false 1844874 10 A carefully crafted tale of suspense, <I>Beyond Recall</I> interweaves present and past as Christian Napier sets out to discover the truth behind his great-uncle's murder, committed during the days of rationing and privation following the Second World War. That death provided the foundation of the Napier family's subsequent prosperity, but Christian is led to question the verdict reached in the case by the more recent suicide of an old and abandoned friend. The whole of the action is relayed through Napier's eyes and voice as he struggles to sort out his understanding of what happened before he was born, his own memories as a child, the alcohol-hazed intervening years, and the current arm's-length relationship he maintains with the surviving members of his family. <p> Goddard's sense of place is strong. The Cornish market town of Truro, with its 19th-century cathedral looming over events spanning a century, provides the backdrop for the mystery and also for the shifting fortunes of the British experience. Descriptions of a grand family home transformed into a hotel and conference center, the tiny chain-pulled ferry crossing an estuary as it has done for generations, and Cornwall's unchanging and temperate beauty offer convincing detail beyond the usual place-name dropping. <p> Although the denouement is muddled by a confusion of identities and too many people thought dead resurfacing (both to Napier's dismay and delight), the general scheme is entertaining enough and just within the bounds of what's believable, given Goddard's manipulation of the reader's expectations. The central themes of revenge and greed lose some of their power when mixed with a subplot colored by a '90s obsession with sexual misdeeds, but these flaws do not detract from the pleasure of the whole. An enjoyable read, fraught with the tension Goddard's readers have come to expect. 2648083 4 12 1997 Beyond Recall total:73|5:8|4:34|3:26|2:4|1:1| 73 263 108 7 3 0 false false Sun Dec 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 12:30:55 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 16:08:48 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 21:34:47 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 21:51:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Mar 27 09:42:36 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 09:43:19 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 01 12:13:12 -0700 2007 Tue May 01 12:17:04 -0700 2007
It tells the story of a wealthy ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 20:14:32 -0700 2008 Fri May 16 20:12:10 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sun Aug 03 16:35:05 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 03 16:37:10 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Wed Apr 22 19:52:10 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 19:50:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 1997 Wed Nov 11 18:18:46 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 18:18:46 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 05:08:30 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 05:08:30 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Oct 29 13:59:05 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 13:59:05 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Oct 25 12:14:02 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 12:14:02 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 25 22:03:57 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 06:15:03 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 22:03:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 20 16:16:06 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 16:16:06 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Sep 19 11:43:14 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 11:43:14 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 15 11:56:54 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 11:56:58 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Sep 09 09:52:16 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 09:52:16 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 07:34:52 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 10:28:31 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 12 15:57:41 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 15:57:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 31 05:58:57 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 05:58:57 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jul 20 11:06:53 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 11:06:53 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6571059