Customer Reviews

Hand in Glove

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!

No, his book is not about the "War", rather it's a superb mystery/thriller brilliantly written by British author Robert Goddard.

Beatrix Abberley boldly confronts an intruder in her home and is brutally murdered. What is so bizarre about this heinous crime is that the dialogue suggests that she was actually expecting the perpetrator and she knew what he was going o do and why he was going to do it. We soon find out that weeks before her murder she asked a confidant to mail four preaddressed letters to four different individuals in the event of her death. These letters will contain the reason for her murder and will reveal who the murderer is. Charlotte Ladram, Beatrix's niece, doesn't have long to mourn the murder of her elderly aunt when she is involuntarily pulled into a tangled web of betrayal and lost loyalties. As she enlists help from a most unexpected source she discovers a twisted connection between her aunt's brutal murder and a long lost secret from the Spanish Civil War.

Hand in Glove is part mystery, part thriller, part police procedural (although Goddard convincingly finds a way to tone down the necessity of the police). The characters are wonderful. They are lively, exciting and jump right off the page. They have distinct personalities. As I read each page I felt as if I were standing right there watching all the action and listening to their dialogue. Which brings me to my second point, the dialog is fresh, natural and incredibly engaging; never stiff or boring, and the author uses it expertly to shape the characters and move the story along at a good clip. The plot is well formulated. There is something here for everyone. Every nuisance is covered, every action brings new revelation. And Goddard's research is implacable. He has given us keen insight into an interesting historical period. HAND IN GLOVE is all that you expect a thriller to be and more. Goddard masterfully proves that fiction can go beyond mere entertainment and can inform and enlighten (as well as delight) readers when written well. One caveat...towards the end of the book, as the plot begins to unravel and secrets are revealed, the events and characters get a little complex. Stay with it, all will be settled in the end.

This is a superbly written novel! I am looking forward to reading Goddard's other titles.

Enjoy.

Cris Cunningham for Amazon.com

Duplicity and intrigue run rampant through the once quiet life of Charlotte Landram. The murder of her Aunt Beatrix is only the beginning of a series of events that confronts Charlotte and places her in the "eye of a storm" that has been brewing for over 50 years.

Mr. Goddard is an expert at integrating history into this clever thriller and has produced an absorbing, plausible story that captures the imagination. He has developed a situation populated by a cast of realistic, well-defined characters so convincing they seem familiar to the reader.

Compelling from page 1, you will find this journey rewarding.

I have read quite a few books by this author lately and I am impressed by the way he tells a story. The plots are intricate and involved,with many unexpected twists and turns, yet at the end everything is explained in a way that leaves you satisfied as a reader. His books usually touch upon a deeper meaning and his characters are both flawed and likeable. I also enjoyed Into the Blue, Borrowed Time and In Pale Batallions.

In England elderly wealthy Beatrix Abberly greets the intruder into her home as Mr. Spicer whom she says to him that she was expecting him. She recognizes the candlestick holder he carries and uses to kill her. Her niece Charlotte grieves her loss in what seems like a robbery gone bad. The police arrest antique dealer Colin Fairfax whose motive was to steal Beatrix' priceless artifacts to sell.

Colin's brother Derek firmly believes he is innocent and plans to prove that though it means finding courage he does not possess. At the same time, Charlie also believes that the motive was not robbery; she assumes the few items purloined were to cover a more sinister crime especially after she finds letters between Beatrix and her brother, highly regarded poet Tristram who died fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War five decades ago. Charlie and Derek team up as both believe the homicide ties back to the war on the Peninsular in the late 1930s, but neither expected that they could be next.

This terrific international amateur sleuth tale grips the audience from the moment the calm Beatrix says hello to Mr. Spice and never slows down until the final believable twist. The action-packed story line works because of the lead pairing; Derek is shy and struggles to be a hero while Charlie grieves and is a bit overweight while also strains to accomplish something way out of character for her. Part of Robert Goddard's genius is to take everyday people placed in arenas outside their norm performing extraordinary but plausible deeds. HAND IN GLOVE is a superb thriller by an English grandmaster.

Harriet Klausner

Hand in Glove begins with fine writing and deft character development but the book is diminished by its plot structure. The initial tight and effective family plot falls away and the reader is left with a forced, unconvincing historical thriller with fading characters.

I must admit I was surprised to find Goddard's works available in the US. I would not have thought they were an American reader's cup of tea!

Anyway, I have become so disappointing with his works in recent years that if I feel like a fix of his tortured plots I now just read some of his first books.

This novel was first published in 1992. It has all the usual elements - a mystery from a few generations back that envelop surviving relatives, an international dimension that brings in foreign travel*, a bringing together of unlikely characters who usually start out as enemies and become friends and a cast from Goddard's version of central casting which includes the usual weak hero or heroine, cardboard bad guys and assorted bit players.

This basic plot worked for a while in books like "Into the Blue", "Borrowed Time", "Take No Farewell" and to an extent "Hand in Glove" and then fizzled out.

That may sound like a rather cynical account of Goddard's works but it is based on my reading of almost everything he has written.

So if you are new to Goddard, choose these earlier works and avoid his later books.

The basis of this story - the murder of the sister of an English poet who died during the Spanish Civil War allegedly to obtain the copyright on his poems - is unconvincing.

Of course, there is a greater mystery afoot and Goddard unravels it via trips to various parts of southern England, Wales, the United States, France and Spain. It is a reasonable read but be prepared for stilted dialogue, one-dimensional characters and a roller coaster ride.

*Including the usual caricature foreigners. In this book for example, a Spanish thug who holds a knife to an Englishmen's throat smells of garlic while a Frenchman phones his wife and when she answers says: "Ma Chérie, c'est moi."

Robert Goddard is an author I expect more of.
In Hand in Glove an entire family seems to have never taken the time to get to know each other while disdaining to develop friends, interests or relationships other than those predetermined by biology. This in itself would be an interesting tale told by another sort of author--along the lines of William Trevor. However, when an entire book is based on a premise that the expiring royalties from two very slender volumes of poetry are enough to incite murder and kidnapping in this same clan--whose daily expenditures seem more in the realm of Rupert Murdoch/Richard Branson--the plot wheezes improbably along until at long last resorting to a rapid, highly improbable and sensational tabloid-style conclusion.
I liked Goddard's "Found Wanting" very much, written c. 2008, so perhaps "Hand in Glove" c. 1992 is just an early and less accomplished effort and I simply expected more by reading chronologically out of order.

I first became familar with the author's work after reading a blurb by Steven King on what he was reading. Goddard is not macabre but his characters are sometimes sinister and dark. King also remarked that he devoured the first few and slowed his pace down to enjoy the books. There is one left for me to read and I am saving it for a Holiday gift for myself.