Name To A Face by Robert Goddard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Goddard is getting tired!
I have enjoyed many of Robert Goddard’s books, with their many unexpected twists and turns, but his writing has now got to the stage where I know what to expect. I persevered with this story, but had it been a TV film, I would have been out of my seat and off to bed half way through.
However, compared to a lot of the books in this genre, Goddard is still up there with the best. Perhaps it is unfair of me to make the comparison with his previous works, as those were all so good.
A landscape gardener on the Côte d’Azur is asked by one of his clients to go to Cornwall and bid for a family heirloom which is up for auction following the death of his (the client’s) uncle. From that point, mystery, intrigue and deception unravel in typical Goddard style. The historical backdrop adds a lot of colour to the story, which never approaches believable. Uncharacteristically, many of the twists and turns are either too predictable or just too far-fetched.
An enjoyable enough book, if you can’t find anything better to read on your holiday.
