Robert Goddard, Sight Unseen

Sight Unseen

Robert Goddard

Delta, January 2007, $12.00

ISBN 0440242800

In the summer of 1981, near the Avebury Neolithic henge circle, a woman walks with three children; a nine or ten year old boy and a seven year old girl, who are slightly ahead of the adult, and the third child is a toddler. Suddenly a man grabs the infant, whose sister reacts instantly and gives chase, while the nanny stares in revulsion. The kidnapper jumps into a van, runs over his seven year old pursuer, and flees with his catch.

Historian David Umber witnessed the horror over twenty-five years ago, in which Tamsin Hall was abducted and her older sister Miranda killed. David eventually married the stunned nanny, but his wife never moved on from the shock that initially bound them, until she finally committed suicide filled with guilt that she was negligent in her diligence.

Retired Wiltshire Chief Inspector Sharp informs David he received an anonymous letter with clues to what happened on that fatal day in '81. The letter focuses on the true identity of an eighteenth century political meddler known as Junius, who happens to be the subject of Umber's Ph.D. research. David begins to reconsider his wife's suicide, and he wonders if someone murdered her to further bury the truth. The historian and the former cop team up to follow the new leads, to hopefully uncover a murderous kidnapper.

If not the best, Robert Goddard has to be one of the top five suspense writers today. With exhilarating works like BORROWED TIME, HAND IN GLOVE, and now SIGHT UNSEEN, Mr. Goddard consistently entertains with exciting tales that are plausible and gripping. His current thriller will hook the audience from the opening 1981 sequence and throughout, until the final present day confrontation; thus another great thriller from a genre grandmaster.