A sudden disappearance. A twisting hunt for the truth. A harrowing journey... “Robert Goodard’s manipulation of suspense and surprise rarely fails to dazzle.”— The New York Times Book Review Harry Barnett lives the life of an Englishman on permanent vacation in Greece, house-sitting for a powerful friend and hiding from a past disgrace. That is, until a guest at the villa disappears on a walking tour, and Harry is the number one suspect. While a Greek detective tries to trap him, and the British tabloids pillory him at home, Harry’s conscience is his worst enemy of all. What happened to young, beautiful Heather Mallender? Who took her—and why didn’t Harry realize that something was amiss? Suddenly, a man steeped in failure has found a purpose, retracing the strange, twisting route that led to Heather’s vanishing. But the more he learns, the less he knows. Until Harry finds himself at the heart of a dangerous puzzle whose pieces are scattered everywhere: in the realm of British politics, in the beds of adulterous lovers, in the past, the present, and most of all, amid the secrets of a killer. . . . Praise for Into the Blue “Cracking good literature entertainment . . . had me utterly spellbound . . . [ Into the Blue is] a book that will push the edges of late night fatigue. . . . It’s the storyteller as magician; we only see what he wants us to see, when he wants us to see it.” — Washington Post Book World “A cracker, twisting, turning and exploding with real skill.” — Daily Mirror “Impossible to put down . . . totally compels you from the first page to the last . . . a wonderful storyteller.” —Yorkshire Post "Ultimate page-turner and late-night obsessive read." --Rocky Mountain News ''A book that will push the edges of late night fatigue... had me utterly spellbound...cracking good entertainment." -- Washington Post ''Impossible to put down... Totally compels you from the first page to the last... a wonderful storyteller." -- Yorkshire Post ''A cracker, twisting, turning and exploding with real skill." -- Daily Mirror Harry Barnett is a middle-aged failure, leading a shabby existence in the shadow of a past disgrace, reduced to caretaking a friend's villa on the island of Rhodes and working in a bar to earn his keep. Then a guest at the villa--a young woman he had instantly and innocently warmed to--disappears on a mountain peak. Under suspicion of her murder, Harry stumbles on a set of photographs taken by Heather Mallender in the weeks before her disappearance. Desperately, obsessed by the mystery that has changed his life, he begins to trace back the movements and encounters that led to the moment when she vanished into the blue. The trail leads him back to England, to a world he thought he had left for ever, and at every step of the way a new and baffling light is shed on all the assumptions that have made Harry what he is. ROBERT GODDARD was born in Hampshire and read History at Cambridge. His first novel, Past Caring , was an instant bestseller. Since then his books have captivated readers worldwide with their edge-of-the-seat pace and their labyrinthine plotting. His first Harry Barnett novel, Into the Blue , was winner of the first WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV, starring John Thaw. Chapter One If she should return now, of course, or even five minutes from now, it would still be all right. The thought that he might never see her again could then be dismissed as a delusion, an absurd over-reaction to an excess of solitude and silence. And from the notion that, at any second, she would return, calling to him as she came down the track, part of his mind could not be dislodged: the orderly, housetrained, rational part. It was only in the chaotic realm of instinct and sensation that a contrary suspicion had taken root, only, as it were, in the part of himself that he did not care to acknowledge. Besides, Harry had every justification for blaming his anxious state on the position in which he found himself. To spend three-quarters of an hour sitting on a fallen tree trunk halfway up a pine-forested mountainside, whilst the warm glow of the afternoon sun faded towards a dusky chill and silence--absolute, windless, pitiless silence--quarried at the nerves, was enough to test anyone's self-control. He wished now that he had gone with her to the summit, or stayed in the car and listened to the radio. Either way, he really should have known better than to wait where he was. He stubbed out the fourth cigarette of his vigil and took a deep breath. It was growing cold now in the shadow of the mountain, yet the coastal plain below was still bathed in warm, golden sunlight. Only here, on the thickly conifered slope, or out there, invisible but palpable in the clear, frozen air, could the waning of the day no longer be ignored. Why had she not returned? She could scarcely be lost, not with the guidebook and a compass. After all, she had been to Prof