Martin is drifting through his own life, living with a friend who is already a little tired of his presence. Unemployed, divorced and a schoolteacher without a job, he leapt on the chance to go visit his friend, Alec Fowler, in Madeira.

Once on the beautiful island, Martin meets a wealthy South African who has a historical mystery he'd like Martin to solve. So begins Martin's path into a memoir written by an Edwardian cabinet minister, Edwin Strafford. The mystery is why Edwin, who was at the peak of his career, suddenly resigned and also parted from his fiancée.

Martin eagerly reads the memoir and becomes intrigued with Edwin's life and the mystery of what caused him to resign and disappear from public life. What he doesn't expect is that his investigation into the decades-old mystery will lead him toward crimes that have never been solved.

Goddard's thoughtful, compelling writing draws you slowly into this novel. Maybe just a tad too slowly. The memoir is printed in italics within the pages, so the reader skips between the two "books," and it took me around 50 pages before I began to be intrigued with the mystery of Strafford's life. But then the complexity and elegant narrative that Goddard does so well pulled me into the story and compelled me toward the end. An excellent book.