Days Without Number

The international bestselling author of the James Maxted series delivers a twist-filled thriller of an ancient secret that threatens to shatter a family.   Days Without Number is classic Robert Goddard: intricately plotted, richly detailed, and suspenseful to the very last page. Nick Paleologus, a coolly efficient Englishman, is summoned home to resolve a dispute that threatens to tear his family apart. His father, Michael, is a retired archaeologist and supposed descendent of the last Emperors of Byzantium. Michael has received a hugely generous offer for the family estate in Cornwall, but refuses to sell—and refuses to divulge why.   Soon the stalemate between Nick's siblings and their father is tragically broken, and only then do they discover why their father was bound to protect the house at all costs. Their desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy. Soon, Nick realizes the only chance they have of escaping their persecutor's trap is to hunt this ruthless adversary down. But the hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father's past. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.   "The literary equivalent of a Russian doll puzzle. Secret upon secret is uncovered . . . Goddard has penned a real Byzantine-inspired head scratcher of a novel." —Bookreporter.com