ISBN 978-1409163930
2017ChasePuffin Canada ISBN 978-0143198758. First book in the Chase series, written for kids (ages 9+)
2018EscapePuffin Canada ISBN 978-0143198789. Second book in the Chase series, written for kids (ages 9+)
2018A Noise DownstairsDoubleday Canada ISBN 978-0385687188

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. 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. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
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