- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Washington Square Pr; Reprint edition (Oct 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671890379
- ISBN-13: 978-0671890377
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.5 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,186,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
Brain-teasing thriller from the 'master of the clever twist'
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Tristram Abberley was an English poet of the 1930s whose reputation was sealed when he died fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Nearly fifty years later his sister Beatrix is murdered during what appears to be a robbery at her home, but robbery - it transpires - is only part of the motive that underlies her death. Beatrix is the victim of a dark conspiracy, one that her loved ones are powerless to defeat.
But nothing is quite as it seems in a Robert Goddard novel. In a narrative that moves between Cheltenham and New York, Paris and rural Wales, Tunbridge Wells and wartime Spain, the conspirators themselves are caught up in a chain of dramatic events that are the consequence of meddling in the dark secrets of the legendary poet.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What I love about Robert Goddard is his ability to take an ordinary person, who could be someone you know, and place him or her into extra ordinary events - as if it was just a slip of fate that occurs. I have loved every novel I have read by Robert Goddard, and i always feel the same way - he has a fantastic ability to make you feel that it really could happen, although some of the events that happen in his novels are so fantastic.
One of my favourite scenes in Hand in Glove (not wanting to give too much away) is Derek walking down the bridge to meet the Spanish man, and the reader wonders how Frank, who is watching, must be feeling. Frank is an old man, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and knows what this Spanish man has done in the past. Frank is my favourite character in Hand in Glove, I could imagine him that he really is a real old man living in rural Wales.
Characterisation is everything with Goddard, Colin the shady dealer, Derek the shy unassuming hero who is not quite a hero - an accountant for heaven's sake, and Charlotte, the slightly overweight, sensible, unbeautiful but very real heroine who could hardly believe the events that happen to her family. And Beatrix, the old lady who dies at the beginning, yet who we learn about extensively and learn to love, just like a much-loved elderly grandparent who is long dead but much talked about. You could just imagine looking at old people in the street and imagining their previous lives, in wars and in events that we younger people an only ever see in films - ordinary people. Goddard respects history and it shows with such consumate skill.
Fantastic book by Goddard, totally unputdownable, a real page turner, and a very interesting unexpected ending - classic Goddard....make you think....
One of my favourite scenes in Hand in Glove (not wanting to give too much away) is Derek walking down the bridge to meet the Spanish man, and the reader wonders how Frank, who is watching, must be feeling. Frank is an old man, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and knows what this Spanish man has done in the past. Frank is my favourite character in Hand in Glove, I could imagine him that he really is a real old man living in rural Wales.
Characterisation is everything with Goddard, Colin the shady dealer, Derek the shy unassuming hero who is not quite a hero - an accountant for heaven's sake, and Charlotte, the slightly overweight, sensible, unbeautiful but very real heroine who could hardly believe the events that happen to her family. And Beatrix, the old lady who dies at the beginning, yet who we learn about extensively and learn to love, just like a much-loved elderly grandparent who is long dead but much talked about. You could just imagine looking at old people in the street and imagining their previous lives, in wars and in events that we younger people an only ever see in films - ordinary people. Goddard respects history and it shows with such consumate skill.
Fantastic book by Goddard, totally unputdownable, a real page turner, and a very interesting unexpected ending - classic Goddard....make you think....
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I became addicted to Goddard after reading Take No Farewell, and Hand In Glove shares many of the same features. Central to the plot is the determination of Derek Fairfax to exonerate his brother, who is suspected of murdering Beatrix Abberley, sister of the war poet Tristam Abberley. The plot gets murkier and more complex, until everything seems to fall into place. There's a nice twist in the final chapter too.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An old lady wakes in the night anticipating her murder ... and knowing who her murderer must be. The police, however, have another suspect, conveniently connected to the crime and unable to explain away the evidence heaped against him. Thus starts a whodunnit which begins in the quiet certainties of an English coastal town and reaches across the seas and down fifty years to the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath.
Robert Goddard writes exceptionally good historical thrillers, linking a past which has sown the seeds of the crime, and the present in which the harvest is brought in. In doing so, he displays exceptional qualities of exposition - of finding a vehicle to describe the past and make it relevant to the present without stopping the action and slowing the story.
Goddard plots his stories beautifully - he is, or should be, a model for would be novelists. His characters can reminisce, he can inject documents from the past, he can flashback and forward through time, and he can have his characters discuss the significance of history and specific, often arcane, events without for one moment decelerating the page-turning flow of his writing.
This is Goddard's sixth novel, maintaining an exceptional standard. A very English writer, but with catholic interests and perspectives, his writing is always intelligent, lucid, humanistic, and well-paced, his narrative weaving back and forth across a cast of characters and across cultures and eras. He sets up the twists very neatly, but very honestly. There's no sleight of hand, just excellent craftsmanship.
Goddard's thrillers are, perhaps, 'cosy' - his heroes, in so far as they exist, tend not to be macho men, but placid individuals caught up in a maelstrom of events. Their responses are human and flawed, their actions logical but hesitant. They are real rather than superheroes. The villains, too, are rational people, seeking to exploit and benefit from their crimes. What Goddard assembles is a recognisable set of possibilities - situations and crimes which seem plausible and possible, and not the exorbitant fantasy of Hollywood or some of the more strenuous thrillers.
Goddard's books are excellent accompaniment on journeys or a weekend in front of the fire. Excellent, well-written stories which keep you entertained, keep you engaged, and keep you turning the pages.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Secrets and lies.
'Hand in Glove'.I've waited and waited to read this,having read every other Robert Goddard novel.I left this one until he took another 'gap' year,which with the delay to 'Long Time... Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by richard Brown
Goddard never lets his readers down
As usual Goddard selects a most unlikely candidate for the lead role in this tale of murder, mystery, intrigue and wrongful arrest. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2001
Excellent book, twists and turns all through
this is an excellent thriller. The characters are strong and come to life on the page. There are many twists and the reader's idea of who-dunnit change with every chapter. Read more
Published on 13 July 1999
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