Customer Reviews

Past Caring

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Redford is an unemployed and divorced ex-schoolteacher of foundered promise and dismal prospect. So when Alec Fowler suggests that Martin comes to visit him on the island of Madeira with the promise of a prospective job offered by his South African friend Leo Sellick, he eagerly accepts.

It turns out that when Sellick became the owner of his house, the Quinta do Porto Novo, he came across a manuscript written by its previous owner, Edwin Strafford. Strafford had been appointed Home Secretary in 1908 at the age of thirty-two. Why did he resign two years later without explanation before becoming British Consul on Madeira? Why was he abruptly rejected by his fiancée, suffragette Elizabeth Latimer? Who or what betrayed Edwin Strafford in 1910? It is going to be a twisty path for Martin Redford, now Leo Sellick's employee, to find the answers to these questions and many others.

A good plot and a sound historical background are the qualities of this entertaining adventure story. Paul Shelley is the excellent reader of this novel for BBC Audiobooks.

Yet another fantastic story from Robert Goddard, and that's what it is A STORY - so all the historians out there who don't like history being tampered with, should remember that it's fiction!
You really feel for Martin, the central character, who is a historian down on his luck when he is offered an opportunity of employment in researching former cabinet minister Edwin Stafford's memoir. As is typical with Robert Goddard there are plenty of twists in the tale, this is a brilliant book and I'd recommend it to anyone who just wants a good read.

Past Caring was brought to me from England by my sister years ago.It is now available here.For years it was not.

This novel is one of my favorite books.I read all of Goddard's books, but Past Caring remains my FAVORITE.

I've read 10 of Goddard's novels, so far.

This is the best by far.

All have these things in common:

* Murder mysteries where plot spans several decades or more. Strong historical themes.

* Different protagonist in each (2 exceptions.)

* Protagonist is never a detective or professional mystery solver. Always an ordinary person who gets unwittingly wrapped up in solving the mystery.

* Usually some love interest.

* Fairly complex plots with twists.

His best is his first: "Past Caring". Absolutely compelling.

All these things in one book:

* A murder mystery told over 3 generations.

* An historical novel starting with the Boer and First world wars. Churchill and Lloyd George play a part.

* An Edwardian romance.

* A tragedy caused by treachery

I would say this is the best novel I have read in many years.

This has to be one of Robert Goddard's best.... The reader is hooked from page one, a page turner of first order. This does exactly what you want from a great book - it sucks you in and before you know it the day has melted away and you're lost in the pages. You're driven to keep turning pages to know how the story develops. Goddard proves himself as a superb storyteller.

It's easy to be a bit more critical with his more recent works, but here I can only express my admiration for his work. He is really on top of his creative capabilities.

Comment

This is an excellent tale; you have to stop once in a while and

remember that it is fiction. I was totally exhausted after

reading it. I couldnt wait for Martin to find out why Edwin

Radford's career was lost all of a sudden and worst of all

Edwin's not knowing why. This is the part hard for me to believe.

I most certainly would insist on being told by my bride to be

(in this case) why when we decided to marry that morning she is

telling me in the afternoon with no explanation at all lthat she

cannot marry me and "that I know why". Well, Edwin did not know

why. He had been prepared and offered his resignation in order to

marry her and when she suddenly turned him down he asked the PM

to reinstate him and again-now the PM tells him he cannot do that

and that he doesnt have to tell him why; that Edwin knows. Well,

for heavens sakes, Edwin does not know. If it had been me, I

would have insisted I am told why this is happening to me and

I am sure Edwin had many ways to find out what the reason was.

I think anyone in t hat situation would have insisted on it.

I must remember this is a novel; a superbly written one; I had

to keep putting it down many times and then running back to it.

Normally I am not entertained by a book to its very last page

but this one certainly did.

You too would reach the point where you were PAST CARING if the found that your perfect life had been wrenched from you; the love of your life had suddenly abandoned you and your once promising career was in tatters all for reasons unknown to you.......reasons that no one would explain but vehemently insisted were known to you.

Such is the fate of Edwin Strafford. Once a man with a promising political career as a British cabinet minister, contemporary and friend to the likes of Winston Churchill and Lloyd George, he becomes an outcast of sorts relegated to life on the island of Madeira. After his death his autobiographical memoir is found and Martin Radford, a historian with a few dark secrets of his own, is commissioned to take a copy of the memoir and attempt to reassemble the jig-saw puzzle that was Strafford's life. Radford, like many of author Goddard's protagonists, is a man without purpose or focus. He is unemployed, has an ex-wife who despises him, a daughter to whom he is a less than perfect father, and a proclivity for manipulative women whose motives are questionable.

Author Robert Goddard has once again delivered an ingenious, complex and compelling story that is filled with mystery, historical fact, political intrigue, betrayal, deception, heartbreak and murder. This book is an absolute must read for anyone who enjoys a well written narrative and a plot with as many twists and turns as a mountain road. Be prepared to lose some sleep because PAST CARING will have you reading well into the wee small hours of the morning.

Martin Radford, an out of work, disgraced historian, is hired by a millionaire businessman to fly to the island of Madiera where he is filled in with the story of an Edwardian Cabinet Minister, Edwin Strafford, who suddenly resigned from Parliament at the height of his career, and retired to the house in Madiera where the businessman now lives.Martin's brief is to find out exactly why Edwin resigned and all the circumstances surrounding his withdrawal from Society plus the breaking of his engagement. The trail leads him to a university where he is seduced like a gullible teenager, by an attractive young professor with an agenda of her own. The story is filled with devious twists and turns, covering past crimes which lead to modern day crimes. It's a long and very involved story which needs full concentration to appreciate it for the fine work that it is.

This book is unmissable. Idiscovered it shortly after it was first published and it was unbelievable. I've since read all of his, some brilliant, all good, but this remains the best.

Goddard's first novel and perhaps his best - although his "In Pale Battalions" is also excellent. If you like a good "mystery in the past" novel this is it. Highly recommended.