Why should distinguished Edwardian Cabinet minister Edwin Strafford resign at the height of his parliamentary career? Why does the woman he loves so suddenly and coldly reject him? Why, seventy years later, should people go to such lengths - even as far as murder - to prevent the truth from being revealed? Martin Radford, history graduate, disaffected and unemployed, leaps at the chance to get to the island of Madeira and begin the hunt for a solution to the intriguing secret of Edwin Strafford's fall from grace. However, his seeming good fortune turns to nightmare as his investigation triggers a bizarre and violent train of events which remorselessly entangles him and those who believed they had escaped the spectre of crimes long past but never paid for...
Past Caring
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'A complex trail of blackmail and murder. Recommended' (Daily Express )
'A hornet's nest of jealousy, blackmail and violence. Engrossing' (Daily Mail )
'One of the best novels I've read in a long time...The story is absolutely compelling...I loved every one of its 500 pages' (The Washington Post )
'Combines the expert suspense manipulation skills of a Daphne Du Maurier romance with those of a John Le Carre thriller' (The New York Times )
'A hornet's nest of jealousy, blackmail and violence. Engrossing' (Daily Mail )
'One of the best novels I've read in a long time...The story is absolutely compelling...I loved every one of its 500 pages' (The Washington Post )
'Combines the expert suspense manipulation skills of a Daphne Du Maurier romance with those of a John Le Carre thriller' (The New York Times )
Book Description
A riveting bestseller from one of the UK's biggest thriller writers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 57 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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You too would reach the point where you were PAST CARING if the found that your perfect life had been wrenched from you; the love of your life had suddenly abandoned you and your once promising career was in tatters all for reasons unknown to you.......reasons that no one would explain but vehemently insisted were known to you.
Such is the fate of Edwin Strafford. Once a man with a promising political career as a British cabinet minister, contemporary and friend to the likes of Winston Churchill and Lloyd George, he becomes an outcast of sorts relegated to life on the island of Madeira. After his death his autobiographical memoir is found and Martin Radford, a historian with a few dark secrets of his own, is commissioned to take a copy of the memoir and attempt to reassemble the jig-saw puzzle that was Strafford's life. Radford, like many of author Goddard's protagonists, is a man without purpose or focus. He is unemployed, has an ex-wife who despises him, a daughter to whom he is a less than perfect father, and a proclivity for manipulative women whose motives are questionable.
Author Robert Goddard has once again delivered an ingenious, complex and compelling story that is filled with mystery, historical fact, political intrigue, betrayal, deception, heartbreak and murder. This book is an absolute must read for anyone who enjoys a well written narrative and a plot with as many twists and turns as a mountain road. Be prepared to lose some sleep because PAST CARING will have you reading well into the wee small hours of the morning.
Such is the fate of Edwin Strafford. Once a man with a promising political career as a British cabinet minister, contemporary and friend to the likes of Winston Churchill and Lloyd George, he becomes an outcast of sorts relegated to life on the island of Madeira. After his death his autobiographical memoir is found and Martin Radford, a historian with a few dark secrets of his own, is commissioned to take a copy of the memoir and attempt to reassemble the jig-saw puzzle that was Strafford's life. Radford, like many of author Goddard's protagonists, is a man without purpose or focus. He is unemployed, has an ex-wife who despises him, a daughter to whom he is a less than perfect father, and a proclivity for manipulative women whose motives are questionable.
Author Robert Goddard has once again delivered an ingenious, complex and compelling story that is filled with mystery, historical fact, political intrigue, betrayal, deception, heartbreak and murder. This book is an absolute must read for anyone who enjoys a well written narrative and a plot with as many twists and turns as a mountain road. Be prepared to lose some sleep because PAST CARING will have you reading well into the wee small hours of the morning.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By Me read
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
The book was as good as expected BUT
I was really disappointed with this book; not because of the story or its telling, but because there were so many spelling errors in the text of this particular edition. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Steph C
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly constructed story
The fifth Robert Goddard I've read and up there with the best. Thoroughly gripping story line, excellent location descriptions and strong characters.
Published 2 months ago by Mr. P. O'brien
5.0 out of 5 stars
gripping
An early Goddard, and very cheap for kindles! Robert Goddard is an excellent story teller, good holiday reading, and highly recommended
Published 2 months ago by Bernice Garlick
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goddard's best?
Thoroughly absorbing, a well researched mixture of fiction and historical fact with enough surprises to satisfy any reader. I have enjoyed several of Rober Goddard's books. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Deek Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down - cliche but true
I don't know why I have never heard about this book. I found it quite fascinating - a bit far fetched perhaps but none the worse for that. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dr
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Excellent read
Loved this book, couldn't put it down, reading until 3.00am ! Robert Goddard has done it again, written a superb story that keeps you hooked all the way through.
Published 3 months ago by Lizzie
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm almost........past caring
This not a short book. It has a lot of detail in it but persistance is needed. Events evolve rather slowly. There is no urgency in it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by H. Cowan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Diverting enough
To some readers (cough) the hero of this novel may seem a bit close to home: swanning round the late seventies drinking too much, unable to either hold down a job or keep his... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Graham R. Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent first book
Excellent book well told enthralling to the end Robert Goddard tells a great story difficult to put down once you start
Published 3 months ago by ian kitcher
5.0 out of 5 stars
excllent
Although this book is really beautifully written it started very slowly and I was going to put down as I thought it was boring but it got more and more exciting right to the end. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Penelope Truscott
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