This is the 22nd Robert Goddard book I've read, in chronological order -- I'm within sight of the latest one!As usual, Goddard pulled me in and gripped me until the last page. There were the usual "clever twists" (at least one of which I predicted), and while it wasn't clear how realistic the wh...
This is the lowest rating I have ever given to a Goddard book. He is normally a great story teller, with a talent for unexpected twists. The only thing that surprised me about this one was the last three words: "To be continued." If I had known all along that this was the first part of a series I...
One of the more predictable novels by this author, which came as a disappointment, as I often don't figure out "who did it". Not so this time around, where the outcome was both unsurprising and predictable. But, perhaps the biggest irritation was the construction and language! Much though Goddard...
I skipped way too far ahead in the Goddard chronology with Long Time Coming, so I’m glad to be back on track with this one. Not that it matters what order you read his books in, since they don’t trace the brilliant career of only one main detective/special agent/little old lady with knife-sharp i...
More of a 3.5. Not quite as good as the other Goddard I've read, but I feel it's still a notch or two above contemporary mysteries. The story begins with the cold-blooded murder of the sister, Beatrix, of a famous poet, Tristram Abberley. At first it is thought Beatrix has been killed for robb...
It's a long time since I read a Robert Goddard. I was going to say he's a one trick pony, always writing about a modern event affected by something that happened long ago. But then many authors are like that. After all, Agatha Christie wrote nothing but detective stories! I have to admit this st...
CAUGHT IN A BLINDING LIGHT OF INTRIGUE, May 15, 2007 This is a novel of love, loss, deception and amateur detection. Part ghost story, part historical mystery with a visit to the magical beginnings of early photography thrown in for good measure. Goddard has outdone himself in executing this intr...
Another historical mystery epic from a master of the genre. After reading 4 of his books, I'm pretty sure that Goddard is more comfortable writing of bygone times; like many authors who existed in the periods his tales spend a lot of time in (or all the time in this case), Goddard is light on cha...
There are three types of mystery novels. The best of them grab you by the throat and pull you along. You give up eating and sleeping to get through them in one sitting. The worst of them can be encapsulized in a page and a half, you've figured out who the killer is in three sentences, and you can...
SIGHT UNSEEN (Mystery-UK-Cont) – GGoddard, Robert – 15th novelBantam Press, 2006- Hardcover*** On a summer day in 1981, PhD student, David Umber, is waiting to meet an unidentified man who claims he can help David with his research into Junius, a political polemicist during the 1700s. While waiti...
Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should youPerceive one face that you loved heretofore,It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.Great Death has made all his for evermore. Waterlogged trench in WWIIn 1916, Captain John Hallows is reported killed in action in the Flanders fields of Worl...
Middle-aged actor Tobe Flood is stuck in a theatrical tour that’s sputtering to an end. The last week of it’s lackluster run is in Brighton, where his soon to be ex-wife is living with her new fiancé. Tobe’s hoping to somehow convince her to come to her senses and take him back. By the end of the...
Sometimes I think Robert Goddard's books are great, other times he sells us a turkey - they're silly, and they lack credibility etc, but this one was one of the first. A crime from forty years previously comes back to haunt a wealthy family when the son returns to a family wedding to find his ol...
Hmmmm, not really sure what to say about this novel. Well, the first thing I suppose, is that I did read it, although I can't say why. I tend to stop books that I'm not enjoying, but found myself reading on just to see how it all tied up.When Harry gets a mysterious phone call saying his son is...
I'm hovering between a 3 and a 4 on this.I love Goddard's later books and this shares some good things with them: it's a gripping page-turner, written with intelligence and extensive background knowledge, while never getting above itself or claiming to be more than the clever piece of escapism it...
We meet Harry Barnett sitting on a rock on the side of a Greek mountain, waiting for his companion to come back from walking up to the summit. Heather Mallender is a new acquaintance, a young woman taking a short holiday at the house in Rhodes that Harry takes care of for a rich friend. Harry is ...
How can any hero be so utterly incompetent? I was getting so angry with the seeming stupidity of this man - Geoffrey Staddon. A qualified Architect and so supposedly a clever man but how could he not see the mess he was creating and the path he was walking down? I could see it clearly and I was j...