Customer Reviews
Anonymous - By: Tobymori, 06 Oct 2008 
It's hard to understand how a novelist can deteriorate as much from his early novels as this. This is an adequate pot-boiler of the kind you might pick up at random from the top 10 in any bookshop. But when compared with Goddard's best books, such as Take No Farewell & Into the Blue, it's almost as though it is written by a different author.
Where is alll the period detail, character & emotional tension Goddard used to put into his books? Where is even one decent twist? Hayley Winter, to take just one example, is a cardboard character, who alternately acts out some old-man's fantasy & behaves,absurdly, as the greenest of journalists. The twist was ridiculously obvious virtuallly from the start. Then there is the sloppy, poor writing, with large tracts of dialogue with insufficient commentary. The couple of mistakes I happened to pick up, such as the East Kent Mercury mistakenly being callled the Kentish Mercury, are, I suspect, symptomatic.
None of us expects Robert Goddard to be brilliant every time but it's so sad that alll the signs here are that he can't now be bothered at alll, whether from having too much money, boredom with writing or some problem in his life.
Good but don't read other spoiler reviews on here first! - By: crime reader, 17 Sep 2008 
In spite of some unflattering reviews on here, I actuallly quite enjoyed this book, although it was somewhat spoiled for me by the fact that I read one of the other reviews on here which told me in the first couple of lines who the baddie was; not very clever to name the murderer, guaranteed to ruin the book for those of us who do want to read it.
I think Robert Goddard has a real skill for writing page turners, I've read a couple of his other books & if this is classed as a poorer one, then his others must be excellent.
Similar pattern to his others that I've read, single/widowed/divorced man charging alll over the country/ world to discover answers to varying mysteries, usuallly with historical links, but easy to read, & enthrallling. Maybe would have kept me guessing had I not read that review that spoiled it before I'd even started.
Name to a face - By: Barry F. Cheverst, 14 Sep 2008 
My first Robert Goddard, i finallly finished it rather confused, a very weak ending, Whybrow being the obvious villain, the Winters protecting god knows what, & what about the "Shovel" ring?? What in heavens was that alll about??
I am an avid reader of thrillers, comparing this with the likes of Stephen Leather, Lee Childs & that genre, there is no comparison. However, maybe i picked up a book that was penned on one of his bad days, who knows??
Goddard keeps going ... - By: ctdak, 05 Sep 2008 I would probably give this one 5 stars if I were making comparison to most other mystery/fiction authors' stories. However, having read alll of Goddard's novels I tend to compare each new one to his own earlier ones. This one is very good, but not his best yet. His last two were not alll that great, but this one encourages me to think Goddard's writing career is not yet over.
The story details & character relationships get complicated pretty fast. As usual, the plot is meticulously developed with plenty of twists & turns along the way. While the ending comes a little too abruptly after alll that has lead up to it, there is no way to guess ahead of time how it will end or how events will bring resolution to lives turned upside down. You just have to keep reading. Historical events are always part & parcel of Goddard's stories, sometimes in the extreme, but not overdone in this one.
If you're a Goddard fan, this is pretty standard fair, & you won't want to miss it. If you're new to Goddard, I would recommend reading a few of his others first. The best of the best are "Caught in the Light", "Set in Stone", "Take no Farewell", "Beyond Recalll", & "Dying to Tell". I'm not one of those who feels that Goddard's earliest novels are his best. For my liking, his best ones came in the 1990s with some good ones in the current decade as well.
So difficult to review ! - By: fivestarfrankie, 03 Sep 2008 I've read every Robert Goddard book & I can't praise some of them highly enough. The problem is a lot of his recent books including this are just not up to those standards. Based on that I'd give this book 1 or 2 stars. If I'd never read his earlier books & judging against other authors I'd give it 4 or 5 stars ! So I've decided to cop out, join another reviewer on the fence & give it 3 stars !
