Borrowed Time

December 12, 2005
Goddard's excellent line of British psychological thrillers gets its long-deserved christening from an American publisher with this novel, to be released simultaneously with Into the Blue
as part of a six-book relaunch. The plot springs from a chance encounter between English businessman Robin Timariot and Lady Louise Paxton, who meet briefly while hiking one day near Wales in July of 1990. Hours later, Paxton is found, raped and strangled, in a nearby cottage. Over the next several months and, eventually, years, Timariot is steadily drawn to the case. He watches as a local drifter is convicted of the murder, and the Paxton family slowly disintegrates into bitter rivalries, suicides and tensions caused by the crime's scandalous nature. Meanwhile, Timariot, heir to an old-line cricket bat manufacturing company, must navigate his own internecine family squabbles fueled by the company's lagging position in the marketplace. Goddard writes in measured, graceful strokes that seductively charm the reader—first with an amicable grip, then with an inexorable clench. As with many of his 16 novels, Goddard's plotting is an elegant mix of secrets, deceits and slowly unfolding horrors. His characters, curiously one-dimensional on first inspection, quickly turn into accordions of personality and behavior.

March 20, 2006
First published in the UK in 1995, this psychological thriller has a that plot springs from the chance encounter between English businessman Robin Timariot and Lady Louise Paxton, who meet briefly while hiking near Wales. Hours later, Paxton is found raped and strangled in a nearby cottage. Over the proceeding months and years, Timariot watches as a drifter get convicted of the murder and the Paxton family disintegrates into rivalries, suicides and tensions owing to the crime. Meanwhile, Timariot, heir to a cricket bat manufacturing company, must navigate his own family squabbles, fueled in part by the company's lagging position in the marketplace. As with many of his 16 novels (Dying to Tell, etc.), Goddard's plotting is a smooth mix of secrets, deceits and slowly unfolding horrors.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2005
Poised at a professional crossroads, Eurocrat Robin Timariot sets out on a weeklong walk along the Welsh borders to clear his head. While resting on a scenic ridge, he meets a beautiful and enigmatic stranger named Louise Paxton. The two chat briefly, and she offers him a ride, which he declines. Upon journey's end, Timariot is astonished to learn that Ms. Paxton and expressionist painter Oscar Bantock were murdered at Bantock's cottage mere hours after she and Timariot met. Certain he was one of the last to see her alive, Timariot contacts the authorities and soon becomes entangled in the lives of the peculiar Paxton clan: Louise's husband, Keith, a wealthy, knighted doctor, and their two daughters, law student Sarah and emotionally unstable Rowena, who is engaged to a man who seems too good to be true. An arrest is made in the murder case, but suspicions soon mount that police nabbed the wrong man. Meanwhile, Timariot has family issues of his own: his late brother's headstrong wife has married widower Keith (but not for the money, she insists). Fans of P. D. James will savor best-selling Brit Goddard's plentiful plot twists and crisp, polished prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)