MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf Nominations for April 2018 • It's All Relative: Time

gmw · 03-02-2018, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Michael Paleologus, retired archaeologist and supposed descendant of the last Emperors of Byzantium, lives alone in a remote and rambling house in Cornwall. His son, Nicholas, is summoned to resolve a dispute which threatens to set his brothers and sisters against their aged and irascible father. An overly generous offer has been made for the house, but Michael refuses to sell.

Only after the stalemate is tragically broken do Nick and his siblings discover why their father was bound at all costs to reject the offer. Their desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen enemy, who seems as determined to force them into a confrontation with their family’s past as he is to conceal his own identity.

Nick realizes that the only way to escape from the trap their persecutor has set for them is to hunt him down, wherever -- and whoever -- he may be. But the hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father’s past. And, once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.

Most Goddard books would fit a "time-ly" theme, but this one also fits a "relative" theme - being very much a family affair. Some great family interactions, an intriguing mystery, and Goddard's usual blending of past events into the present. It's an excellent read.