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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Quiet, unassuming Umiko Wada has had more than enough drama in her life. Since her husband’s death, she’s learned to keep her head down, accustoming herself to an existence based on privacy, solitude and routine.
Even as secretary to a Tokyo private detective, her life is uncomplicated, filled with coffee runs and pleasingly dull paperwork. That is, until her boss takes on a new case, which turns out to be dangerous enough to get him killed, shortly after sending Wada to London to meet a man on behalf of his client. It should have been a simple task for Wada. But now it becomes a battle for her own survival.
Following her only lead, she quickly realises that being a detective isn’t as easy as the television makes it appear. And that there’s a reason why secrets stay buried for a long time. Because people want them to stay secret. And they’re prepared to do very bad things to keep them that way …
47-year-old Umiko Wada is a widower whose husband was killed in 1995 when a religious cult staged a a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro. Bilingual in Japanese and English, she was hired after the attack by private detective Kazuto Kodaka to work as his personal assistant and has stayed with him ever since as she finds the work interesting.
It’s now 2019 and Kodaka has taken the case of Mimori Takenaga. Her father, Shitaro Masafumi died on a trip to London in 1977 in what was deemed to be a suicide but which she has always thought was murder. He had a translator while he was in England called Peter Evans who she has been trying to trace, certain that he has information that can reveal the truth about her father’s death. She even put an advert in the London Evening Standard in 1992 with a blurred photo of Evans and offering a reward for anyone who had information on him but never had any responses … Until last week when a man called Malcolm Caldwell contacted her saying that he knew who Evans was and asking Mimori to meet with him in London.
Kodaka knows that Masafumi had links to Hiroji Nishizaki, the founder of the Nishizaki Corporation, who Kodaka has had dealings with before and has sinister connections. With Mimori unable to go to London, Kodaka wants Wada to go and meet Caldwell and find out what he knows. Wada is happy to do so but while she’s there she gets a phone call saying that Kodaka has been killed in a suspected hit and run attack. Worse, Caldwell never shows up for their meeting.
Logically, Wada knows that she should go home to Japan but when she gets a lead on where to find Caldwell she decides that she should see the case through. But the more she investigates, the more she discovers that the roots of this lie deep in the past, cross countries and are possessed by people who will do absolutely whatever it takes to keep them …
Robert Goddard’s crime thriller is intricately constructed and Wada is a fascinating main character with the action taking place in Japan, the UK, the US and Iceland. The pacing works well and a dual storyline of Nick Miller also being contacted by Caldwell fleshes out the backstory. A sequel was published in 2024, which I will definitely check out and am otherwise I am keen to read Goddard’s other work.
I picked this up because the blurb on the back grabbed my interest. I was not disappointed.
This is a really intricate novel in terms of plotting. Wada’s investigation forms the main storyline but there’s a parallel storyline involving Nick Miller who is also contacted by Malcolm Caldwell after the death of his mother. I am not going to go too deeply into the plot because the fun in this book is trying to work out what the actual mystery is and how it all ties together. What I will say is that it did keep me guessing at where the story was going to go and to be honest I read so many thrillers that it is a joy to read something that I couldn’t wholly predict from the outset.
Wada is also a really interesting character and Goddard takes great care in setting her up. In many ways she is an emotionally closed off person, close to Wakada but not keen to have another relationship following her husband’s death (and not even sure that she should have married her husband either). I enjoyed her curious nature and the calm she feels when she reads in English. She’s clever and determined but Goddard still shows her as being out of her depth. My favourite scene in the book actually is one where she visits her brother in New York and it’s just a master class in showing rather than describing a relationship.
Nick is less interesting in comparison but he does have an equally gripping storyline as he comes to terms with the behaviour of his mother and the people she used to live with. A lesser writer could have made his storyline a pure backstory exposition dump but again this is intricately done and you are never quite sure what direction it is going to go in.
If I had a complaint then there is a tendency for Wada to be rescued at the last moment in a number of scenes, which did get repetitive. However that is very much a minor concern.
The book ends with an opening that certainly leaves it open for Goddard to return to Wada as a character if he chooses and I was pleased to see that a second book was published in 2024 - THE FINE ART OF UNCANNY PREDICTION - which I will definitely be checking out. I am also keen to read Goddard’s other work given how enjoyable this book was.
The Verdict:
Robert Goddard’s standalone crime thriller is intricately constructed and Wada is a fascinating main character with the action taking place in Japan, the UK, the US and Iceland. The pacing works well and a dual storyline of Nick Miller also being contacted by Caldwell fleshes out the backstory. A sequel was published in 2024, which I will definitely check out and am otherwise I am keen to read Goddard’s other work.
Quiet, unassuming Umiko Wada has had more than enough drama in her life. Since her husband’s death, she’s learned to keep her head down, accustoming herself to an existence based on privacy, solitude and routine.
Even as secretary to a Tokyo private detective, her life is uncomplicated, filled with coffee runs and pleasingly dull paperwork. That is, until her boss takes on a new case, which turns out to be dangerous enough to get him killed, shortly after sending Wada to London to meet a man on behalf of his client. It should have been a simple task for Wada. But now it becomes a battle for her own survival.
Following her only lead, she quickly realises that being a detective isn’t as easy as the television makes it appear. And that there’s a reason why secrets stay buried for a long time. Because people want them to stay secret. And they’re prepared to do very bad things to keep them that way …
47-year-old Umiko Wada is a widower whose husband was killed in 1995 when a religious cult staged a a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro. Bilingual in Japanese and English, she was hired after the attack by private detective Kazuto Kodaka to work as his personal assistant and has stayed with him ever since as she finds the work interesting.
It’s now 2019 and Kodaka has taken the case of Mimori Takenaga. Her father, Shitaro Masafumi died on a trip to London in 1977 in what was deemed to be a suicide but which she has always thought was murder. He had a translator while he was in England called Peter Evans who she has been trying to trace, certain that he has information that can reveal the truth about her father’s death. She even put an advert in the London Evening Standard in 1992 with a blurred photo of Evans and offering a reward for anyone who had information on him but never had any responses … Until last week when a man called Malcolm Caldwell contacted her saying that he knew who Evans was and asking Mimori to meet with him in London.
Kodaka knows that Masafumi had links to Hiroji Nishizaki, the founder of the Nishizaki Corporation, who Kodaka has had dealings with before and has sinister connections. With Mimori unable to go to London, Kodaka wants Wada to go and meet Caldwell and find out what he knows. Wada is happy to do so but while she’s there she gets a phone call saying that Kodaka has been killed in a suspected hit and run attack. Worse, Caldwell never shows up for their meeting.
Logically, Wada knows that she should go home to Japan but when she gets a lead on where to find Caldwell she decides that she should see the case through. But the more she investigates, the more she discovers that the roots of this lie deep in the past, cross countries and are possessed by people who will do absolutely whatever it takes to keep them …
Robert Goddard’s crime thriller is intricately constructed and Wada is a fascinating main character with the action taking place in Japan, the UK, the US and Iceland. The pacing works well and a dual storyline of Nick Miller also being contacted by Caldwell fleshes out the backstory. A sequel was published in 2024, which I will definitely check out and am otherwise I am keen to read Goddard’s other work.
I picked this up because the blurb on the back grabbed my interest. I was not disappointed.
This is a really intricate novel in terms of plotting. Wada’s investigation forms the main storyline but there’s a parallel storyline involving Nick Miller who is also contacted by Malcolm Caldwell after the death of his mother. I am not going to go too deeply into the plot because the fun in this book is trying to work out what the actual mystery is and how it all ties together. What I will say is that it did keep me guessing at where the story was going to go and to be honest I read so many thrillers that it is a joy to read something that I couldn’t wholly predict from the outset.
Wada is also a really interesting character and Goddard takes great care in setting her up. In many ways she is an emotionally closed off person, close to Wakada but not keen to have another relationship following her husband’s death (and not even sure that she should have married her husband either). I enjoyed her curious nature and the calm she feels when she reads in English. She’s clever and determined but Goddard still shows her as being out of her depth. My favourite scene in the book actually is one where she visits her brother in New York and it’s just a master class in showing rather than describing a relationship.
Nick is less interesting in comparison but he does have an equally gripping storyline as he comes to terms with the behaviour of his mother and the people she used to live with. A lesser writer could have made his storyline a pure backstory exposition dump but again this is intricately done and you are never quite sure what direction it is going to go in.
If I had a complaint then there is a tendency for Wada to be rescued at the last moment in a number of scenes, which did get repetitive. However that is very much a minor concern.
The book ends with an opening that certainly leaves it open for Goddard to return to Wada as a character if he chooses and I was pleased to see that a second book was published in 2024 - THE FINE ART OF UNCANNY PREDICTION - which I will definitely be checking out. I am also keen to read Goddard’s other work given how enjoyable this book was.
The Verdict:
Robert Goddard’s standalone crime thriller is intricately constructed and Wada is a fascinating main character with the action taking place in Japan, the UK, the US and Iceland. The pacing works well and a dual storyline of Nick Miller also being contacted by Caldwell fleshes out the backstory. A sequel was published in 2024, which I will definitely check out and am otherwise I am keen to read Goddard’s other work.
