Toronto novelist Linwood Barclay took a big risk with his latest book, ‘Whistle': ‘If it sinks like a stone, it will probably be the last of its kind'
May 18, 2025
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By Janet Somerville Special to the Star
Long before he found his footing as a newspaper journalist, first at the Peterborough Examiner and later at the Toronto Star, Linwood Barclay was a kid writing fan fiction based on his favourite TV shows and was soon befriending celebrated writers Margaret Laurence and Ross Macdonald (pen name of Kenneth Millar).
When I met with the internationally bestselling novelist in the Little Portugal home he shares with his wife, Neetha — his beloved and trusted first reader — he had just returned from a book tour in France. It began at Lyon's massive crime literature festival, Quais du Polar, where his 2023 thriller 'The Lie Maker' was the leading Canadian title and one of the finalists for the Grand Prix des lectrices Elle. Barclay is home just as his own second TV series airs there: 'Cette nuit-là (That Night).' It's based on 'No Time for Goodbye,' his breakout book from 2007, which has sold three million copies worldwide. He'll be in the U.K. in mid-June to launch his new novel, 'Whistle' (William Morrow), at an event to announce the Bloody Scotland book festival lineup, and then at Toronto's MOTIVE festival at Victoria University on June 29.
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Janet Somerville is the author of 'Yours, for Probably Always: Martha Gellhorn's Letters of Love & War 1930-1949.'
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