Set in Stone (Set in Stone - Robert Goddard)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	Set in Stone - Robert Goddard
Date:	22/11/03 (392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An absorbing mystery

Disadvantages: Keeps you 'til the end

I took Robert Goddard's Set in Stone from the library shelf as a standby in case I finished my favoured choice too quickly. I had not read the author before and only glanced at the reviews on the back cover before deciding, "That'll do". In fact I wearied of my first selection and, giving up on it, turned to the alternative read to find a gem of a mystery story which I didn't want to put down.

This is a story which takes us from quiet beginnings as Tony Sheridan grieves for his wife, Marina, found dead at the bottom of a Cornish cliff. Feeling her close to him as the bereft do, he tells her of the events which followed and so takes us with him as he is drawn into mystery and betrayal and a totally believable supernatural element in which a house directs the lives of those within.

Leaving the home which contained his dreams Tony stays with his best friend Matt Prior, married to Marina's sister Lucy, and sees for the first time "Otherways", their house on Rutland Water. A small manor house, pefectly circular both outside and within, it was the first and final design of a brilliant architect who had taken himself into exile after completion. Had he unintentionally overstepped a dimensional boundary in its creation and was this really a place where the past and future collided before overlapping?

As he settles into Otherways, Tony finds himself beset by surreally disturbing dreams and it is not long before he discovers that this is a house which has known not only domestic murder and suicide but espionage and treason. Sixty years ago James Milner had murdered his beloved wife and written a full confession in his death cell. His brother, Cedric, had defected to the Soviet Union to assist in the production of a nuclear bomb and his name was now associated with other traitors such as Kim Philby and Guy Burgess.

Others have an interest in the history of the house and Lucy intr
oduces Tony to Daisy Temple whose own life was changed forever by the dismal occurrences of the past. Daisy's lodger, the slimy and persistent Rainbird has an unhealthy interest in Otherways and now unashamedly dogs Tony in order to gain access.

As Otherways pulls Tony into its spell and his personal life moves from grief to bewilderment he is also about to be drawn into present day needs to find the long ago confession written by James Milner and since lost. For other powerful, deeply secret and dangerous forces are determined that the confession must be found and that Tony Sheridan will be the vehicle used. He finds himself travelling from Rutland, to Scotland, to London and then the Continent, not only becoming more embroiled in past espionage but beginning to doubt that his wife's death is either accident or suicide. What did Lucy, whose passion for him is no longer hidden, have to do with Marina's death? How is the elderly Daisy involved if at all? What mystery does Cedric Milner hold which now threatens Tony's life?

In order to find the condemned man's confession Tony needs to track down those who hold the information he needs, some now elderly and reluctant - or afraid - to be found. Always the house on Rutland Water has cast its spell and influenced their lives and the lives of those around them. Robert Goddard's characters are real and we like and sympathise with them, or not, as he intends and, as Tony pulls them into his search for the truth, they re-live for him the parts they played in Otherways' disturbing history. Most importantly the defector, Cedric Milner, must somehow be found and persuaded to help.

As Otherways continues to influence Tony, giving him graphic pictures of a frightening future, he tries to change it with dramatic consequences. If all this sounds confusing, let me put your mind at rest. Robert Goddard leads the reader skilfully through his mystery with the
help of Tony Sheridan as his travels bring him steadily and dangerously to conclusion.

As does Tony we want to find out what caused the seemingly accidental death of the innocent Marina, why an architect with a brilliant career ahead of him turned his back on his profession, how and why could a loving husband kill his faithful wife and why did the confession he wrote put so many other lives in danger 60 years later?

I found this an absorbing read which left my curiosity satisfied and my credulity still intact. I would recommend Set in Stone if only for Robert Goddard's ability to tell a darn good story.

Summary: