Take Your Breath Away

A missing woman. A husband suspected. The truth will . . .

TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY

From the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Elevator Pitch comes a gripping psychological thriller about a formerly missing woman who has suddenly returned under mysterious circumstances.

One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had got away with murder—it’s always the husband, isn’t it?—but the police could never build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom—he drank too much to numb the pain, was abandoned by all his friends save one, nearly lost his business, and became a pariah in the place he once called home.

Now, six years later, Andy has finally put his life back together. He sold the house he once shared with Brie and moved away. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sad to hear that the old place was razed and a new house built on the site. He’s settled down with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good.

But Andy’s peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?” And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman—who bears a striking resemblance to Brie—is gone. The police are notified and old questions—and dark suspicions—resurface. 

Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy’s future and the lives of those closest to him depend on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers. 

Linwood Barclay is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous previous novels and two thrillers for children. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. He wrote the screenplay adaptation for his novel Never Saw it Coming and his book The Accident has been made into a TV series in France. His novel No Time for Goodbye was a global bestseller. A native of Connecticut, he now lives in Toronto with his wife, Neetha.

"Take Your Breath Away is finely paced and full of surprises. What places it above your average missing-spouse mystery is Mr. Barclay’s ability to make you not only believe in his characters but to care about them.” — Wall Street Journal

“Perhaps the most complex and unsettling of Linwood Barclay’s oeuvre so far.”
— Toronto Star

“Linwood Barclay once again proves himself a master of pace, structure, and suspense. Take Your Breath Away had me guessing and turning pages all night, and I still didn’t figure it out till the end. Gripping, propulsive, and surprising—he wasn’t kidding, I’m breathless.” — David Koepp, Jurassic Park screenwriter and author of national bestseller Cold Storage

“Barclay has done a brilliant job of structuring Take Your Breath Away — a little bit of information here, an oh-wow there, some misdirection, a clue to see how closely the reader is paying attention. You think you’ve figured it out, you haven’t figured it out.”  — Winnipeg Free Press

"Suspenseful....The story will suck you in from the first chapter." — AARP Magazine on Take Your Breath Away

“An especially good read. The author keeps us guessing right up until the end.... Motives are hinted at and secrets gradually revealed, leading to an ending that will knock your socks off.”
— Booklist

"In typical Barclay fashion, subplots and characters weave together in a tight, satisfying story. Perfect for fans of suspense novels by Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner." — Library Journal

“An infectious thriller--one of Barclay’s best.” — Kirkus Reviews on Take Your Breath Away

“Linwood Barclay has plenty of surprises up his sleeve that will have your head spinning.... Brilliantly crafted.... As the title states, prepare to have your breath taken away!” — Bookreporter.com on Take Your Breath Away

“[A] well-paced standalone…Barclay shifts among multiple viewpoints to keep the tension high.... Everyone is a plausible suspect, and the disparate plot pieces eventually fit together with the precision of a Chinese puzzle box. Barclay reliably entertains.”
— Publishers Weekly on Take Your Breath Away

"Another fantastic suspense novel from Linwood Barclay.... I could not stop reading this book once I picked it up. Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Chevy Stevens." — San Francisco Book Review on Take Your Breath Away

"Barclay fills the pages with believable characters whose actions and motivations convince, and tells his story with page-turning intensity, and suspense that is maintained throughout. The narrative twists and turns, and Barclay seeds it with subtle red herrings that take the plot down paths that seem to lead to a clear solution, until it twists again and again keeping the reader guessing to the last page.... A gripping page-turner of a read. " — Strand Magazine on Take Your Breath Away

"Barclay’s imaginative plotting... bears a great resemblance to that of Harlan Coben. Take Your Breath Away is the best Linwood Barclay puzzle mystery that I’ve read in some time. He is constantly coming up with surprise after surprise throughout the whole narrative. Great escape reading!" — Deadly Pleasures Magazine

“You just can’t go wrong with Linwood Barclay. He’s proven time and again just how good he is.... You’ll find yourself turning the pages so fast that you have to be careful you don’t rip them. Easily one of Barclay’s best.” — The Current on Take Your Breath Away

"[A] fun page turner." — Book Riot on Take Your Breath Away

“Perhaps only John Grisham is his equal in creating show-stealing supporting characters.”  — Sunday Times (London)

“Find You First starts with a bang and ends with an even bigger one. Barclay is a terrific writer, but he’s outdone himself with this. It’s the best book of his career. I couldn’t put it down, and you won’t be able to, either. If you enjoy thrillers, this is the real deal. It never lets up.” — Stephen King

“Prolific novelist Linwood Barclay delivers a clever twist on an old trope . . . Science meets megalomania in this up-to-date nifty entertainment.” — Washington Post

“[Find You First] is not only [Barclay's] best work to date, but definitely the thriller of the summer. It has a gloriously insane ending that would be a beauty for a movie adaptation.” — Florida Times-Union

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