Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90072 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 412 pages

Synopsis
A murder mystery that moves between a wedding party in 1981 and a murder in 1947. Chris Napier decides to delve into the events of the past to try and find out who killed his great uncle, Joshua Bradwell. Before long, larger mysteries begin to dog Chris's footsteps into the past.

From the Publisher
Murder mystery that moves between 1981 and 1947.

About the Author
Robert Goddard was born in Hampshire. He read History at Cambridge and worked as an educational administrator in Devon before becoming a full-time novelist. He is the author of many bestselling novels, including Into the Blue which won the first WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV in 1997, starring John Thaw.

Customer Reviews

Stunning, one of Goddard's best
I love all of Goddard's novels (the 7 I've read so far that is) but this is one of my favourites. I adore the way Goddard draws you in from the very beginning, with ordinary people leading ordinary lives until suddenly something happens, and what at first seems a minor event in their lives before long spirals out of control.

Goddard is an absolute master of 'the unexpected twist' and a fantastic storyteller. I hope he lives to be a hundred and from now until then writes at least a book a year ;-)

A classic Goddard novel
Having been left disapointed by Robert Goddard's most recent novel 'Name to a face', I decided to return to an earlier novel that I first read 10 years ago,'Beyond Recall'.

'Beyond Recall' is a superb read,engrossing and with classic plot twists that leave you in a spin. The story is multi layered and the time is split between 1997,1981 and 1947 as well as dipping into years in between. Written in the first person we become embroiled in Chris Napier's life as he seeks answers to the the reasons behind the suicide of a childhood friend.Napier's search for the truth unlocks dark family secrets and puts him in increasing danger form a vengeful unknown enemy.Robert Goddard exells at this sort of story. The detail and setting are rich and descriptive with a real sense of time and place. The story is complex and holds the readers attention throughout. It is everything that his last two novels are not.

If Robert Goddard had written his recent novels in the first person then I am sure they would have been better. I can't understand why he ridgidly follows his central character around without switching to other scenes yet now writes in the third person. As a result both 'Never Go Back' and 'Name to a Face' were predictable and lacked the suspense that makes 'Beyond Recall' so good.

'Beyond Recall, for me is almost up there with his very best and the only reason it gets four stars from me is because he has written even better books than this.

Atmospheric thriller
What I enjoy about Robert Goddard is how he tells a story that spans several decades with several threads running in paralell. In this book there are three such threads. The book starts off in the present (1997), then jumps back to 1981 and then to the 1940's, these last two threads being woven together to form the main part of the story. My only regret is that the account of the protagonist's childhood and the murder of his uncle in post-war Cornwall ends too soon (and hence the 1981 thread is left to go on on its own) because its lends great atmosphere to the book.