Past Caring
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Product Description
Review
"Combines the expert suspense manipulation skills of a Daphne DuMaurier romance with those of a John Le Carre thriller."
--"New York Times"
"One of the best novel I've read in a long time...I loved every one of its 500 pages"
--"Washington Post"
"A hornet's nest of jealousy, blackmail and violence. Engrossing"
--"Daily Mail"
"A complex trail of blackmail and murder. Recommended"
--"Daily Express" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--"New York Times"
"One of the best novel I've read in a long time...I loved every one of its 500 pages"
--"Washington Post"
"A hornet's nest of jealousy, blackmail and violence. Engrossing"
--"Daily Mail"
"A complex trail of blackmail and murder. Recommended"
--"Daily Express" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
A riveting bestseller from one of the UK's biggest thriller writers.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A down at heel, disreputable former teacher is enlisted to research a mystery which has spanned the first half of the 20th century ... and beyond. As he delves into the past, his own failures come back to haunt him. It seemed, at first, to be an excuse for a bit of a jaunt and a chance to earn some spare cash; it quickly turns into a real mystery in which the teacher must anticipate threats to his own life and the total disruption of his world.
Robert Goddard does an excellent job of taking the Liberal Government's pre-World War One constitutional crisis and making it the backdrop for his mystery. Prime Minister Asquith is not one of the most memorable of British politicians, and the crisis occasioned by Lloyd George's welfare policies is forgotten by all but those few historians specialising in the era.
Goddard, nevertheless, brings it alive and makes it both comprehensible to the non-historian and relevant to the plot. Using themes of political rivalry between Asquith, Lloyd George, and Churchill, and the radical intervention of the Suffragette movement, he constructs a highly entertaining page-turner of a novel.
He handles the exposition of the history very well. This is no fluffy 'costume drama': the themes of rivalry, jealousy, intrigue, and political manipulation are timeless, and Goddard sets them up neatly and convincingly.
His hero is flawed. He has a past ... he seems unlikely to have a future. He's no conventional thriller hero - if it came to a fight between him and an aged nun, I'd put my money on the nun. He is, effectively, a nondescript little bourgeois with contacts from his Cambridge days - he has all the social graces and some of their advantages, but he's squandered his opportunities because of his flawed character.
Goddard develops his unheroic hero quite well - this is Goddard's first novel, in later books his characterisation becomes more acutely constructed and managed. If there is a fault in this work, however, it is in the dialogue, which can be a bit sterile. Virtually all the characters talk with the same voice - polite, Oxbridge tones with little real emotion and much elaborated rationalisation.
Nevertheless, it's a very good tale, well told (in the main), and, like all good first novels, it's a useful yardstick against which to measure the writer's emergent talent. I interviewed Goddard some years ago. He's a very pleasant, articulate, knowledgeable, and likeable man - you suspect an evening in his company over a few beers would be highly entertaining. He also writes exceedingly good thrillers - very English (as a Scot, I do not always use this as a derogatory term), with an enthralling ability to grasp history and relate it to the present.
Excellent, enjoyable page-turner of a novel. Like all Goddard's works, a fine book to take away with you for a weekend or to accompany you on a long plane or train journey while an expert storyteller transports you into another world.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This has to be one of Robert Goddard's best.... The reader is hooked from page one, a page turner of first order. This does exactly what you want from a great book - it sucks you in and before you know it the day has melted away and you're lost in the pages. You're driven to keep turning pages to know how the story develops. Goddard proves himself as a superb storyteller.
It's easy to be a bit more critical with his more recent works, but here I can only express my admiration for his work. He is really on top of his creative capabilities.
It's easy to be a bit more critical with his more recent works, but here I can only express my admiration for his work. He is really on top of his creative capabilities.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although all of Robert Goddard's novels are great works of fiction, it is this one that really gives it all he's got. It is the first one I read and the one that made me immediately go out and buy all the others that he had written - and eagerly await the next. The twists are realistic, the plot intricate and well planned and the characterisation believable. Read this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
his best book of all
this is a story that will have you gripped by the 5th page....it is so well written and Goddards use of language is worlds apart from the many authors whose books I have since... Read more
Published 2 months ago by allison d edwards
Gripping story - poor proof reading
I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a detective type story without the usual PI stereotype. Instead features a young historian retained to dig into the past of a disgraced,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by kindletime
the best RG novel that I have read
I could not put this book down. I wont spoil it for you, but if you like a bit of history and a real page turner of a book, some mystery, a little politics of the time and a love... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Amanda
Was this proof-read in the pub?
There are a shocking number of proofing errors, mostly in the second half of the book, which tend to interfere with the flow. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Asnac
Kindle edition
The book itself was the usual Goodard fare, good pace, various locations, lots of subplots ending with almost a bang. Read more
Published 4 months ago by LFW
Was this proof-read in the pub?
There are a shocking number of proofing errors, mostly in the second half of the book, which tend to interfere with the flow. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Asnac
Surprised, pleased and impressed
I was slightly sceptical about this book but the sample on my Kindle persuaded me to buy it. The plot is complex and requires the reader's attention. Read more
Published 4 months ago by noheadjeff
Engrossing mystery
Past Caring is my third and final book in the Great Transworld Crime Caper. The previous two books were easy picks, because I knew when I saw the subjects I definitely wanted to... Read more
Published 14 months ago by W.M.M. van der Salm-Pallada
Still reading at 2.00 am!!
I have read quite a few of Robert Goddard's books but this has got to be the best so far - I couldn't put it down and eventually finished it at 2.00 am!! Read more
Published 22 months ago by World Traveller
who cares !
I am a big fan of Robert Goddards novels having read most of them, however i just could not get into this book, usually they are real page turners and before you know it a whole... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Alternative Monkey
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