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Master of the literary thriller back in print |
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Written by Ron Bernas, KRT
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Thursday, 22 June 2006 |
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Discovering a new author is always exciting. Discovering an old talent is even more so because one doesn't have to wait around for the next book, it's already here.
Bantam is doing a great service to those who like literary thrillers by publishing six novels by British master Robert Goddard. Many of his novels have been out of print for years in the United States and some have never been published here.
Goddard, as evidenced in the two novels released this month, is a skilled practitioner of the craft of building tension. He knows just when to suggest something isn't quite right, allude to something that hasn't happened yet, lay down a hint or drop a bombshell.
 "Into the Blue" starts at a point most thriller writers would have spent 100 pages getting to. Harry Barnett, an over-the-hill roustabout, is waiting midway up a mountain in Greece for Heather Mallender, a family friend, sort of, who has gone to the top without him. But she never returns. He searches, but there is no sign of her except for her scarf. Harry reports the disappearance, but finds himself the chief suspect in what in all likelihood is a murder case.
Without a body, there's little to go on, but that doesn't stop Heather's family from blaming Harry. It seems Harry has a history with the family; years ago he was fired from a business they own in a trumped-up embezzlement scheme.
After finding some photographs Heather brought to Greece with her, Harry decides she is hiding from something and sets out to find her. It's a trip that takes him back to England, where he left in disgrace 10 years earlier, and back to his own past, which he would like to keep buried. Others would also prefer Harry not dig around in ancient history. But the search gives him a new purpose in an otherwise drifting life and he follows it to the end, even at his own peril and the peril of those he loves.
 A mysterious woman also sets into action "Borrowed Time." Robin Timariot, a hiker on vacation, meets a beautiful woman on a secluded road. They make small talk, then part. Days later, making his way back to civilization, he discovers the woman, Lady Paxton, has been raped and murdered.
He tells the police he saw her just hours before her murder, then, oddly, befriends the woman's family, whom he has sought out to tell them about Lady Paxton's final hours. Robin feels he must make up for the way the victim's been portrayed in the media. The man arrested for her murder says the sex was rough, but it was consensual, and that he'd left her alive.
As Robin becomes more a part of Lady Paxton's family, doubts and questions and deceit among family members cause him to wonder if the man convicted of the murder is, indeed, guilty.
"Time" takes a long time to get going, but once it does, it'll keep you reading right to the bitter end. "Blue" grabs hold right from the beginning, but peters out at the end.
In both novels, Goddard is firmly in control, revealing only what he wants readers to know, often in off-handed ways. Readers will find themselves trying to guess where things are going, and generally finding themselves wrong. They'll also find themselves yelling at the book, "Don't trust him, you idiot," but that's all part of the fun.
The novels are peopled with characters — and lots of them, because both books have twists and turns that, in turn, twist some more — who make their marks without being quirky or overly drawn.
But what really shines is Goddard's prose. He describes characters in ways that make a reader picture and remember them: A painter with an eye for women has a "goatish reputation." Lady Paxton is "no longer young, but somehow better for it, somebody who might once have been pretty but was now beautiful." It's the kind of detail and depth not often found in thrillers.
"It's strange, isn't it, what you find out about yourself when you're forced into a corner," a character says in "Into the Blue." Some find they are better than they thought, others discover their darker sides. And it's not always clear who will go what way.
If you like these two, there are two others — "Hand in Glove" and "Play to the End" — coming this summer and two more later this year.  | Only registered users can write comments.
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