Past Caring by Robert Goddard

(image description) it says "The Great Transworld Crime Caper" The T in transworld is bigger and blue, the rest of the text is black.  There is a magnifying glass over the T, yellow "crime scene do not cross" tape across the entire logo and a gun with blood splatters in the top right of the image.

I was given a copy of Past Caring by Robert Goddard to review by Transworld as a part of their Great Crime Caper

This is what Amazon has to say about it (which is also pretty much word for word what's on the back cover

1910: Distinguished MP Edwin Strafford resigns at the pinnacle of his career, removing himself from the public eye. The woman he loves, and for whom he was willing to sacrifice everything, suddenly and coldly rejects him. All the reasons for his fall from grace are shrouded in darkness.

Seventy years later, historian Martin Radford is down on his luck when a mysterious benefactor offers him the opportunity of a lifetime: to uncover what exactly happened to Edwin Strafford. But this apparent good fortune swiftly turns into a nightmare. Radford’s investigations trigger a violent series of events, which throw him straight into the path of those who believed they had escaped punishment for crimes long past but never paid for…
This was the least graphic of the three thrillers I had to review as a part of the Crime Caper, it was much more of a suspenseful psychological thriller.  Obviously it did have it's share of moments of violence etc but it was built much more around of the question of  "what happened" for the first probably two thirds of the book.  That doesn't mean it was a bad book, in fact it was a really good one and I think I probably enjoyed it the most out of the three (although sections of it are set around 1910, a period of history I've always found interesting which helps).

I think this is probably a really good book for someone who hasn't read much in the way of thrillers before because it's got all the required elements but isn't too harsh with it.  But it's also good for a die hard thriller fan because it does keep you guessing and wondering right to the end.

The characters were believable to start with but by the end I must admit Martin Radford was beginning to get on my nerves.  Everyone else you're either supposed to love or to hate and it's pretty obvious which it is for each character.

This book has a real feel of coming full circle which I particularly liked.  I've not read any Robert Goddard books before and whilst I won't be placing an order for some right this very minute he's certainly an author I might read the back of in a bookshop if I spotted it.  Overall a good book but a few things I would have changed.