Leo assaults Elizabeth Martin shoots and kills him. Confronting Leo, Martin reveals his find: that Leo is Couchman's bastard son and that he murdered Strafford. After weeks of digging, Martin gets his hands on this second journal and learns that Couchman, with the compli-of cabinet members who found Strafford a political liability, tricked Elizabeth into believing that Strafford was a bigamist. The plot thickens as Strafford's son, possessor of a later journal of Strafford's, is murdered by Couchman's son Henry. Returning to England, Martin grows close to an aged Elizabeth, investigates the powerful Couchman family, and gets involved with a bewitching grad student. Martin is elated when Leo hires him to root out the cause of Elizabeth's desertion of Strafford. After years of despair, during which Elizabeth married his college friend, Gerald Couchman, Strafford accepted a consular post in Madeira, where he spent the rest of his life. Strafford then attempted to retract his resignation, to no avail. Willing to forego career for love, he resigned his post as Home Secretary but that night his fiancÉe, Elizabeth, mysteriously broke off contact with him. At Leo's request, Martin reads Strafford's journal: after a meteoric rise, Strafford fell for a suffragette-political poison in that era.
At loose ends, divorced and unemployed Martin Radford travels to Madeira, where he meets Leo Sellick, a wealthy businessman living in a house once owned by the late Edwin Strafford, a member of Asquith's cabinet. His works have been adapted for television, and have garnered other honors for Goddard, including an Edgar Award.First-novelist Goddard tells a labyrinthine first-person tale of a historian whose assignment to solve a vintage mystery entangles him in a web of deceit and violence. Goddard's first book, Past Caring, was published in 1986, and he has since published 27 additional titles. It is a genuine pleasure to celebrate his illustrious career with the award of the Diamond Dagger.” "His books are notable for their breathtaking plot twists, sharp characterisation, and insights into history. “Robert Goddard has been entertaining crime fiction fans across the world for over thirty years," said Crime Writers' Association chair Martin Edwards. The association's highest honor, however, is the Diamond Dagger, which is given to a writer "whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre." This year's winner is Robert Goddard! The Dagger Awards, presented by the UK's Crime Writers' Association, recognize excellence in crime and mystery writing in a wide range of cateogories, from first novels to translations.
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