Past Caring

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….

Library Journal

Paul Shelley's reading is sensitive and sets the tone for this tale of a life gone hideously wrong. Twenty-six years after Edwin Strafford's death, historian Martin Radford is challenged by a whimsical, wealthy, and elderly South African now living in Strafford's home in Madeira to find out why his life did not fulfill its promise. Radford learns that nothing is academic about the life and death of Strafford, Member of Parliament, British Consul in Madeira, and one-time colleague of Winston Churchill and Lloyd George. People are still protecting the secrets that Radford is seeking, and at least one of them is willing to murder to keep them. Shelley adjusts the pitch and inflection of his voice and the pacing of his words to portray a variety of characters: the eager, honest, self-confident young Strafford and the weary, cynical World War I veteran whom he becomes; the cold, evil villain; the charming seductress; and the bluff, good-natured Churchill. Recommended for most mystery collections. Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

ROBERT GODDARD was born in Hampshire and read History at Cambridge. His first novel, Past Caring, was an instant bestseller. Since then his books have captivated readers worldwide with their edge-of-the-seat pace and their labyrinthine plotting. His first Harry Barnett novel, Into the Blue, was winner of the first WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV, starring John Thaw.