Out of the Blackout

by Robert Barnard

With the Nazis bombing London on a nightly basis, many working-class families sent their children to the comparative safety of the countryside. When the Blitz ended, the families came for their kids…but no one ever came for Simon Thorn. His name appears on no list of the evacuated children. And none of his meager belongings offer any clues to his origins. Now an adult, newly moved to London, Simon is puzzled by an odd sense of familiarity when he walks down certain streets. He remembers his years of terrible nightmares—nightmares that would cause him to wake up screaming, terrifying his bewildered foster parents. And he resolves, once and for all, to find out where he originally came from…even as everything he uncovers suggests that, really, he doesn't want to know.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, British Literature, Historical, Historical Mystery

182 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Aka Bernard Bastable.

Robert Barnard (born 23 November 1936) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.

Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.

Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.

Barnard lived with his wife Louise in Yorkshire.

Series:
* Perry Trethowan
* Charlie Peace

Reviews

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of children was sent to the Gloucestershire countryside to escape the nightly bombings during the London Blitz in 1941. One little boy, Simon, arrived without any identification, and his name was not on the list of evacuated children. Fortunately, a childless couple took Simon in and raised him in a loving home. But Simon always wondered about his birth parents.

Years later Simon is walking through London and recognizes his early childhood neighborhood. His search for his origins brings him into contact with some unsavory people. He also finds out information about the British homefront during World War II, an extremist political group, and reasons for his childhood nightmares. In this interesting historical mystery Simon learns that bombs were not the only things causing terror in his London home. 3.5 stars.

[Symon Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. At first glance, it appears to be a fairly fluffy crime novel, but it is a lot deeper and darker than that. It's fluffy enough to be relaxing, but deep enough to be gripping. The characterisation and description are particularly good, and the gradual development of the political aspects of the plot is particularly welcome. I found only one aspect of the plot to be very unbelievable; most it was almost frighteningly credible. A good, short, engaging read

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard to put down book. Suspenseful but cozy. It was one of those books that you get enmeshed in and when finished you think it was part of your life. Or maybe that’s just me. 😂. It felt so believable. Some of the people were so utterly despicable that it made my skin crawl to read of them, but I was so grateful for the good outcome of that precious boy.

[Jessica - How Jessica Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual mystery, not a "whodunit" but rather a quest for familial answers. Young Simon Thorn was one of the children sent out of London to live with foster families in the country during the bombardments of WWII. It soon becomes clear that Simon Thorn is not his real name, but no one knows where he came from or why he's alone. As an adult Simon embarks on a quest to find his roots, only to meet some rather unsavory characters.

[Ellen Seltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in my house was a constant refrain of "Tomayto, Tomahto." Dad liked red wine and oysters. Mom was a teetotaler and hated any seafood but canned tuna (which hardly counts, face it.) My brother built model airplanes and read the entire Dune series (all two dozen). I made up interpretive dances to the My Fair Lady soundtrack, on roller skates.

But one thing we all agreed on was a good mystery. On the wall-to-wall bookshelves in the family room, below Mom's Barbara Taylor Bradford and Dad's Edward Gibbon, above the Encyclopedia Brittannica, the rows of Christie and Sayers stood at the perfect height -- easy for everyone.
Mysteries read and re-read were our mental comfort food, a palate-cleanse between homework, or a morsel to tide us over those dreary stretches between library visits.

So when my dad hands me a mystery and says, "You'll like this," it's a splendid gift, an invocation of our family resemblance. A while back, Dad gave me Robert Barnard's Out of the Blackout, and I had the pleasure of opening it this month.

Out of the Blackout is a rare creature: a psychological mystery that reads like a scavenger hunt, full of subtlety and the protagonist's inner life, but without the creeping dread or stomach-knotting darkness this subgenre so often relies on.

Barnard shows, as Hannah Arendt described, "the banality of evil." The prevailing attitude of our age that normal people are basically good and wickedness is pathology, fuels a fascination with twisted minds and sick (and sickening) behavior. But people needn't be sadistic or insane to do very bad things. The callous, the venal, the arrogant, and the selfish perpetrate more wrongs every day than all the world's psychopaths combined.

Our story begins in the London Blitz of 1941, when a trainload of schoolchildren arrives in an English country village with one extra passenger: a little boy named Simon Thorn. Simon isn't on the list of evacuees. A patchwork investigation, hampered by communication breakdowns and bombed-out archives, can find no record of him at all.

Vague but terrifying snatches of memory convince Simon that his mother died violently, and not from a bomb. His peaceful and nurturing upbringing in the country wipes out the specifics of his past, but can't erase the central question: who is he, and what really happened to his mother?

As an adult, Simon pursues the truth -- at first reluctantly, then doggedly, through the devious alleys of his own mind and the fractured neighborhoods of postwar London. Barnard traces Simon's story across decades and miles, driven by the power of a child's primal need to find Mother.

So much of Simon's story is interior, it could easily bog down in emotional digressions. Instead, Barnard sketches Simon's life with deft strokes. His growing-up, his best friend, his marriage are revealed in a few telling details while the focus remains on the trail of clues.

The delight of a good mystery is the reveal, the mental "loop the loop" that reverses our view of everything. A great reveal feels surprising and inevitable at the same time. It's terribly hard to get right. If the key evidence is obvious, there's no surprise, but if it's hidden too well the solution becomes anunsatisfying deus-ex-machina.

Robert Barnard gets it exactly right.

It looks like Scribner has issued a new edition of the e-book. (And I must say, I love the new trend of simple, colorful mystery covers.) If you download the sample, this is the cover you'll see.

I read the paperback 2006 edition shown at the top of the post, issued by Felony & Mayhem (one of my favorite mystery publishers). They kindly include "If you like" matchups on each book. They recommend Out of the Blackout to fans of Ruth Rendell and John Lawton. I recommend it to everyone.

By request, I'll be including a "squick factor" rating on new reviews, to give tenderhearted readers a heads-up on graphic or disturbing material. Naturally, anything to do with war and murder addresses ugly topics. However, in this book the protagonist's distance from actual events and the author's light touch in conveying the story make Out of the Blackout's Squick Factor = NIL to MEH.

For a sample of what I consider Squick Factor = NIL, you can check out my free short story, Mister Mottley and the Key of D.

Squick Factor Range:
NIL
MEH
KINDA
OH YAH, YOU BETCHA
GAAAHHH! NUKE IT FROM SPACE!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this title off of a list of mysteries with WWII connections. In this case only the first chapter was actually set during the war, the rest of the story concerned young Simon Cutheridge's investigations of who he really was and how, as a five year old, he landed on a train of child evacuees in the English countryside. I thought I had it all figured out who his real parents were, but I was surprised by the ending and found it very satisfying.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing so much better than many of the so called current "Bestsellers". I recommend this book to those that enjoy suspense combined with a background of England in early WW 2

[Anna Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember if it was S.S. Van Dine or Agatha Christie who said that murder was the only mystery worth writing about, because it was the only thing serious enough to hold the reader's attention- but for the most part, I agree. Dorothy L. Sayers pulled off an engrossing non-murder mystery with Gaudy Night, but she's indubitably a master. Out of the Blackout isn't quite in the same league, but it is a great story of confusion and sleuthing with a surprising twist at the end. There *is* a murder/manslaughter, but it's almost tangential to the real mystery, and only serves to further the plot. The protagonist is well-developed and engaging, and the story throws the angst of London's WWII child evacuees into sharper focus than I've previously experienced. If you like family drama and WWII history, this is an enjoyable read.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An undiscovered classic. Barnard is not, of course, unknown, but this is an obscure title. In it, young Simon arrives on a train to the British countryside with a lot of other child refugees from London. When he's unclaimed, he goes to the home of a solid, loving couple, who end up raising him, as he remains unclaimed. The book encompasses Simon's life - student life at Oxford, a job at the London Zoo, marriage and children. When he goes to London with some Oxford buddies he realizes he does remember where he came from, and when he gets a job in London, he makes it his other job to discover his ancestry. This is the kind of book where you get half way or three quarters of the way through it and you're still not sure exactly what's going to happen. The story is told in a brisk, no nonsense fashion, though some of Simon's discoveries are pretty terrible. The end is a delight. Barnard, who was born in 1936, the same year as little Simon, must have seen and remembered some of the blitz himself (though unlike his fellow writer, Peter Lovesey, he was not an actual evacuee). The wartime detail is perfection, as is this story. I won't spoil any of it, discover it for yourself.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out with such promise; the story of Simon's evacuation from London during the Blitzkrieg, his childhood in the countryside, and his return to London could have set a great story going forward. I loved Simon's becoming separated from his friends, and wandering alone and lost. His realization that the streets he was on were familiar to him was the peak of the story for me. Sadly after that it was only the fact that the book is so short that I kept at it. Some of the reviews call the book a mystery with a lot of satire & wit. I have to say I didn't get that sense at all. Big disappointment.

[Mary Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1941 London children were sent to foster homes in the country to escape The Blitz. One boy, Simon Thorn stepped off the train to everyone’s surprise. He wasn’t on any of the lists. No one claimed him after The War. Simon was happy with his foster family but still curious. He moved to London to be on the scientific staff at the Zoo. Simon finds familiar landmarks that prompt him to look further. This wonderfully paced story held my interest.

[Janet Ramski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quiet mystery that kept me turning the pages way too late at night. A young boy is evacuated from London during the Blitz, but no one seems to know who he is, and after the war, no one ever shows up to claim him. Years later, the boy is now grown, and begins a search to discover his own history. Robert Bernard keeps the reader guessing, with a few good twists at the end.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good historical mystery! It didn't grip me completely, but the story was interesting, the social and moral commentary really good and the characters well constructed. I also really appreciate the convincing end and wrap-up of the mystery - many authors seem to think that can be neglected, and it annoys me. Not the case in this book!

[cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

had an eye on this for some time (bas bleu catalog...though bought it used). it didnt stick with me in any strong fashion...amd has sat on my "to review" list for two years. it wasnt bad by any means but the characters didnt pull at me the way id hoped

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read and very entertaining. A young boy evacuated from London during WWII who tries to find his past. A gentle unfolding, with a nice little twist. Kept me turning pages. I was clearing off my shelves and found this. I'm glad I did.

[Inga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great quick read. Characters are well developed. Plot keeps you interested throughout the entire novel. Ending is not unrealistic like many similar stories.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, possibly the most depressing book I’ve ever read.

[Janice Hom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great characters, the plot keeps one guessing, and there is a great plot twist at the end

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not totally memorable. It is an excellent non-murder mystery.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars.

[Neer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of Barnards read so far. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...

[Srutirupa Acharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite unusual mystery. A man in pursuit of his real identity. Unlike usual mystery novels, It's not only a chase to the end. It's much more deeper than that. Robert Bernard has done some brilliant characterizations. From the protagonist to the lesser known characters, many of them are well constructed. Throughout the narration, the author has been excellent in illustrating the scenes of decayed neighborhoods, dingy houses, unused rooms, awful pubs and last but not the least, dark and repulsive human nature.

The story covers the timeline from 1930s to 1980s with a no of intervals in between. It has references to various historical events such as the setting of world War 2, London blitz of 1941, British Union of Fascists and anti-immigration racism. All of these provide an interesting backdrop for the mystery.The novel has a very promising start.The 1st 3 chapters are literally stunning. I was hooked. After that its hold over me became a little loose, just a little. Still, it is a great read.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Barnard's "Out of the Blackout" (1984) is the twelfth book by Mr. Barnard that I have read. It is quite an engrossing mystery, but not the best by this author.

1941 in London is the year of the Blitz, strategic bombings of British cities by German Luftwaffe. Many children are evacuated to the country. One such transport that arrives in a village in Gloucestershire has a five-year boy who is not on the list of evacuees. No one can figure out who he is and how he got on the train. The boy says his name is Simon Thorn, but does not seem quite sure about it. He is adopted by a local family and enjoys a happy youth.

The plot skips in time over the period of about 40 years as Simon tries to establish his real birth name and to learn about his family. Will he succeed? Are there any dark and ugly secrets in his family's past? I am not spoiling; read the novel.

The last chapter is the only place where Mr. Barnard shows his trademark acerbic wit and sarcastic writing style, which allows me to raise the rating a little bit.

Two and three quarter stars.

[Ant Koplowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable excursion by Robert Barnard (a crime writer who is far less well known that he should be) into mistaken identity, lost childhood, and the past haunting the present. The narrative switches between the 1940s and through to the 60s and 70s as Simon tries to find out who he really is after being abandoned at a railway station with other evacuee children by his real family.

Out of the Blackout is a straightforward but not insubstantial read; I enjoyed the characterisation and Simon's motivations and actions were believable. The early wartime scenes were well realised and, for the most part, the behaviour of his 'family' was understandable in the specific context of the novel.

A diverting and enjoyable read which has made me want to search out more Barnard books.

© Koplowitz 2014

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book three times, and somehow neglected to post a review. Robert Barnard is one of my favorite mystery authors, and this is my favorite of his books. As historical fiction I found it believable and a good read. Simon has escaped the London Blitz as one of many children sent to the countryside to escape the bombs, but he is never returned to his family because he lacked the proper documentation. His adoptive parents are kind and loving, and he seems to have no memories of his family of origin, so staying on is not a problem.

Then, as a young man, he travels to London and begins to experience vague memories of Paddinton and the surrounding area, and decides to see if he can find his birth parents. This quest is the heart of the book, and leads to several unexpected revelations.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book -- and a quick read. The plot is creative: Simon was a child sent from London to the British countryside during WWII to escape the dangers of the Blitz. After the war, Simon remained in the country village to which he was evacuated, and was essentially adopted by his host family. But Simon is vaguely aware that there is something odd about his departure from London; he half-remembers things which make him wonder who his parents were and under what circumstances he was placed on a train heading out of London. The book traces Simon's attempts to remember who he was and why he was sent away. As is often the case, Simon starts to wonder if he really wants to know the truth about his origins, given how much he loves his adopted family.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arrived today from Amazon, found out it is a gift from one of my girl pals.

From reading the cover, I thought I was going to be reading a story of London children moved during the blitz to the country and a murder mystery. With a twist, just the first chapters dealt a little on the evacuation, the rest was of the child with no name trying to find out, who he was after the war is over.

The child, with no name, tracks down his unsavory birth family, believing himself to be someone who he was not, in the end he finds both his birth mother and birth father, and finds out, neither gave a fig for a child born to them.

The child's adopted family loved and raised him to be a productive individual. Murder, yes it is there.

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent story! A man's search for his true identity set against the backdrop of Britain during World War II. Atmospheric and well-written, with a surprise ending that really packs a punch. A VERY good read!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the bombing of London, several families sent their children to temporary homes in the country for safety. Simon Thorn is one young boy who does not belong to the group of twenty sent to Yeasdon Station. He is assigned to live with the Cutheridge family and is later adopted by them. He has no recall of his life in London. Years later, working as a zoologist at the London Zoo, he plunges into his past to learn who he is, where he came from, and all about his birth family. An interesting read, suspenseful, and well-written, but somewhat flat.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third Barnard book and I like this one best! The horror of the war and just the thought of sending your child off to live with strangers to protect them is unthinkable, but how Simon gets there is unbelievable. Simon grows up healthy and happy and while in London for a new job happens past something that looks very familiar to him and sets him on a search for his roots and his 'real' family. This book is full of despicable people and I liked the little twist at the end. Read it, you'll love Simon.