Borrowed Time [Kindle Edition]

Robert Goddard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First published in the UK in 1995, this psychological thriller has a that plot springs from the chance encounter between English businessman Robin Timariot and Lady Louise Paxton, who meet briefly while hiking near Wales. Hours later, Paxton is found raped and strangled in a nearby cottage. Over the proceeding months and years, Timariot watches as a drifter get convicted of the murder and the Paxton family disintegrates into rivalries, suicides and tensions owing to the crime. Meanwhile, Timariot, heir to a cricket bat manufacturing company, must navigate his own family squabbles, fueled in part by the company's lagging position in the marketplace. As with many of his 16 novels (Dying to Tell, etc.), Goddard's plotting is a smooth mix of secrets, deceits and slowly unfolding horrors.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

Long ago, Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) totally hoodwinked this reviewer, who has since been suspicious of any mystery written in the first person. This distrust was intensified by Nicholas Farrell's seemingly innocent interpretation of Robin Timariot, the protagonist of Borrowed Time. Is he the honest, ingenuous Englishman he seems? Or is he capable of complex lies, rape, and murder? Farrell's outstanding reading is as ambiguous as the story is layered. Initially, his neutral tones introduce a colorless, joyless government employee. Yet Timariot meets a lovely woman on the evening of her murder, and his emotions are stirred by her beauty and, later, by horror at hearing of her rape and murder. Even though he is unable to adequately explain his obsession with the dead woman and her family, his subsequent involvement in their lives brings some meaning to his. Farrell unobtrusively effects this transformation by orally coloring Timariot with shades of admiration, anger, disgust, disappointment, embarrassment, and concern. Mystery fans will appreciate this recording's characterization, plot, and performance. Recommended.
Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Coll. of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 533 KB
• Publisher: Delta (January 31, 2006)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCKNR8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,100 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, if a bit long-winded, July 19, 2001

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borrowed Time (Paperback)

...

There are three types of mystery novels. The best of them grab you by the throat and pull you along. You give up eating and sleeping to get through them in one sitting. The worst of them can be encapsulized in a page and a half, you've figured out who the killer is in three sentences, and you can safely consign them to the fire without enduring the rest of the writing therein. The third type sits between the two. It's well-written enough, and fine while you're reading it, but you don't feel that compulsion to continue when something else beckons; you don't resent the phone ringing when you hear it. These are the good mysteries (as opposed to the great ones). Robert Goddard writes good mysteries. This is his eighth, the story of how a man on a hike's chance encounter with a beautiful woman gets him (and some members of his family) tangled up in her family's odd twists and turns. It's well plotted, moves along at a steady if not brisk pace, and there are enough satisfying twists and turns to keep the reader occupied. But it doesn't beg to be picked up every time it's put down. Perhaps the problem lies in Goddard's writing style, which is a bit on the thick side; perhaps it's just his characters, who always seem to be teetering on the brink of two-dimensionality without ever actually getting there (that, of course, is a charge that can be laid against many mysteries, including some of the best; Spillane's female characters, e.g., had all the depth of a lasagna noodle). Or perhaps, Borrowed Time just doesn't read as fast as some of its contemporaries. It's certainly not a bad novel, and mystery fans who have grown tired of reading the same authors over and over again might do well to refresh themselves with a dip in Goddard's pool. Just don't be expecting another Lehane, Parker, or Highsmith. ** 1/2

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Borrowed Time, January 11, 2007

By 

Janice M. Anthony (Newtown, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borrowed Time (Paperback)

An excellent read! I discovered this author and his books only recently, and I've read almost all of them since. His writing reminds me of the fine writer of novels set in England, Elizabeth George. His characters are well developed and the story keeps you in suspense until the end. I highly recommend this book and other books by Robert Goddard.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific amateur sleuth, March 4, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borrowed Time (Paperback)

In the summer of 1990, five weeks after his oldest sibling Hugh died of a heart attack at forty-nine years old, thirty-seven years old Robin Timariot needs time to decide his future so he plans to hike for six days along the Offa's Dyke ridge in the Welsh Borders. Though he enjoyed his work with the European Commission in Brussels, since Hugh died he finds it oppressive and ponders if he should come home to join the family business since his uncle, mom and the other relatives insist they need him.

On the ridge at a heavenly view, he meets a lovely middle-aged woman whose nearby parked Mercedes seems to put her in the wrong place. They amiably chat about truly changing things before they part. A week later, Robin reads in the Daily Telegraph the shocking article of artist Oscar Bantock raping and murdering Louise Paxton, the woman who impressed him for that short interlude chat on the trail. He tells the truth about their encounter, but finds the reactions of Louise's loved ones odd. Counseling himself to mind his business, Robin still makes some simple inquiries that turn out to be extremely complex and dangerous to anyone who learns the truth.

This is a terrific amateur sleuth tale that overcomes the inherent credibility flaw that hurts much of the sub-genre as the audience readily can see Robin (or themselves) making simple testimony, condolences and curious minor inquiries that twist and turn into something beyond the protagonist's control. It is the plausibility that this could happen to anyone that makes BORROWED TIME a fabulous thriller that fans will devour in one sitting and seek other works by Robert Goddard (see INTO THE BLUE).

Harriet Klausner