Product Description

Harry Barnett leads a shabby existence in the shadow of a past disgrace, reduced to caretaking a friend's villa on the island of Rhodes and working in a bar. Then a guest at the villa - a young woman he had instantly and innocently warmed to - disappears, and Harry is suspected for murder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79102 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 541 pages

From the Back Cover
Harry Barnett is a middle-aged failure, leading a shabby existence in the shadow of a past disgrace, reduced to caretaking a friend's villa on the island of Rhodes and working in a bar to earn his keep. Then a guest at the villa - a young woman he had instantly and innocently warmed to - disappears on a mountain peak.

Under suspicion of her murder, Harry stumbles on a set of photographs taken by Heather Mallender in the weeks before her disappearance. Desperately, obsessed by the mystery that has changed his life, he begins to trace back the movements and encounters that led to the moment when she vanished into the blue. The trail leads him back to England, to a world he thought he had left for ever, and at every step of the way a new and baffling light is shed on all the assumptions that have made Harry what he is.

About the Author
Robert Goddard was born in Hampshire and read History at Cambridge. His first novel, Past Caring, was an instant bestseller. Since then his books have captivated readers worldwide with their edge-of-the-seat pace and their labyrinthine plotting. Into the Blue was winner of the first WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV, starring John Thaw.

Customer Reviews

Top of the bill
Harry Barnett must be one of the least likely heroes I've encountered ever. Although he has failed in all he's ever tried his hand at before, when his friend Heather disappears he sets out to find her with the persistence of a pit-bull. But his search leads him to some very unexpected places.

This is the fifth book I've read by Robert Goddard, and until now he hasn't let me down a single time. Each and every time upon finishing one of his books I say to myself 'surely the next can't be as good', but I'm happy to say Goddard has proven me wrong again and again.

Into The blue
This is an absolutely amazing book. You have no idea how it's going to end until right at the end. It is incredibly clever and completely unique in it's plot. You have to read this.

An absorbing read
This book was a very enjoyable experience and a deserving winner of the W.H.Smith 'Thumping Good Read' Award. After the book gets going you just want to go on and on reading. The plot and the solution seem obvious now after I've finished the book but I remember when I was reading it every new piece of knowledge dug up by the (anti-)hero just made the picture more and more puzzeling.

On the negative side I got a bit fed up with the protagonist's inability to finish sentences without being interrupted. Even if the dialogue 'really' goes like that you get a little bit fed up seeing it in print all the time. Also, there's one aspect of the plot that's a bit obvious and is hardly going to be the big surprise it (perhaps) was meant to be.

However, these are just minor points of critisism and should deter anyone from reading this brilliant book.