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Book Description
Two English fraudsters on a transatlantic liner stumble into deep trouble when they target a young heiress.
Product Description
The year is 1931. The new and luxurious transatlantic liner Empress of Britain is on her eastward passage. Among the first-class passengers on board are two English confidence tricksters, making a discreet exit from a little awkwardness they have left behind them in the United States. A chance meting on deck brings them a tempting new target in the shape of Miss Charnwood and her niece, the beautiful Diana, only child of the immensely wealthy Fabian Charnwood.
It's a trick they've pulled before, with some success. Charm the daughter into an engagement to marry, then get the father to buy you off. So confident are they of success, in fact, that they make a pact: whichever of them wins Diana Charnwood's love will share his fortune with the other. Who would imagine that these smooth operators would let their hearts rule their heads? Or that violent death would find its way into their neat little scheme? Or that they would stumble into something much darker and deeper than either had suspected?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A pair of confidence tricksters flee an embarrassing financial collapse in the USA - as if an American financial institution could be guilty of fraudulent dealings or would be so mismanaged as to plunge itself into insolvency! It's surely the sort of thing that could only happen in a novel? Our two English adventurers while away their sea voyage pursuing an heiress, a young woman whose beauty matches her riches. Their schemes come apart at the seams - can love really get in the way of business (or crime)? Having become used to manipulating others and stage-managing situations, our two anti-heroes suddenly become pawns in someone else's game and find themselves caught up in a web of murder and betrayal.
Goddard again weaves together a compelling narrative - he handles historical adventures with convincing skill ... you are absorbed into the period, into its values and sensibilities, you become absorbed by the lives and emotions of the characters. It's a process of osmosis - the plot, the dynamic invades your imagination. Goddard doesn't go in for startling special effects or loud bangs, though this novel does have its slightly visceral moments. His tales are quite gentle, quite cosy ... but with dark and disturbing undercurrents.
This is a highly entertaining novel by one of the finest story-tellers in the business. He's very English, he probably doesn't translate to an American audience as well as some writers, but for anyone interested in writing, Goddard offers master classes in plot construction and characterisation, and nobody handles fictional history quite so well.
Excellent piece of writing, red herrings a plenty, and perhaps more of a conventional murder mystery than most of Goddard's novels. A very good read.
Goddard again weaves together a compelling narrative - he handles historical adventures with convincing skill ... you are absorbed into the period, into its values and sensibilities, you become absorbed by the lives and emotions of the characters. It's a process of osmosis - the plot, the dynamic invades your imagination. Goddard doesn't go in for startling special effects or loud bangs, though this novel does have its slightly visceral moments. His tales are quite gentle, quite cosy ... but with dark and disturbing undercurrents.
This is a highly entertaining novel by one of the finest story-tellers in the business. He's very English, he probably doesn't translate to an American audience as well as some writers, but for anyone interested in writing, Goddard offers master classes in plot construction and characterisation, and nobody handles fictional history quite so well.
Excellent piece of writing, red herrings a plenty, and perhaps more of a conventional murder mystery than most of Goddard's novels. A very good read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
That's what I was and hope you'll be too from the very first page. The language is extremely fluent (as always with Goddard, so much so that it looks deceivingly easy to write as he does, whereas it's most probably the result of sheer hard work), the dialogues flawless (again: as always), and the plot draws you in immediately.
This is the fourth book by Goddard I've read and I haven't been disappointed yet so on to number five!
This is the fourth book by Goddard I've read and I haven't been disappointed yet so on to number five!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Guy Horton and Max Wingate are con men returning across the Atlantic ocean from America after several years of lucrative and deceptive scams.
On board the ship they plan a scam that has worked before to mutual financial gain. One of them will 'fall'in love with a rich young woman only to be 'bought off' by the irate father some time later and hopefully before the wedding, and Max and Guy will share the payout.It has worked before, so why not now?
But what happens when genuine love develops and causes a rift between the two?
First published in 1993 this is one of Robert Goddard's most intriguing novels because it turns into a far more complex and detailed story than the first fifty pages would have you believe. It becomes a political conspiracy novel with a destructive secret at its centre that the late great Robert Ludlum would have been proud to invent!
The story is narrated by Guy, the twists and turns are plentyful, but what really works is the 1931 setting during a financial crisis and the forming of the National government.
Goddard takes the reader to some interesting places like Venice and Dublin (cities he would return to in later books).
Although not as long as many of his other novels, this is a fine story that keeps the reader engaged throughout and turns out to be a very different sort of book from the one you initially expect.
On board the ship they plan a scam that has worked before to mutual financial gain. One of them will 'fall'in love with a rich young woman only to be 'bought off' by the irate father some time later and hopefully before the wedding, and Max and Guy will share the payout.It has worked before, so why not now?
But what happens when genuine love develops and causes a rift between the two?
First published in 1993 this is one of Robert Goddard's most intriguing novels because it turns into a far more complex and detailed story than the first fifty pages would have you believe. It becomes a political conspiracy novel with a destructive secret at its centre that the late great Robert Ludlum would have been proud to invent!
The story is narrated by Guy, the twists and turns are plentyful, but what really works is the 1931 setting during a financial crisis and the forming of the National government.
Goddard takes the reader to some interesting places like Venice and Dublin (cities he would return to in later books).
Although not as long as many of his other novels, this is a fine story that keeps the reader engaged throughout and turns out to be a very different sort of book from the one you initially expect.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Clever twisted plot as usual
The book was a typical Robert Goddard offering, historical fact interwoven with a clever plot containing a few twists, a very enjoyable read
Published 15 months ago by G. Forbes
Good, but not very good
I have read around 10 Robert Goddard novels and although this is a reasonably good read it's far from being one of his best. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. A. Keightley
From America with counterfeit love
A pair of confidence tricksters flee an embarrassing financial collapse in the USA - as if an American financial institution could be guilty of fraudulent dealings or would be so... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2009 by Budge Burgess
Dale's Review
For somebody to write "Dismal" relating to this book in their review - must be illiterate.
((Some of Goddard's work I find a little slow at times and borders on "waffle". Read more
((Some of Goddard's work I find a little slow at times and borders on "waffle". Read more
Published on 22 May 2008 by D. Woodley
Disappointing
I bought this book because I'd thouroughly enjoyed Dying To Tell by the same author. Well, it was a desperate disappointment! Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2005 by Lis
A thouroughly compelling read
As ever Robert Goddard continues to be an undisputed master of thriller novels. Closed Circle, provides the usual twists and turns that gradually build into a solid plot. Read more
Published on 19 July 2000 by robert@northsealumber.co.uk
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