Now Goddard presents us with Harry Barnett who is summoned to a 50th reunion with his old RAF chums who haven’t been together since 1955. Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller and Patricia Cornwell have had their female detectives experiencing great life changes simultaneously with the authors’ own aging. Is this a trend?

With this third Harry Barnett mystery he is back in his childhood home preparing to sort through his deceased mother’s accumulation of detritus when two men from his past appear on the doorstep. They are “Crooked” and “Jabber” two members of the group of fifteen who spent three months together in Scotland as part of Operation Clean Sheets. The men were recruited to take part in an experiment designed to see how they fared with an intensive educational course. Each was about to be court-martialed for some felonious act so the opportunity to have their records wiped clear made them all agree to be guinea pigs.

Harry left Canada to attend his mother’s funeral and handle her estate and knows nothing of any invitation for a reunion; since it was sent to his last known address his ailing mother no doubt pitched it. He is anxious to return to his wife and daughter but is persuaded to go up for a weekend in Scotland since their original number has now dwindled to just ten. Harry isn’t keen on the idea but eventually agrees. He is not looking forward to seeing Barry Chipchase again. The two had been in business together years ago until Chipchase absconded with all the assets, including the secretary, leaving Barnett with debtors and no explanation. Barry is already in Scotland staying with their host Charlie Dangerfield.

The ex-RAF men soon begin to reminisce but one seems quite agitated so much that he disappears. Everyone assumes he simply changed his mind and got off at one of the stations but later his body is found alongside the railroad track. And when they arrive in Scotland Barry is not there, it seems he had word his sister had died suddenly which is odd as Harry knows he had no sister.

The whole situation is not what it seems especially when members recognize places they had never seen before. Then the accidents begin to happen and Harry discovers that Barry is hiding out not far from the reunion. Harry and Barry find themselves the target of police attention as the body count rises and accidents occur. Soon the two 70 somethings are racing across the country, climbing out windows to escape a fire, staking out houses, trying to decipher a mysterious disc, kidnapped, and stumbling across secrets long buried.

Never Go Back is not as well done as some of Goddard’s stand alone novels and this could be attributed to the fact that Harry Barnett’s character was fleshed out more completely in the previous two books. I never really cared that much for the character yet because Goddard is so deft with the plot I kept reading even when I thought I would give up. The four star rating is because it is overall very good.

Two items are worth mentioning. Why with all the names available did he choose Harry and Barry for the principle names? It’s like reading a children’s book! Speaking of names - each of the fifteen airmen has a nickname derived from a personal quirk or applying Cockney rhyming slang to create a new name. Often the name makes little sense unless said aloud or using a weird sort of logic so that Chipchase becomes “Fission” as in looking to get fish and chips and remembering that the bomb was big news in the 1950s. While I can accept the strange names, it would have been helpful to have list of given names and nicknames to alleviate confusion. Did I mention that Harry and Barry are joined with Jabber and Babber?

Robert Goddard always does a good job presenting a tale that keeps the reader guessing and engaged. While this one is not as good as In Pale Battalions which had twists up to the very last paragraph you can’t go wrong with Never Go Back.

--Jane Davis