Beyond Recall (Henry Holt Mystery) [Paperback]

Robert Goddard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999 | Series: Henry Holt Mystery

At a wedding party in Cornwall, Chris Napier, the bride's uncle, is accosted by a drunken, disheveled, and evidently distraught intruder. The man turns out to be Chris's childhood friend Nicky Lanyon, whose father was hanged for the murder of Joshua Carnoweth-Chris's great-uncle and the man behind the Napier family's inherited state of affluence. Pleading his father's innocence, Nicky commits suicide, forcing Chris to test the truth of his friend's conviction. The conduct of more than one member of his own family begins to dog his hesitant footsteps into a past slowly darkening with the shadows of corruption, greed, lies, child abuse, and good old-fashioned revenge.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A carefully crafted tale of suspense, Beyond Recall interweaves present and past as Christian Napier sets out to discover the truth behind his great-uncle's murder, committed during the days of rationing and privation following the Second World War. That death provided the foundation of the Napier family's subsequent prosperity, but Christian is led to question the verdict reached in the case by the more recent suicide of an old and abandoned friend. The whole of the action is relayed through Napier's eyes and voice as he struggles to sort out his understanding of what happened before he was born, his own memories as a child, the alcohol-hazed intervening years, and the current arm's-length relationship he maintains with the surviving members of his family.

Goddard's sense of place is strong. The Cornish market town of Truro, with its 19th-century cathedral looming over events spanning a century, provides the backdrop for the mystery and also for the shifting fortunes of the British experience. Descriptions of a grand family home transformed into a hotel and conference center, the tiny chain-pulled ferry crossing an estuary as it has done for generations, and Cornwall's unchanging and temperate beauty offer convincing detail beyond the usual place-name dropping.

Although the denouement is muddled by a confusion of identities and too many people thought dead resurfacing (both to Napier's dismay and delight), the general scheme is entertaining enough and just within the bounds of what's believable, given Goddard's manipulation of the reader's expectations. The central themes of revenge and greed lose some of their power when mixed with a subplot colored by a '90s obsession with sexual misdeeds, but these flaws do not detract from the pleasure of the whole. An enjoyable read, fraught with the tension Goddard's readers have come to expect. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As he does so smoothly and so well (Out of the Sun, etc.), Goddard again creates a narrator who uncovers secrets buried in the past that cast grim shadows on later generations. Here he takes classic English mystery staples?a grand old house in Cornwall, a family fortune in dispute, murder and blackmail?and concocts an absorbing suspense novel with a modern sensibility. Alienated from his family for some years, Chris Napier returns home to the Cornish town of Truro for his niece's wedding at Tredower House, the family estate (now a hotel and conference center) bequeathed by his adventurous great uncle, Joshua Carnoweth. Guests are reminded of an unpleasant event when Chris's boyhood friend, Nicky Lanyon, shows up at the reception to announce that his father, who was hanged for the murder of Uncle Joshua, was innocent of the deed. Nicky culminates his plea by committing suicide. In Nicky's memory, Chris investigates the 34-year-old murder case, while one mysterious woman goes after his money and another wins his heart. Goddard intricately interweaves the life stories of three generations, adding texture to the parallel plots: the love between his great-uncle and Nicky's grandmother, the moral crises of the WWII generation and Chris's own tale of 1960s rebellion. As usual, Goddard is meticulous with background details and local color, and his characters, with their good manners and dark secrets, seem to have stepped out of a Daphne Du Maurier novel. There are enough surprises in this tale of switched identities and lingering resentments to keep readers steadily engrossed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 6th edition (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805061975
• ISBN-13: 978-0805061970
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another gem from Goddard!, May 15, 1999

By 

ZP (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Recall (Henry Holt Mystery) (Paperback)

This is my third Goddard book and he never really ceases to amaze me. I read Closed Circle first, which was great, but then Out of the Sun was incredible. This one, like all of his work, has a wonderfully crafted plot and excitement galore. Goddard is a hidden gem outside England, and that's a shame. If you don't know which of his books to buy, start with Past Caring and you'll get all of them after that. Goddard has quickly become my favorite author and I will gladly devour anything he writes!!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Twists Will Keep You Hooked, July 18, 2000

By 

Elliott Campbell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Recall (Henry Holt Mystery) (Paperback)

This was my first Robert Goddard novel, and after reading this book in less than 24 hours I can certainly be considered a new fan.

I simply could not put this book down. It did what every good thriller should be able to do -- transfix you and make you want to turn the page to see what happens next. It was the twists that kept me reading this book. However, they are not so frequent that you expect a twist at the end of every chapter. There are just enough thrown in to make you reconsider every time you think you've sorted out what is really going on.

Reading the other reviews posted here, I was a little concerned about all the flashbacks that this novel uses. But upon reading the book I found it no problem at all. It is not overdone and they are all contexualised with modern day events. One will have no problem at all keeping track of things.

I was glued to this novel for the better part of a day, reading it in very quick time. I simply had to find out what was going to happen next! If you like that in a thriller, then you will greatly enjoy this novel.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A real ride...., May 9, 2000

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beyond Recall: A Novel (Hardcover)

This was my first Robert Goddard book and I was pleasantly surprised. Goddard's writing evokes a sense of place almost as strong as those created by P.D. James. I don't think all of Goddard's characters are as well drawn as they might have been, but he does a good job with the Great Uncle, Christian, and Nicky. "Simone" is over the top at times, and her character stretched my suspension of disbelief pretty taut.

The plot reminded me of LeCarre's "Perfect Spy" or Deborah Crombie's "Kissed a Sad Goodbye" with it's the twists and turns and links between the present action and the events of the past. I found it a challenge to keep things straight at times, but I anticipated almost every plot twist before it happened with a few exceptions, so either I'm pretty good at deciphering mysteries, or the plot isn't as confusing as some critics have suggested. I also think it helped to read the book in a 24 hour period.

I recommend this book. It's head and shoulders above many other mysteries I've read lately by "famous" authors.