Painting the Darkness

By: Robert Goddard

Narrated by: Michael Kitchen

On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. When the creak of the garden gate heralds the arrival of an unexpected stranger, he is puzzled but not alarmed. He cannot know the destruction this man will wreak on all he holds most dear.

©1989 Robert and Vaunda Goddard (P)2012 Audible Ltd

Definitely rivetting!

This book definitely kept me hooked right to the end - I sort of guessed the ending part way through and, being a gal who generally likes a happy ending I am surprised that it did so well to keep me listening.

The narration was good although MK still occasionally irritates me with his slightly too languid delivery - some intonations jarred but not enough to mar my enjoyment of the plot.

As an audio listener I found the flashbacks occasionally hard to follow, especially if my attention had been a bit distracted and I had to listen hard to work out which time period was being lived at the moment and the flipping from third to first person reporting was sometimes a bit off putting especially when it wasnt Trenchard in the first person but James doing the reporting.

Nevertheless, I was gripped to the end!

A Knockout Puzzle.

What made the experience of listening to Painting the Darkness the most enjoyable?

Though longer than it needs to be, this thriller keeps the reader on tender hooks. The author weaves a psychological tale with so many ins and outs that the reader will be constantly mesmerized. One vacillates every few minutes between certainty and uncertainty over what the truth really is in this engaging mystery. Michael Kitchen's mellifluous voice is the icing on the cake.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved the psychology of the choices of several characters .

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not a thing.

Twists & Turns in Every Page

Goddard is one of my favourite authors. He is a great teller of tales and keeps you guessing from the first to last page. This novel is no different.

The character build up is excellent and Goddard takes us through a Rollercoaster ride of through the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From the very first page and found myself trying to work out and guess the ending which always left me seconding guessing and questioning my original judgment. This is Goddard at his best.

But the highlight of this audio book is the performance of Michael Kitchen. He brings every charecter to life and truly makes them believable.

Overall, this is an excellent production and one of the best I've listened to on Audible, I'm so glad I listened to it and will certainly be exploring more audio books with either Goddard or Kitchen or both. EXCELLENT!!!

Hmmm

My first Robert Goddard book started out smashing, then took a deep nose dive, and ended midway.

The book rolled along nicely until a certain point, and then it just went kablooey. It lost its cohesion and became a patchwork of scenes, I ended up skipping to the last chapter. I had no desire to wade through the rest of it.

Still he is a wonderful writer and I look forward to trying another hopefully better one.

FASCINATING

I ENJOYED THE BOOK,ITS INTRIGUING PLOT,THE EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE, AND ESPECIALLY THE FINE,IF A LITTLE OLD-FASHONED, LANGUAGE.RECOMMENDED.