Friday, June 10, 2016

Friday's Forgotten Books, June 10, 2016





Past Caring, Robert Goddard

I remember loving this book when I read it in 1987 or so. And yet, I am not sure I ever read another book by him after this one, his first. Here is an amazon synopsis. As commenters note, it bears some resemblance to Daughter of Time in its examination of an historical event. If I ever get a chance, I will read it again.

"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.

Martin is intrigued by Strafford’ s story, by the man’s overwhelming love for a beautiful suffragette, by her inexplicable rejection of him and their love affair’s political repercussions. But as he retraces Strafford’s ruination, Martin realizes that Strafford did not fall by chance; he was pushed. Suddenly Martin, who has not cared for many people in his life, cares desperately—about a man’s mysterious death and a family’s terrible secret, about a love beyond reckoning and betrayal beyond imagining. Most of all Martin cares because the story he is uncovering is not yet over—and among the men and women still caught in its web, Martin himself may be the most vulnerable of all…."

Sergio Angelini, THE LAST TANGO OF DELORES DELGADO, Marele Day
Joe Barone, WHEN BOOKS WENT TO WAR, Molly Gupthill Manning
Les Blatt, UNEXPECTED NIGHT, Elizabeth Daily
Brian Busby, THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN AMERICA, Stephen Leacock
Bill Crider, BEFORE THERE WERE GIANTS, James L. Sutter, ed.
Scott Cupp, THE PENQUIN POOL MURDERS, Stuart Palmer
Martin Edwards, POISON IN JEST, John Dickson Carr
Ed Gorman, CEMETERY GIRL, David Bell
Rick Horton, LORD MALQUEST AND MR.MOON. Tom Stoppard
Jerry House, THE FRANKENSTEIN FACTORY, Edward D. Hoch
George Kelley THE WEB SHE WEAVES, ed. Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Margot Kinberg, TOTAL CHAOS, Jean Claude Izzo
Rob Kitchin,  The Buenos Aires Quintet, Manuel Vazquez Montalban
B.V. Lawson, MURDER INK REVISED, Dilys Winn
Steve Lewis/William Deeck, THE CAT SCREAMS, Todd Downing
Todd Mason, Instant Remainders: THE BEST FANTASY STORIES FROM THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION edited by Edward Ferman); TALES OF TERROR edited by Eleanor Sullivan
J.F. Norris, THE MEDBURY FORT MURDE, George Limnelius
Juri Numellin, IT RHYMES WITH LUST, Waller and Drake
Matt Paust, BLACKBEARD. Angus Kostum
James Reasoner, GUNSIGHT  PASS, William MacLeod Raine
Kerrie Smith, AN ISOLATED INCIDENT, Emily Maguire
Kevin Tipple, CATCH AND RELEASE: 17 STORIES, Lawrence Block
TomCat, THE MURDER OF MY AUNT, Richard Hull
TracyK, BLIND GODDESS, Anne Holt
Prashant Trikannad, FATHERLAND, Robert Harris

8 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Up and at 'em:
THE BEST FANTASY STORIES FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION edited by Edward Ferman (Octopus, 1985); TALES OF TERROR edited by Eleanor Sullivan (attributed to Alfred Hitchcock)(Galahad, 1986)

and Happy Birthday to Yvette Banek!

Thanks, Patti.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I discovered Goddard in 1997 and read this one, his second - IN PALE BATTALIONS - and HAND IN GLOVE, in a very short period of time. I picked up a number of other paperbacks in England over the years - I have half a dozen sitting on the shelf in here - but somehow I've never read another one. I liked the whole historical tie-ins very much (IN PALE BATTALIONS concerns the Battle of the Somme in 1916, HAND IN GLOVE the Spanish Civil War, which has always fascinated me) and really need to read another. I think I've been put off at times by the length of the books, usually when I had several other things on hand waiting to read, and when don't I?

Mathew Paust said...

I'm sold! I loved Daughter of Time, and am drawn anyway to stories that merge historic and modern mysteries. But I'd not known of Goddard. Thanks for the intro, Patti.

J F Norris said...

Mine's up now:

The Medbury Fort Murder by George Limnelius

Mathew Paust said...

Just now bought the Kindle edition of Past Caring. Thanks again, Patti.

Sergio (Tipping My Fedora) said...

Is it the 19th already? I was really worried there for a minute :) Thanks for corralling Patti, whatever the date!

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Thank you, Patti.

Anonymous said...

I need to read more Goddard! Thanks for the reminder, Patti. And thanks for including my link here.