Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #372242 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Binding: Hardcover
• 329 pages

Synopsis
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 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 archaeological career. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.

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.

Customer Reviews

A tale of two genres
For the first 350 pages of what should probably have been a 370 page novel (rather than 450), I really thought that this was the best novel that Robert Goddard have ever written. As usual the characters were well drawn, the locations fascinating and the plot, while utterly compelling, was real enough to make the main character believable as an ordinary bloke. Then just as it approached the climax, the action moved from Cornwall to Venice and the whole genre of the book changed from a believable mystery into a James Bond story. We were greeted by a suave baddie with a gold Rolex and a speed boat. The main characters were captured, and tied up but were they killed?. Oh no. They were taken to the baddie's high-tech lair and tied up while he kindly told them all about his fiendish intentions. This totally implausible section of the story was tied in with a lot of unnecessary plot twists which just served to spin out the story for about 100 pages more than was necessary.
It is still a good story and will still keep Goddard fans turning the pages but is rather spoiled by the final section.

Some secrets are better left with the dead.........
This is the type of novel that Robert Goddard excells at. A mystery thriller wrapped around a historical conundrum, and he was on good form when he wrote this in 2003.
A convoluted plot with nice twists and turns and an unseen enemy (simular in this regard to 'Sight Unseen')the story follows Nick who returns to Cornwall for a family gathering only to find that there is an ulterior motive to him being summoned.
This review is deliberately vague so as not to spoil the story, but things begin to go very wrong for Nick and the deeper he digs to reveal the truth ,the closer to death he gets.
Goddard creates a dark, unsettling atmosphere within this novel which is increased with his finale taking place in Venice. ( a nod towards 'Don't Look Now')perhaps?
All in all, a clever well written thriller and one of his best from this current decade.

Confusing, preposterous and ultimately gibberish
This was my first Goddard, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew that he writes a lot about fractured families, and that there's usually some element of mystery involved. What I wasn't expecting was pan-European chases, Grail theory, and character allegiance of the most fluid kind.

Days Without Number is best described as a story about Nick, the son of a cantankerous old archeologist, trying to find out why a ridiculously generous offer has been made on his father's crumbling old house. On top of this, about half way through the book, bodies start piling up at a frankly alarming rate and Nick has to work out why people keep getting offed.

The really odd thing about this book is how it begins like Agatha Christie and then turns into a Shane Black movie, before diverting briefly and inexplicably into Indiana Jones near the end. Nick is led by events on what basically amounts to a wild goose chase, and ultimately discovers that his family has been set up by someone extremely unlikely.

Characterisation is also rather strange. Nick himself is the usual early middle aged, faceless hero type, but many of the other characters are introduced with somewhat odd descriptions. Tom, for example, Nick's 22 year old nephew, is described in one memorably creepy and lascivious paragraph in intimate physical detail as some kind of Adonis male model stud, FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. With details like Tom's 'gym-honed physique' and 'floppy blond hair', I had to have a lie down afterwards.

Still, it rattled along I suppose. Can't say I'm in a desperate rush to read any of Goddard's other novels however.