Adventures in Bookland: Panic Room by Robert Goddard

As a fifty something man of little standing in the world, I heartily applaud the central premise of this entertaining book: that a fifty something man of little standing in the world can be the hero of an adventure that includes saving the world, outsmarting a billionaire bad guy and getting the, much younger, girl along the way (I should add, as a happily married man, that the latter simply applies to my middle-aged fantasy self and in now way comprises my real wishes!). So let’s hear it for Don Challenor, down-on-his-luck estate agent (he’s just been let go by his previous employer), who is employed by his ex-wife to value the Cornish hideaway of a mysterious and reclusive billionaire. (Add in to the middle-aged male wish fulfilment Don rescuing his ex-wife.)

On the minus side, I had realised the twist of what was concealed in the sealed from inside panic room within the first hundred pages. This, though, did mean I could indulge the guilty reader pleasure of skipping ahead, skimming pages of text, for the simple pleasure of finding out if I was right. And I was! So wish fulfilment all round. What more could the middle-aged male reader ask? Well, a story that was not quite so obvious, perhaps, but there is a pleasure in knowing the outcome and then watching as skilled a writer as Robert Goddard orchestrate the moves towards that outcome.