Out Of The Sun
from the BBC 2 Between the Covers author Robert Goddard
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
'The world's greatest storyteller' Guardian
'Goddard writes amazing novels of mystery/suspense' Stephen King
'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' Daily Mail
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Harry Barnett is shocked to learn that he has a son - David Venning, a brilliant mathematician, now languishing in hospital in a diabetic coma. And this is only the first and smallest of the mysteries he is about to encounter.
It is not known whether David's condition is due to an accident or a suicide attempt. But Harry discovers that his mathematical notebooks are missing from the hotel room where he was found. And two other scientists employed by the same American forecasting institute have died in suspicious circumstances.
Driven on by the slim hope of saving the son he never knew he had, Harry goes in search of the truth and finds himself entangled in several different kinds of conspiracy - none of which he ought to stand the slightest chance of defeating.
THE FINE ART OF UNCANNY PREDICTION, the new novel from Robert Goddard, is available for pre-order now.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goddard's bestseller status in Britain rests on his ability to tell a suspenseful story--usually one in which dark secrets come to light--in a literate style. His ninth novel revisits Harry Barnett, the ill-starred protagonist of the well-received Into the Blue. Using booze to shut out the pain of personal failure, the ineptly idealistic and ever-chivalrous antihero is stunned back into reality when an anonymous caller informs him that he is the father of David Venning, a 33-year-old mathematical superbrain. Ironically emblematic of the rest of Harry's hapless life, his secret son is hooked up to life support, having slipped into what appears to be an intractable coma after an insulin overdose. But subsequent discoveries leave Harry suspicious: David's closely guarded notebooks are missing, and two of his former colleagues at Globescope, a powerful corporation engaged in worldwide socioeconomic forecasts, have recently died under questionable circumstances. Desperate to save his son, Harry embarks on a quest to find David's ex-lover, a brilliant young authority--as it happens--on treating coma. The trail leads into a maze of sinister corporate machinations and long-forgotten academic politics suggesting a conspiracy to repress David's startling mathematical calculations--which may reveal an expanded physical order of the universe. Bittersweet romance is overshadowed by suspicion and murder as Harry is menaced from forces in the world as he knows it and from someplace that has something to do with hyper-dimensionalism. This harrowing odyssey leads from Europe across the U.S. and back to England before Harry uncovers the truth in a heartstopping climactic confrontation. Goddard's considerable skills as a storyteller offset Harry's chronic lapses into tedious exercises of boozy self-recrimination. FYI: Into the Blue is currently being made into a film in the U.K.
