Customer Reviews

Long Time Coming

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

In 1976, sixty-eight year old Eldritch Swan arrives at his widow sister-in-law's home in Paignton after over three decades in an Irish prison. His nephew Stephen Swan is also heading to his mom's home having ended an engagement. Stephen is shocked to learn his paternal uncle is alive as he thought Eldritch died in the Nazi Blitz in 1940. He asks his Uncle Eldritch why he was incarnated all these years without anyone aware he still lived; the older man says he cannot tell anyone or he will die in that Irish prison.

In 1940 Eldritch worked as secretary to Antwerp diamond merchant, Isaac Meridor. He insists he is innocent of the traitorous charges that locked him away, but admits he helped Miles Linley steal his employer's Picasso collection and has a chance to make some money from a lawyer whose client insists tycoon Jay Brownlow owns a stolen Picasso collection that Meridor's granddaughter Rachel claims is rightfully hers.

This is a terrific thriller that effortlessly switches back and forth between 1940 and 1976 as what happened to obviously still roguish Uncle Eldritch is slowly answered with more questions arising. The two subplots are well written as Stephen and Rachel try to solve the modern day question of art ownership by deciphering the 1940 mystery with ties to Ireland's position on which side to support during WWII.

Harriet Klausner

Robert Goddard writes suspenseful novels that typically span many years in British history and demonstrate graphically the unforeseen consequences of long-ago acts. Long Time Coming is one of the 20 books he has written since the early 90s and one of 12 now available for the Kindle. I acquired an addiction for Goddard's work six or eight books ago and grab every new entry on the list as soon as it's available.

Each of Goddard's mystery novels is a standalone story. There are virtually no reappearing characters, much less a series hero. Another of the hallmarks of Goddard's writing is his mastery of complex plotting. His books are full of complications, setbacks, and surprises, and Long Time Coming is no exception.

In Long Time Coming, the story is rooted in the legendarily brutal Belgian empire in the Congo in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. But the action shifts back and forth from England to Ireland to Belgium, with episodes alternating from 1976 to 1940 and back again at regular intervals and concluding with shorter scenes in 1922 and 2008.

Long Time Coming tells the tale of Stephen Swan, a young English geologist relocated in 1976 to his home after a stint in the Texas oilfields, and his uncle, Eldritch Swan, who has suddenly appeared in Stephen's life after 36 years in an Irish prison. Stephen's parents had always told him his father's brother had died in the Blitz, but Eldritch, to the young man's chagrin, is very much alive. And he proceeds to involve his nephew in a perilous chase through London, Dublin, and Antwerp in search of proof that he was innocent of the charge that confined him to prison for more than a third of a century.

Along the way we meet a crooked Antwerp diamond merchant and his beautiful young granddaughter, an IRA terrorist with a world-class talent at forging art, a priceless collection of Picassos, a ruthless and venal former MI6 operative now living the life of a rural squire, and an assortment of police officers, secret service agents, and lawyers in England, Ireland, and Belgium.

Long Time Coming is no mere whodunit but a genuine novel of suspense, peopled by three-dimensional characters living in a moral universe painted in shades of gray.

(From Mal Warwick's Blog on Books)

I look forward to each new book by this remarkable author. And I haven't read a Robert Goddard book I didn't like but I have read others I enjoyed more than this one. Don't get me wrong, it's still streets ahead of most other novels I have read but it didn't capture me the way "Past Caring" and "In Pale Battalions" did. I couldn't put them down. Still worth reading.

Robert Goddard's earlier books were among the best novels I have read - complex plots, unique and surprising turns, depth of characters. This is a shallow, plodding book that makes one wonder if Goddard actually wrote it.

British mysteries are not usually my novels of choice (normally too many characters for my aged brain to keep track of) but I saw this on the library shelf and was intrigued. I had never read any of Goddard's books previously.

"Long Time Coming" has a complex plot, great characters (good guys and bad), enough twists and turns to make me dizzy, and a satisfying ending. What more could you want? I enjoyed the "time travel" between 1940 and 1976 and thought Goddard handled the transitions very well.

Some reviewers say this isn't his best work. If that is true, I will definitely look up other books by him because I definitely was entertained by this one and recommend it to anyone who likes British mysteries, suspense, thrillers, or historical novels - it was a mix of all of these.

What could be better than a stolen trove of Picasso paintings and a bit of Irish history?
Robert Goddard's latest publication LONG TIME COMING has both. It's a spellbinding novel!

The time is 1976. Eldrich Swan is released from a Irish prison after 36 years imprisonment. He returns to England and is recruited to recover the Picasso's, currently the property of an American tycoon and in exhibition at the Royal Academy of London. His nephew Stephen and the granddaughter of a Jewish diamond merchant, his former employer and owner of the art, help in the recovery. The paintings had been stolen from a vault of a London art dealer in the early days of World War II.

At the heart of the novel is another story. It's about the dawn of World War II and the neutrality of Ireland featuring real-life characters. Eamon de Valera, a hero of the Easter Uprising of 1916, is Tsoiseach of the Irish Republic having served as early President of the Irish Free State. One Malcolm MacDonald of the British Legation is in Dublin to persuade de Valera and Ireland to join the war effort. It is June 1940.

Also in Dublin in 1940 is one fictional Eldrich Swan searching for a master forger named Desmond Quilligan.

Goddard cleverly takes his readers back-and-forth from 1940 Dublin to 1976. And finally to Belgium to resolve the matter of the stolen art. It's a rewarding and fascinating tale!

Postscript: How many paintings are in a trove? See the Comment.

Goddard manages to go back and forth in time and masterly reveals story details to make a satisfying war time tale which is only understood thirty years later. Highly recommended.
This reader will look for more Robert Goddard books.

Goddard's early novels are absolutely superb, especially "Past Caring" and "In Pale Battalions." His more recent fiction has been relatively disappointing, with rather random plots and thinly characterized progatonists. "Long Time Coming" is a return to his earlier form - certainly the best of his novels since "Caught in the Light."

My favorite Robert Goddard novel is "In Pale Batallions," and nothing he's written since compares to the power of that book -- which isn't to say that he hasn't written good novels, just that they aren't as gripping. This one is near the top, I think, because the author manages to weave the World War II past into the 1976 present. This means that the story is told from two points of view, that of Eldritch Swan and that of his nephew, Stephen Swan. The telling of the story in this manner adds tension to the plot and keeps one turning the pages to see what happens to whom. I found the story and the telling of it gripping, but I thought the tension dissipated a bit toward the end.

This is the first book I've read by Robert Goddard and I really enjoyed it. Reading about Ireland, England and WWII was interesting and insightful. The story was well-paced and very entertaining. If you enjoy reading Historical Fiction and a good plot, you will find "Long Tme Coming" a very satisfying novel.