In 2019, Goddard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger by the Crime Writers' Association for his outstanding lifetime's contribution to the crime fiction genre. Goddard's book Long Time Coming won the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback and was nominated for the 2011 Anthony award in the same category. Goddard's 1997 book Beyond Recall was nominated for the Edgar Award Best Novel prize but lost out to Mr. Goddard's 1990 book Into the Blue was the inaugural winner of the W H Smith Thumping Good Read Award, presented to the best new fiction author of the year. He has since written more than twenty novels the majority have been Sunday Times Top Ten best-sellers in the UK. Goddard's first novel, Past Caring, was published in 1986. They usually involve the lead character gradually uncovering a secret or conspiracy which has long been kept secret, by means of historical documents such as diaries or by means of word-of-mouth accounts that have been handed down from one person to another. His thrillers usually have a historical element and settings in provincial English towns and cities, and many plot twists. After unsuccessful attempts at careers in both journalism and teaching, he worked for a time as an educational administrator in Devon before becoming a full-time novelist.

Goddard was educated at Bathampton County Primary School then Wallisdean County Junior School and Price's Grammar School in Fareham before going on to study history at Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge. Robert William Goddard (born 13 November 1954 in Fareham, Hampshire) is an English novelist.

Into the Blue by Robert Goddard