PAST CARING

by Robert Goddard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 13, 1986

First-novelist Goddard tells a labyrinthine first-person tale of a historian whose assignment to solve a vintage mystery entangles him in a web of deceit and violence. At loose ends, divorced and unemployed Martin Radford travels to Madeira, where he meets Leo Sellick, a wealthy businessman living in a house once owned by the late Edwin Strafford, a member of Asquith's cabinet. At Leo's request, Martin reads Strafford's journal: after a meteoric rise, Strafford fell for a suffragette--political poison in that era. Willing to forego career for love, he resigned his post as Home Secretary; but that night his fiancÉe, Elizabeth, mysteriously broke off contact with him. Strafford then attempted to retract his resignation, to no avail. After years of despair, during which Elizabeth married his college friend, Gerald Couchman, Strafford accepted a consular post in Madeira, where he spent the rest of his life. Martin is elated when Leo hires him to root out the cause of Elizabeth's desertion of Strafford. Returning to England, Martin grows close to an aged Elizabeth, investigates the powerful Couchman family, and gets involved with a bewitching grad student. The plot thickens as Strafford's son, possessor of a later journal of Strafford's, is murdered by Couchman's son Henry. After weeks of digging, Martin gets his hands on this second journal and learns that Couchman, with the compli-of cabinet members who found Strafford a political liability, tricked Elizabeth into believing that Strafford was a bigamist. Confronting Leo, Martin reveals his find: that Leo is Couchman's bastard son and that he murdered Strafford. Leo assaults Elizabeth; Martin shoots and kills him. He is in prison when Elizabeth dies, leaving him the Madeira house, to which he retires upon his release. A satisfying, complex, and compelling debut.

Pub Date: Jan. 13, 1986

ISBN: 0385341172

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION