Found Wanting-Robert Goddard

Found Wanting
Robert Goddard
Bantam, Feb 22 2011, $15.00
ISBN 9780385343626

In London, government bureaucrat Richard Eusden knows every day at work is the same as the previous zillion days. The civil servant muses outside his office building at Whitehall that nothing changes as everything remains the same when it comes to the job.

However this Monday morning will prove a bit maniacal when his former wife Gemma pulls over to the curb and orders Richard into her car. She asks her ex to do her a favor. Her other ex Marty Hewitson is dying. She wants Richard to deliver to his childhood friend Marty an old attaché case that belonged to the latter’s grandfather, Isle of Wight police officer Clem Hewitson who was buried two decades ago. Richard travels to Brussels to deliver the case but learns what happens to Good Samaritans as he finds out first-hand that the late Clem’s epic espionage exaggerations that stretch back to 1909 may not have been hyperbole. A brutal kidnapper warns him to hand over the case if he wants Marty returned alive and if he prefers life over death. Stunned Richard flees across the continent with assassins chasing after him wanting the Romanov secret documents that the attaché contains.

This is a terrific suspense thriller as Richard feels paranoid because he distrusts everyone soon after arriving in Belgium; this includes Gemma and Marty. Fast-paced with tense twists and trademark humor, Found Wanting is an exhilarating thriller as Richard runs to Germany with no idea where to go or who to turn to while killers pursue him.

Harriet Klausner