I did at times struggle to distinguish between them which might suggest that Goddard hadn’t quite fully realised his skills with characterisation at this stage of his writing career. It brings the historian into contact with three generations of the Couchman family. We get to read the memoir in full and the mystery of Edwin Stafford’s departure from the political scene drives Radford to ever desperate measures. Radford is asked to research and comes across regret, secrets, political feuds, Suffragettes and a closer family connection than he had anticipated. A wealthy South African has found a journal left by the previous owner of his villa, an ex-Cabinet minister who shone in the Asquith administration but who resigned suddenly and ended up in self-exile in Madeira. Martin Radford, unemployed historian, is invited to Madeira where a job opportunity arises.

The title does seem to be asking for trouble here and in what is quite some intense plotting there were times when I felt I myself was approaching the “past caring” stage but there was always just a little twist to get my interest back when I could feel it fading. So far the two of his novels I have enjoyed the most have been “Set In Stone” (1999) and “Play To The End” (2004) yet admittedly I haven’t really been completely bowled over by what I have read. He now has some thirty works to his name yet this was his debut first published in 1986.

This is the 5 th novel by British author Robert Goddard I’ve read over the years.

Past Caring by Robert Goddard