Product Description

Nick Paleologus is summoned to the unyielding bosom of his family to help resolve a dispute which threatens to set his brothers and sisters against their aged and irascible father. Michael Paleologus, retired archeologist and supposed descendent of the last Emperors of Byzantium, lives alone at Trennor, a remote and rambling house on the Cornish bank of the Tamar. A ridiculously generous offer has been made for the house, but he refuses to sell despite the urgings of his children, for whom the proceeds would solve a variety of problems. Nick accomplished little in the role of mediator, but the stalemate is soon tragically broken. Only then do Nick and his siblings discover why their father was bound at all costs to reject the offer and what may really be the motives of the prospective buyer. Their increasingly desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy, who seems as determined to force them into a confrontation with their family's past as he is to conceal his own identity. Late in the day, perhaps too late, Nick realizes that the only way to escape from the trap their persecutor has set for them is to hunt him down, wherever - and whoever - he may be. But the hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father's archeological career. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78219 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From the Publisher
Days without Number is another classic Robert Goddard mystery, intricate, fascinating and deeply satisfying to the very last page

From the Back Cover
Nick Paleologus is summoned to the unyielding bosom of his family to help resolve a dispute which threatens to set his brothers and sisters against their aged and irascible father. Michael Paleologus, retired archaeologist and supposed descendant of the last Emperors of Byzantium, lives alone at Trennor, a remote and rambling house on the Cornish bank of the Tamar. A ridiculously generous offer has been made for the house, but he refuses to sell despite the urgings of his children, for whom the proceeds would solve a variety of problems.

Nick accomplishes little in the role of mediator, but the stalemate is soon tragically broken. Only then do Nick and his siblings discover why their father was bound at all costs to reject the offer and what may really be the motives of the prospective buyer.

Their increasingly desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy, who seems as determined to force them into a confrontation with their family's past as he is to conceal his own identity.

Late in the day, perhaps too late, Nick realizes that the only way to escape from the trap their persecutor has set for them is to hunt him down, wherever - and whoever - he may be. But the hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father's archaeological career. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.

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. His bestselling novels are: Past Caring, In Pale Battalions, Painting the Darkness, Into the Blue (winner of the first WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award and dramatized for TV in 1997, starring John Thaw), Take No Farewell, Hand in Glove, Closed Circle, Borrowed Time, Out of the Sun (a sequel to Into the Blue), Beyond Recall, Caught in the Light, Set in Stone, Sea Change, Dying to Tell and Days Without Number

Customer Reviews

Days Without Number
As with all of Robert Goddard's books the story revolves about betrayal and secrets from the past shattering the present day life of the main character. In Days Without Number, Nick Paleologus find his family torn apart following a mysterious offer to buy their family farmhouse and in true Goddard style plots and conspiracy run deep.
However, this latest offering from Goddard has more in common with his later books, in which the plots are shallower and loose ends proliferate.
For those familiar with Goddard work, a good read for the beach or train. For newcomers, start with In Pale Battalions or Borrowed Time.

A rich and wonderful novel
This rates as one of the best thrillers I have ever read, but the writing is so good that it deserves the more distinguished title of 'novel'.
Goddard builds up a carefully layered mystery. The individual characters of the Paleologus family are well delineated; the Cornish setting is beautifully realised (after reading this book I want to visit Cornwall); and the story just builds and builds. It is mesmeric.
I have read a lot of thrillers which promise twists and turns galore but just seem vacuous and artificial by the end. An indication of how much this novel is worth is that I got so involved with the characters and setting that when the narrative began to gather pace, and the whole puzzle started to emerge, I was genuinely surprised.
This really is wonderful entertainment. Intelligent, rich, and satisfying. I intend to start reading all of Robert Goddard's works now.

Forget the Da Vinci Code
This book predates the Da Vinci Code by a couple of years. It uses the identical historical background, but it is more beleivably described (but still a little unlikely. It is an infinitely supior novel. With genuinely drawn characters (not Dan Brown's cardboard cutouts) If you have read the Da Vinci Code, try this, but beware you need a bit of a brain to follow the plot.
Craft compared to Formula.
Art compared to Market analysis.
Goddard's story telling varies from good to unsurpassable.
His characters always have very human flaws and there is always obsession. His plots are complex and strategically revealed. There are often things happening in earlier time periods having consequences a generation or more later. His original well researched plotting avoids formula or you being able to guess what is going to happen.
This is just below his very best two or three novels. Which still makes it better than almost anything else about. Goddard is the best author writing in the Psychology/adventure/thriller genre.