TAKE NO FAREWELL

Love, ambition, passion, betrayal, honor, redemption. These are the stuff of every successful family saga. Add murder, and you have Robert Goddard's newest addictively entertaining tale of the havoc wrought by love. Paul Shelley brings nuance and sensitivity to his reading of this story, set in 1923. He gives protagonist Paul Staddon, for example, an educated, yet self-serving voice, which reveals the character's essential weakness. For her one period of true happiness, the voice of Paul's wife melts from brittle upper-crust to girlishly naïve--and back again upon betrayal. A penniless blackmailer sounds desperate behind his threatening tone. All these voices are joined by a well-paced, modulated narration. This is a great romantic listen. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]