The novel is pervaded with a sense of unease. It's clear no one is what they seem to be and they all have hidden motives. This serves to keep the reader on her toes and kept me questioning most of the conclusions Martin draws about people. The one main character in the book that is exactly what he seems to be, is Edwin Stafford. Even his nephew Ambrose is more than the curmudgeonly drunk he seems when we meet him. The leading ladies in this book are one of its strengths; Elizabeth is awesome, such a strong and gentle woman, and Eve is such a delicious villain, living up to all the historical connotations of her name. Goddard's characters are well drawn and come to life, both the good and the bad; they all are coloured in shades of grey, only coming into full focus and shading at the end of the story. And even then, after I'd closed the covers, I found myself wondering about some of them. This breathless and unending case takes Max to London from far North of Scotland and all the way to Paris, where the world’s government are still but bartering over the spoils right in the aftermath of the Great war. The stakes here are so high and it is a matter of life and death to everyone involved. So, for the first half of the book one is continually wondering what revelation could possible cause her (and Asquith) to behave in the way they did, and for the second half one is incredulous at the frankly bizarre and insipid behaviour of two people supposedly deeply in love. The novel is told through two first-person narratives, something that always raises questions. One does not know which direction the story is going to go to so all you can do is go with the flow and make a decision whether to trust the narrator's interpretation or not. The first speaker is Martin Radford, an unemployed teacher and historian, who does not know what he wants to do with his life.

I have read a few Goddard's novels now and have enjoyed them all and this is no exception. There is a reason though for the three stars rather than four. Let me explain. Thirdly, it is similarly inconceivable that Elizabeth would not have told Edwin. When first told herself, her initial reaction would have been one of utter disbelief - evidence notwithstanding. She would have been quite desperate to get to the truth of the matter. She would have gone through as many scenarios as she could imagine that would have exonerated her intended. Martin is offered a job - to investigate the rise and fall of Strafford, an ambitious young politician whose downfall, in 1910, is as mysterious as the strange deaths that still haunt his family.Past Caring was nominated for the Booker Prize and author Robert Goddard is the winner of the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and the CWA Diamond Dagger.

Robert Goddard's first novel, PAST CARING, made an impression when it came out almost twenty years ago, receiving great praise from critics and a Booker Award nomination for Best First Novel. Now with the book's latest printing, nothing has changed. It is still a great book and new readers, always hoping for a good mystery, will be pleased to discover it. blazing eyes' from various personalities either in passion or in anger. Apart from these lapses, it's a good read. Martin Radford is a floundering, unemployed historian with a dim future who jumps at the chance to research the memoirs of Edwin Strafford, a young Edwardian cabinet minister and contemporary of Churchill and Lloyd George with a promising career that went mysteriously astray. Radford’s own blunders will unfold on this journey as he investigates Strafford’s past in this blended mix of politics, romance and historical thriller. Many years ago, when I was a teenager, my father read this book and was very moved by the story. I read it too, and like the Hardy poem the author quotes, I've felt haunted by this story for a long time, even after forgetting the name of the book and the names of the main characters.This is a book that doesn't neatly fit a genre. It follows the story of a man who is in the English cabinet before WW1 who falls in love with a suffragette. He mysteriously loses his job and his fiancee and never finds out why. His colleagues wont speak to him and the girl immediately leaves the country. Goddard's 1990 book Into the Blue was the inaugural winner of the W H Smith Thumping Good Read Award, presented to the best new fiction author of the year. About three times during this book I found myself feeling that it was starting to drag. Each time, Goddard broke this feeling with a series of twists and revelations that nearly floored me on occasion, but I still feel this book could have done with a stricter editorial hand at the rudder. You could take virtually any passage from this book and it would read really well on its own, so I understand why you wouldn't want to cut any of it, but when you've got a pacing problem it's time to kill your darlings. I thoroughly enjoyed this long, convoluted, unpredictable and clever novel! It does not clearly fit into any genre as it includes elements of political wheeling and dealing, crime, war and romance.

At one point of this story, the protagonist is advised “nothing is as it seems”. That is a vast understatement in this tangled web of deceit, double-dealing and revenge. As with my prior outing with Goddard, I must work at not giving away any of the plot as spoilers would be difficult to avoid. Suffice it to say that there are few truly good people involved, and they are put upon badly by the self-serving villains whose bad deeds flow into and escalate over six decades, erupting when a young history researcher is given a commission to look into a memoir found in an old villa. The narrative is liberally dotted with familiar names from Edwardian parliamentary politics, and I did have to pay attention to keep up with political issues that I had only a passing familiarity with. Goddard's 1997 book Beyond Recall was nominated for the Edgar Award Best Novel prize but lost out to Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark. From a collection of more than 20 mystery thrillers, that will indeed enthrall and satisfy you as a lover of such genre, to unprincipled chicanery and unforgiven betrayals as well as unforgotten jealousy, are just but part of the infinite capacity of imagination and intrigues that Robert Goddard books will present to you. Basically, Robert novels and especially his thrillers do have a historical settings and elements staged in some provincial English towns and cities bringing in a number of plots twists.Plus, his books always involve the lead character, gradually unraveling a conspiracy which for a very long time been kept as a secret, and through means of historical documents like the diaries or simply by word of mouth testimonies that have been handed down from one individual to another. Most of the first half of the book is spent on Stafford's story and it is engrossing. It is a story of love and shattered dreams. As a young politician, Stafford wanted to put his mark on the world and make a difference. It only takes one day for his life to be forever destroyed, leading to a series of repercussions that affects Radford in ways he could never imagine. However, nothing is quite as it seems and there are people who, even decades later, want to prevent the truth from ever coming out. It is at this point that one's patient reading pays off. It is a long book and not to be rushed and so good that every detail is important. PAST CARING is worth all the careful attention a reader can pay it. Goddard has his masterpiece here.At a lush villa on the sun-soaked island of Madeira, Martin Radford is given a second chance. His life ruined by scandal, Martin holds in his hands the leather-bound journal of another ruined man, former British cabinet minister Edwin Strafford. What’s more, Martin is being offered a job—to return to England and investigate the rise and fall of Strafford, an ambitious young politician whose downfall, in 1910, is as mysterious as the strange deaths that still haunt his family. Secondly, it is absolutely inconceivable that some with the capability to become home secretary at such a young age (or, indeed, at any age) would not have dug and pushed and prodded until he had found out his supposed crime.