Out of the Blackout

This is one of my favorite Robert Barnard books - and he is my favorite writer. His plots are never ordinary, and his characterizations very shrewd, as one editorial review put it. You can't help caring about his characters, and the plots are engrossing and keep you reading until the end of the book. This story is subtle and builds slowly to a surprise ending that is very satisfying. I can't decide what is best about Barnard's writing - the character development, the plot lines, the way he sets the reader down in the scene and makes the sights and sounds very real, the way he understands his characters and is often fondly amused by them, while also being cynically witty at their expense. His protagonists seem like real people you would like to know. When he writes about an awful person you are in no doubt about how awful that person is. Also, which is very satisfying, he knows the English language and grammer, and uses them well. So many popular novels are written by people who aren't really sure about their own language, and the editing can be pretty sloppy. Not so here - the writing and editing is elegant.

"Out of the Blackout" is my favorite novel by British author Robert Barnard. Simon Thorn, a young man who was lost in the London blitz during World War II as a child, searches for his true identity. This mystery novel is one of the most unusual books I've ever read. I read this book in one sitting because I quite simply could not put it down. I was totally engrossed in this novel; I had to know what happened. I can only remember 2 or 3 books as good as this one. It is a masterpiece, and is very highly recommended!

"Don't kill her! Don't!" The young Simon wakes up screaming! The gentle couple who have taken Simon in are more than a little confused. In Robert Barnard's "Out of the Blackout," the author sets this finely-tuned and suspenseful novel during the blizt of London during the War. Children have been evacuated to the countryside for their own safety, more often than not to live for the duration of the war with complete strangers. Young Simon Thorn shows up in the village of Yeasdon, along with the other evacuated children. However, his name is on on list, his address doesn't exist, and few clues can be found in the few items he possesses. Many questions abound and Barnard, with his accustomed patience and logical thinking, sets out to solve this mystery. He does so in a touching, poignant manner, and he brings vividly to life all the aspects of these dark and dangerous days of the blitz. Barnard deserves his well-earned reputation.([email protected])

In "Out of the Blackout", Robert Barnard has woven a compelling story of how a boy,lost in the London blitz, finally discovered his roots in a long process of investigation and in so doing found some sense of liberation. We feel the slow unfolding of his knowledge of the past through clues which mark the story as a first class mystery. Only Barnard's "Masters of the House" comes close to matching this one in suspense. We passed the book from friend to friend all of whom felt the same as we did about it

I'm quite a Barnard fan, and this is perhaps the best of his mysteries. At one level it is a study of a child who gets himself fostered by a loving rural family and does well in life. At another it is about his search, from that successful background, for his family of origin. At another it is a mystery of murder (but whose?), abuse, and deception. There's even a bit of a love story. We move through a wide sweep of time and social environments -- the way the narrative moves in time is especially interesting.Barnard specialises in attractive characters, and in a realistic satire on British society. This one, like MASTERS OF THE HOUSE, has the development of a human being at the centre of it, and murder almost at the periphery. Barnard NEVER writes to a formula -- all his books are different, and this one can be guaranteed to be a very unusual kind of crime novel.