When the creak of the garden gate heralds the arrival of an unexpected. Goddard ( In Pale Battalions ) goes from strength to strength in terms of invention, and this exciting story, with its careful complexity and completeness-no loose ends-is a joy to read. : Painting the Darkness (Paperback): Language: English. The tale concerns James Norton, who turns up in 1882 claiming to.

A large cast of characters plays a part in the mystery, as becomes clear in the shocking denouement. The plot twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing as one theory after another is dashed. The outcome of the trial is tragic and explosive, and the surprises and mystery continue as Richard changes his mind about James, and as the tight and intricate plot moves back and forth in time.

Yet, if James ``Norton,'' as he calls himself, is not the missing man, who is he? And why does his mother Catherine call Norton an imposter while Constance recognizes him as her lost love? A sensational trial that threatens to eclipse the famous Tichborne Case looms as Trenchard (who's fighting to hold on to his wife and his mental equilibrium) and Richard Davenall-a cousin, who may be Hugo's father-certain that Norton is a phony, carry out their own investigations. When the creak of the garden gate heralds the arrival of an unexpected stranger, he is puzzled but not alarmed. On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, thirty-four-year-old husband and father William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. James Davenall had been missing, declared a suicide, for 11 years-and his younger brother Hugo had inherited the Davenall baronetcy. Painting the Darkness Robert Goddard 4.04 1,682 ratings141 reviews On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. In Robert Goddard’s third novel, a bestseller in the United Kingdom and now back in print, is a masterful exercise in suspense set in Victorian-era England. John's Wood, one evening in 1882, and claims to be the former fiance of his wife Constance, Trenchard's whole life is overwhelmed. When a strange man appears in William Trenchard's garden in St.

Painting the darkness by robert goddard