"I have something to tell you. It is a life and death matter and it concerns the central question of your life that you have spent years slowly destroying yourself over. Also, this involves the Prime Minister and his family and I think someone is following me."
"Fascinating. Why don't we meet at the Old Sty in Exton tomorrow at 8 to discuss it?"
"Brilliant." ( )

I am a huge Robert Goddard fan having read...I thought...everything he’s ever written. Seems I was wrong since somehow this gem missed my radar. Like most all of Goddard’s books there are twists, double twists...red herrings...theories that seem plausible, until they aren’t...then at the last it all comes together. At the end, you feel Martin gave the book its title as events leads him to the point that he is “past caring”. The ending... despite its being somewhat expected... still felt right and the reader feels that things are finally as they should be. ( )

This 1986 Booker prize-nominated novel is a rewarding reading experience. It’s Goddard’s first published novel, which makes the Booker feat even more impressive. The expert suspense-manipulation skills of a Daphne du Maurier romance meets a John le Carre thriller is how the New York Times reviewer put it.

Martin Radford is the narrator and an unlikely private detective, although, consistent with the genre’s requirements, he is flawed. He’s an unemployed history graduate so when a university friend asks him to visit the island of Maidera, he jumps at the chance. The friend introduces him to Leo Sellick who employs him to find out all he can about the late Edwin Strafford, an English cabinet minister who mysteriously resigned at 32 in 1910 after just two years. He moved to Madeira soon after and lived there for the rest of his life.

Strafford left an unpublished memoir which is much of the novel’s first half. The more Martin reads, the more invested he becomes in his subject. He uncovers an intricate far-reaching web of intrigue, including his present-day connection to events started decades before. He becomes friends with Edwin’s intended, Elizabeth and together they try to right the wrongs of the past, the stakes of which are higher than either could’ve imagined.

Past Caring is full of unforeseen surprises, a story of secrets and the far-reaching consequences of decisions made on a whim.

I’ve read Robert Goddard’s Long Time Coming which I also recommend. I am looking forward to reading more of his entertaining and thought-provoking novels.
( )

This novel tells two stories, firstly that of an early 20th century British cabinet minister, Edwin Strafford, who suddenly and mysteriously loses his job and his fiance without a clue as to why this is happening to him. His career is ruined and he ends up a minor consular official in Madeira. It is also about a young historian Martin Radford, divorced and unemployed and visiting a friend in Madeira in the 1970s. He is hired to investigate the story of Edwin Strafford, starting with a recenty discovered Strafford journal. The story is well plotted, well-written in a style reminiscent of the early 20th century. (I think I might have liked it if the style had varied more between the journal and the more modern story.) ( )

This is the second book I’ve read for the Great Transworld Crime Caper. As soon as I read the synopsis of the book I thought it sounded like my sort of book, within a few pages I knew I’d made a good choice.

The plot is split between the present (though that’s in the 1980s, back when the book was written) and the past, as historian Martin Radford tries to investigate what happened to Edwin Strafford back in the 1910s. Edwin’s story is told through his memoir, both plots are gripping and once they started to overlap I found it increasingly hard to put the book down.

I didn’t find the characters in the book particularly easy to like, the majority of them are working to their own personal agenda and seem to have little trouble with doing whatever it takes to get to their goal. Many of the characters are however interesting, I enjoyed reading about Elizabeth, Edwin’s fiancée.

Edwin’s memoir covers his time as a politician and his experiences of the women’s suffrage movement. I found this to be very interesting reading, though as it’s a time of history I don’t know much about I couldn’t comment on it’s historical accuracy.

The book is very readable, and the jumps between the present set narration and the past account provided by the memoir were very smooth. I have previously read books that use diaries and memoirs for flashbacks that have failed in what they were trying to do – Goddard pulls it off very well. I’ll certainly be recommending this book in the future. ( )