57 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Sight Unseen
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Sight Unseen (Hardcover)

by Robert Goddard (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


4 new from £1.99 51 used from £0.01 2 collectible from £4.99
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (Large Print Ed) £19.99 £19.99 4 used & new from £10.99
Paperback £7.28 £7.28 13 used & new from £0.01
Mass Market Paperback (New edition) £7.99 £5.99 387 used & new from £0.01

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Play to the End

Play to the End

by Robert Goddard
3.8 out of 5 stars (10)  £5.99
Never Go Back

Never Go Back

by Robert Goddard
3.5 out of 5 stars (26)  £5.99
Out of the Sun

Out of the Sun

by Robert Goddard
3.4 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.97
Closed Circle

Closed Circle

by Robert Goddard
3.8 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.49
Dying to Tell

Dying to Tell

by Robert Goddard
4.0 out of 5 stars (10)  £5.97
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Press; First Edition, 1st Printing edition (2 May 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 059305363X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0593053638
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 460,356 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #31 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > G > Goddard, Robert

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

One summer's day in 1981 a two-year-old girl, Tamsin Hall, was abducted during a picnic at the famous prehistoric site of Avebury in Wiltshire. Her seven-year-old sister Miranda was knocked down and killed by the abductor's van. The girls were in the care of their nanny, Sally Wilkinson. One of the witnesses to this tragic event was David Umber, a Ph.D student who was waiting at the village pub to keep an appointment with a man called Griffith who claimed he could help Umber with his researches into the letters of 'Junius', the pseudonymous eighteenth century polemicist who was his Ph.D subject. But Griffin failed to show up, and Umber never heard from him again. Tamsin Hall was never seen again either. The Hall family fell apart under the strain. Sally Wilkinson wound up living with Umber, whom she had met at the inquiry. But she never recovered from the incident, suffered increasingly from depression, and eventually committed suicide. In the spring of 2004 retired Chief Inspector George Sharp receives a letter signed 'Junius' reproaching him for botching the 1981 investigation. Sharp confronts Umber, whose explanation for being at the scene of the tragedy has always seemed dubious. Obliged to accept Umber's denial of authorship of the letter, he nonetheless forces him to join in a search for the real culprit - and hence the long concealed truth about what happened 23 years previously. It is a quest that both will later regret having embarked upon. Too late they come to understand that some mysteries are better left unsolved.


From the Publisher

Another classic mystery from the 'master of the clever twist'. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Sight Unseen
68% buy the item featured on this page:
Sight Unseen 4.3 out of 5 stars (21)
Past Caring
11% buy
Past Caring 4.7 out of 5 stars (16)
£5.97
Painting the Darkness
9% buy
Painting the Darkness 4.6 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.97
Hand in Glove
6% buy
Hand in Glove 4.5 out of 5 stars (6)
£5.96
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read, 22 May 2005
By Jan Erik Frantsvåg "janeriks" (Tromsø, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sight Unseen (Paperback)
Some 20 years after he witnessed the abduction of a child, David Umber is drawn into re-investigating the abduction and the killing it resulted in by a retired police detective, George Sharp who was one of the original investigators. George has never been quite happy with the official conclusions.

As David and George strive to make sense of the few facts they have, it dawns on them that not everyone is happy with their re-opening of the case. Whether this is due to the pains of re-opening healed and healing wounds, or has more sinister backgrounds, is not clear to us until the very end.

The story twists and turns, and leaves us continuously ponder the major question: Why was the child abducted? Cleverly, he hides this from our view until the last few pages.

Robert Goddard is a rather new acquaintance for me, but has a long career as a writer behind him. This new book is well written with believable characters and a story that makes sense - eventually. It is obviously the product of a seasoned author. I enjoyed it very much, and will recommend it. The mystery makes it a typical crime, but it is more thriller-like than the classical English crime novel. A typical page-turner, which was difficult to lay down.

Enjoy the read!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, pacy but occasionally preposterous, 2 Feb 2006
By D J Bennett (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sight Unseen (Mass Market Paperback)
I was switched on to Goddard after a chance recommendation from a fellow crime aficionado queuing in a Sutton Coldfield bookstore and I haven't been disappointed. Since then, I've read "Closed Circle", "Set in Stone" and "Play to the End" which remains my favourite. Having visited Avebury this summer, I couldn't resist his latest offering and, as with all the other titles I've read thus far, "Sight Unseen" made for riveting reading. With his deft observations, Goddard always manages to place you squarely in the locations he writes about - a talent which sets him apart from other writers - and the plot twists come thick and fast which impels you to read just one more chapter than you meant to before bedtime. However, sometimes Goddard's historical knowledge gets the better of the narrative giving rise to occasionally unconvincing or overblown sequences. Certain exchanges between David Umber, Claire and Alice made me laugh out loud because they were so overly earnest and melodramatic and I sometimes wondered whether the Junius connection, while fascinating, actually lent anything to the story or whether it was just an excuse for Goddard to flex his history-fed muscles. Also, read too many of Goddard's novels and you'll find the same stock characters cropping up to the extent that they could be interchangeable. Dexter, Rendell and P.D.James are, in my view, better writers in this regard. The mounting pressure on David Umber was particularly well drawn even if one's credulity was stretched a little at the main protagonist's every step being second-guessed. Still, there is never a dull moment with Goddard and I look forward to the day he gives my own locale the Goddard treatment!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Back on Form, 16 Nov 2005
By R. A. Jakes (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sight Unseen (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is as good as many of the earlier thrillers of Robert Goddard. It has strong locations in Avebury and Jersey and a plot with many unpredictable twists and turns. A young child is abducted and over the following years everyone who is a witness to these dreadful events, or tries to discover what really happened, dies in suspicious circumstances. The historical dimension to the mystery is intriguing. The strength of Mr Goddard's tales are that they are intelligent and captivating and you can't see through them until he is ready to reveal all on the last page.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and keeps you guessing
I picked up this book for 95p at a charity shop before going on holiday. Upon actually opening the book and beginning to read, I soon became engrossed. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ben Kelly

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Yet!
I must have read about 7 Goddards and this is my favourite so far. I was enjoying it so much that although I was longing to get to the end to find out what happened I kept... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Natasha Catmur

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb thriller and very accurate
I used to live in Marlborough and I know the surrounding areas very well. I also know Jersey, and I guess that this made reading Sight Unseen even more exciting, but it's a great... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. H. Aslett

4.0 out of 5 stars A real page turner
I really enjoyed this book, it was very hard to put down and didn't take long to read. I think his use of very short passages helps, you just read another bit, then think you'll... Read more
Published 16 months ago by crime reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great story from this author
This is the second book I have read from this Author - the first been "Past Caring - which was brilliant, this book was almost as good. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Newengland

4.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
I think the Junius part of the story was unnessesary but as it was the first mystery book that I have ever read, I didn't mind too much. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2007 by S. M. Bourne

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing from start to finish
I read this after my dad recommended it to me and without question from the start it was brilliant.

Initially after read the back of the book i didnt believe it would... Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2006 by Mr. Robert J. Murcott

3.0 out of 5 stars august 2006 bookgroup read
First novel i have read of Robert Goodard.

Enjoyed the read but i think the book could have been written without the history of Junius. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2006 by Mary Mary

4.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out and well written
This is the first Goddard novel I've read and I was really impressed. It kept my interest from front to back and managed to have a satisfying and plausible finish that tied... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2006 by Mr. S. Crook

4.0 out of 5 stars Sight Unseen
“Sight Unseen” is perfect Robert Goddard fodder and any fans of his books will no doubt lap this novel up in a couple of sittings. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2006 by Rich Milligan

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.