There are several moments and several characters who seem a little superfluous and I think that's what makes it inferior to other historical thrillers out there. At over 500 pages this book is no easy beach read and with Goddard's usual large cast the drama is not always so easy to follow. The pay off is worth waiting for but indeed you do have to wait. Goddard wields the past like a weapon used with surgical precision creating a sense of hopelessness and inevitability which courses through the plot. The novel bounces around from different perspectives and the history of these characters is revealed with increasing density.

Goddard is an absolute master at teasing his audience with twists and revelations and he exploits this skill here as we, the readers, are never quite sure what to think of the alleged impostor. The key question is - is it him?The journey to find out is destructive and leaves little peace in its wake. The man's resemblance to the deceased is striking and soon, as his wife and the surrounding family come to discover, his behavior and memory is spot on to. A seemingly domestic event which is made more dramatic by the fact that this ex-husband supposedly commited suicide over a decade ago.

William Trenchard is confronted by his wife's ex-husband one morning in the garden. The tension and plot is at full steam from page two and does not relent. His single greatest novel 'Past Caring' is almost lived up to here as he explores his usual theme of a haunting past having a profound and often tragic effect on the present. Read more finally - shockingly - be revealed.I'm a big fan of Robert Goddard and have been more than satisfied with most of the dozen or so books of his that I have read. Trenchard fears the loss of his wife's affections, but he is forced to plumb the depths of his own despair before the dark secrets of the Davenall family can. The stranger is James Norton, who claims to be the man William's wife Constance was once engaged to, and who was reported to have committed suicide eleven years ago. He cannot possibly know the destruction this visitor will wreak on all he holds dear. When the creak of the garden gate one autumn afternoon sounds the arrival of an unexpected stranger, William Trenchard is puzzled, but not alarmed. When the creak of the garden gate one autumn afternoon sounds the arrival of an unexpected stranger William Trenchard is puzzled, but not alarmed. Description for Painting the Darkness Paperback.

Painting the Darkness by Robert Goddard