April 4, 2016
Set in 1919, Edgar-winner Goddard’s second James Maxted thriller casts the former English flying ace in the role of a double agent, ostensibly working for German spy master Fritz Lemmer, whom Max, who’s really taking orders from the British secret service, suspects was involved in his father’s death in 2015’s The Ways of the World. Max is on a mission in Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands, seeking to retrieve a secret file for Lemmer while praying that his cover isn’t blown. Meanwhile in Paris, Max’s trusted partner, Sam Twentyman, discreetly continues the investigation into the death of Max’s diplomat father, who was apparently pushed from a building window because he knew more than he was supposed to about the Paris peace talks. While dotted with moments of tense action and clever dialogue, this installment suffers from a confusingly wide cast of characters and a tangled plot. History buffs and fans of period thrillers, however, will appreciate Goddard’s attention to detail. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
April 15, 2016
The second entry in a spy trilogy set at the end of World War I. Venerable thriller writer Goddard (The Ways of the World, 2015, etc.) reveals here that this isn't so much a trilogy as one continuous narrative that's humming along to an inevitable conclusion. That said, readers who were frustrated by the cliffhanger ending of the first entry have a "To Be Concluded" waiting for them here. The story picks up with James "Max" Maxted, a handsome young flying ace-turned-double agent. He's working for German intelligence officer Fritz Lemmer but reporting back to his overlords in the British government. He's also still seeking to avenge his murdered aristocrat father, an event cleverly documented in an intelligence memo to catch up new readers. Max has been sent by Lemmer to a remote part of Scotland to retrieve "the grey file," a coded list that documents the agents Lemmer has placed in foreign governments. Meanwhile, Max's best friend, Sam Twentyman, is trying to lay low as chief mechanic for the British diplomatic fleet but keeps getting tangled up with a pair of intelligence brokers, Travis Ireton and Schools Morahan. In a parallel plot, Max's mother, Lady Maxted, engages her brother George Clissold to deal with a lawsuit against her late husband. At the center of all this subterfuge are the new players in this global game, the Japanese, as a gangster named Count Tomura Iwazu works to consolidate power and turn this newly divided world to Japan's benefit. As with the previous book, Goddard is an excellent prose stylist, and his attention to historical detail is masterful. Its sedate storytelling won't please readers looking for more bombastic thrills, but for those seeking a throwback to a gentler age, Goddard offers a solid follow-up. A sophisticated spy story with serious historical chops that might serve as an interesting companion to Adam Tooze's WWI history, The Deluge (2014).
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Starred review from April 1, 2016
In The Ways of the World (2015), set during and immediately following WWI, James Max Maxted stumbled into the espionage game while trying to determine if his father, a British diplomat, killed himself or was murdered. Now Max, still trying to avenge his father's death, finds himself in even deeper, more troubled waters; acting as a double agent for British Intelligence, he's posing as an operative for German spymaster Fritz Lemmer, a lethal chess master moving pieces around an international board. In possession of crucial documents (the Hitchcockian MacGuffin in this deliciously convoluted plot), Max must break cover and attempt to outrun both Lemmer and the British, who are convinced he is a traitor. The chase extends from Scotland's Orkney Islands to the south of France and will set pulses thumping for any readers who thrill to an era when Continental derring-do was conducted on express trains. And, yet, the circumlocutions of the plot and the vividly rendered period setting are only parts of the appeal here: Goddard is an established master at creating characters who leap from the confines of the story, demanding our full attentionfrom Max to his sidekick and former WWI flying comrade, Sam Twentyman, to numerous other full-bodied supporting figures on all sides of the international wheeling and dealing. This luxuriously entertaining historical thriller, the second installment in a trilogy, does for the post-WWI era what Alan Furst does for WWIIsuspense, irresistible atmosphere (both treacherous and romantic), and a tasty dollop of moral ambiguity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)