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Title details for Play to the End by Robert Goddard - Available

Play to the End

A Novel

by Robert Goddard
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Intricate, fascinating and deeply satisfying to the last page — another classic Robert Goddard mystery.
Actor Toby Flood, formerly of big and small screen but now seldom seen on either, arrives in Brighton with the other cast members of the Joe Orton play Lodger in the Throat. They have been on tour since September, but hopes of a West End transfer have been abandoned and they are all looking forward to the end of the run the following Saturday.
Flood is visited that night by his estranged wife, Jenny, now living with wealthy entrepreneur Roger Colborn. Jenny runs a shop in the Lanes and is worried about a strange man who is hanging around outside. Roger has dismissed her concerns but Jenny persuades Toby, for old times’ sake, to do something. The next day Flood trails the man and confronts him. Derek Oswin is an unemployed loner who blames Roger Colborn for his father’s death from cancer on account of dangerous practices at the now-closed plastics factory run by Roger and his late father, Sir Walter Colborn. However, Oswin is a fan of Flood’s and eventually he agrees to lay off. Then, Colborn gets wind of Flood’s contact with Jenny and tries to buy him off, but Flood sees only a longed-for opportunity to win Jenny back, and presses for answers to a host of questions surrounding the death of Sir Walter seven years earlier.
Before he fully understands the risks he is running, Flood finds himself entangled in the mysterious — and dangerous — relationship between the Oswins and the Colborns. The prospects of him surviving until the close of the play suddenly start to look far from good.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 25, 2006

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780440336082

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780440336082
      • File size: 411 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 20, 2006
      A moderately successful actor gets caught up in the role of a lifetime in this gripping thriller from British bestseller Goddard (Sight Unseen
      ). Playing the lead in a recently discovered play by the late Joe Orton that's trying out in Brighton, Toby Flood—whose last chance at fame came when he was briefly considered to take over the role of James Bond after Roger Moore stepped down—gets a call from his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Jenny, who lives in Brighton. She's being stalked by a strange man who hangs around in the cafe opposite her hat shop, and she thinks Toby might be involved because the stalker has been seen with a video copy of one of his films. Toby, still very much in love with Jenny, agrees to help—and finds himself in a dangerous, unpredictable tangle of outright lies and hidden truths about disputed ancestry and industrial immorality. "Reality doesn't often intrude into the life of an actor," Toby says as the suspense tightens. "Pretence is all, off stage as well as on. For me, though, that had changed. Utterly."

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2006
      Toby Flood, a has-been British actor, arrives in Brighton to play the male lead in a failing play for its final week. His estranged wife, Jenny, happens to live in Brighton with her handsome and wealthy fiancé , Roger Colborn. Toby still loves Jenny, but their marriage has fallen apart in the aftermath of the death of their four-year-old son. When Toby agrees to find out why Jenny is being followed by a strange man, he begins to uncover some ominous secrets in Roger's past. Toby walks zombielike through this tired tale with one thought in mind: -Must get wife back. - He is oddly unaffected by the deaths and disappearances of friends and acquaintances as he focuses monomaniacally on protecting Jenny from Roger. Goddard ("Into the Blue") fails to bring his characters to life, and without compelling protagonists, the plot becomes flaccid, predictable, and melodramatic. Not recommended." - Jane la Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND"

      Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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