Never Go Back (Harry Barnett, #3)

by Robert Goddard

For a group of ex-comrades, it is to be the reunion to end all reunions: a weekend in the Scottish castle where they were guinea pigs in a psychological experiment many years before. They haven't seen each other since. But the convivial atmosphere on the journey north is quickly shattered by the apparent suicide of one of their party. When a second death occurs, a sense of forboding descends on the group. It appears that the past is coming back to haunt them, a past that none of them have ever spoken about. Their recollections are all frighteningly different. So what really happened? Then when one of them uncovers an extraordinary secret, he becomes convinced that they will never leave the castle alive...

• ISBN10: 0552152110
• ISBN13: 9780552152112
• Publish Date: 23 October 2006 (first published 24 April 2006)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 June 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
• Imprint: Corgi Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[SilverThistle]

The rear cover has all the usual best seller buzz words, 'gripping', 'page turner', 'twists', 'unputdownable', etc......but it was a bit of a let down. I didn't really feel for any of the characters. In fact, the only characters I wanted to read about were the few that were only briefly mentioned, the key characters were only mildly interesting.

Long story, short....At a secret location in Scotland about 10 years after the war ended a handful of WWII servicemen underwent some secret military testing. Now it's present day and they're meeting for a reunion and none can really remember what happened back then and even the little bits they think they remember differs from man to man.

I kept going because the whole book was hinting that what they thought they remembered from the experiment in 1955 wasn't actually as it appeared and I wanted to know why. What happened to them en-route was just page filler.

I won't go into detail about what the tests involved or whether or not the sketchy memories were pieced together because that's basically the whole story. Overall, the trail that leads to the truth is littered with too many lucky breaks for the hero and seemingly 'being in the right place, at the right time' moments but it was still an ok read.

It's not the worst book I've read, but it's far from the best so while I'm glad I've read it, it's not one I'd go back to. The guy can definitely write though.