2,217: The Corners of the Globe by Robert Goddard

One of the oddities of having been AWOL from the blogosphere is that when, as now, I want to refer back to a book I've reviewed as being one of my favourites from last year, I have to check myself and remember that I actually read it in 2013 (which seems eons ago now).

So, anyway, one of my favourite reads of 2013 was The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard, the first novel in a trilogy that follows James "Max" Maxted, a First World War veteran hunting down the killers of his father, a senior member of the British negotiating team at the Paris peace conference of 1919.  If you haven't already read this excellent thriller, I hold warn you that the following may contain inadvertent spoilers.  You have been warned.

Max has concluded at the end of The Ways of the World that the secret of his father's death is held by the German spymaster, Fritz Lemmer, an elusive yet seemingly omniscient presence who, seemingly like Professor Moriarty, "sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organised."

The Corners of the Globe opens with Max apparently working for Lemmer and being sent on a mission to Orkney to retrieve a top secret document from the interred German fleet.  Having managed to get hold of the document, Max becomes a hunted man, as he tries to deliver the document not to Lemmer but to Appleby, his contact in Special Branch.  Cue a 39 Steps style man hunt, full of narrow escapes, deaths and plenty of action, leading Max from the Highlands to Paris and beyond.  And while Max is headed towards Paris, his friend and former batman, Sam, is already there, working as a driver for the British Embassy and getting caught up in a deadly power struggle within the Japanese delegation to the peace conference, a struggle that is directly linked to the murder of Max's father.

As you can probably tell from the slightly convoluted synopsis (and from the fact I haven't really said too much about the plot for fear of spoilers), The Corners of the Globe is frenetically paced, chock a block with characters and multiple plot strands.  In truth, despite Goddard's undoubted talent, he doesn't quite bring it off.

Don't get me wrong.  I did enjoy it and Goddard definitely keeps the pages turning.  It just came across as very much the middle entry of a trilogy, a bit like The Two Towers (at least in my view and don't shout at me Tolkien obsessives - I love The Lord of the Rings as much as the next fantasy geek).    There's a sense that it's purpose is to physically move the protagonists and the plot to their correct starting blocks for the final volume, almost as if the central plot is too much for two books but hasn't quite got the legs for three.

Again, let me be clear.  It's a perfectly good book and there are some fantastic scenes in it.  It's just not as good as the previous book and I'm glad that I'd read that first - not only does it make this one much more comprehensible, the quality of the first kept my interest in this one going until the end.  I'm not sure that would have been the case if I'd come to this one first.

I have a couple of more specific gripes too - firstly, and I accept that this may be intentional (one of the characters is described as reading The 39 Steps and commenting that Max's adventures make it seem dull), the Buchanesque chase is just a tad too obvious and heavy-handed to avoid grating slightly.  And secondly, the ending is gratuitously cliff-hangerish, much more melodramatic than necessary.  But, and there's always a but, it worked, dammit.  I can't wait to read the final volume (it's only my promise to Mrs F not to buy any more books for a while and my burgeoning TBR pile that has stopped me so far).

On the other hand, Goddard's characterisations are great.  Max's character is developing real depth as his physical journey into the world of espionage is also taking him on a mental journey, forcing him to develop a harder, more cynical outlook on the world.  He kills an innocent person to protect his identity and feigns ignorance of a down on his luck former school friend - both things the Max of The Ways of the World would never have done.

Overall?  Well, I wanted to like it more than I did, whilst still liking the overall series well enough to really want to read the final volume.  If you like spy stories or adventure stories or are interested in the historical period, it's definitely worth a read but do read the series in order.

Finally, I'd like to thank Transworld publishers for allowing me access to The Corners of the Globe via NetGalley.

2,456: The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard

I have a longstanding fascination with the Paris peace conference that took place during 1919 following the end of the First World War, a conflict that claimed the lives of 20 million people, destroyed three empires and formed the opening chapter of the series of conflicts and struggles that were to define the 20^th Century.  Delegations from both victorious and vanquished (but not Germany) set up camp in Paris as did representatives of nations and peoples all seeking land, recognition or restitution.  32 countries were present and, it’s fair to say, for a six month period, Paris became the centre of a world government as the Big Four – the leaders of the USA, Great Britain, France and Italy, essentially redrew the world map, parcelling out colonial territories and creating new nation states.  The high politics, the intrigue and the exercise of global power must have made for a heady atmosphere in one of Europe’s great cities.

Of course, it was all to end in tears with the Treaty of Versailles and its infamous war guilt clause, assigning blame for the war to Germany (and do read Sean McMeekin’s excellent July 1914 for an alternative view of events) and forcing it to pay huge reparations, thus setting up huge resentment within Germany that would prove meat and drink to Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.  There’s a wonderful description in Margaret Macmillan’s superb account of the Conference, Peacemakers, where the British and Americans try to persuade Clemenceau to soften France’s demands for reparations, fearing exactly that, but Clemenceau refusing, knowing the impact a softening would have on French public opinion.

In any event, Paris and the Peace Conference forms the backdrop to Robert Goddard’s new novel, The Ways of the World, which also forms my second entry for Paris in July, hosted by Bookbath and Thyme for Tea.

Sir Henry Maxted, a senior but fading British diplomat, is part of the British delegation, advising his political masters on issues of concern to the Brazilian government.  One day, he is found dead, seemingly having fallen from the roof of a Paris apartment.  His two sons, Ashley and James “Max” Maxted, are sent to Paris by their mother to bring back Sir Henry’s body and try to find out the cause of his death.

It soon becomes apparent that Sir Henry’s death may not show him in his best light and Ashley is happy to go along with the French and British authorities’ desire to sweep the death under the carpet so as not to disrupt the Conference.  Not so Max.  A former RFC pilot and war veteran, he is convinced that there is more to Henry’s death than meets the eye and he returns to Paris to discover the truth, risking family disfavour, official disapproval and, possibly life and limb.

I’ve not read any of Robert Goddard’s books before but The Ways of the World is an excellent read.  Goddard draws out the febrile atmosphere surrounding the Conference in full measure and uses it to create a tale where politics, espionage, love, deceit and family dynamics are all mixed to great effect.  The story moves along at a cracking pace and Goddard gives us a rich cast of American private eyes, British spies, Russian emigrés, beautiful women, French policemen and venal aristocrats.

At the centre of it all, however, is Max.  As a courageous aristocratic hero who is determined to seek the truth no matter the cost, there was a risk that Max could have come across as a bit of an anachronistic and unrealistic Richard Hannay type character.  Fortunately, Goddard is much more skilful than that and injects sufficient cynicism, hardness and sexual appetite into Max to make him both credible and interesting.  The dynamic between Max and his former batman, Sam, works, on the whole, well, although sometimes the treatment of the difference in rank jars a little, veering slightly from an old-fashioned master-servant relationship to a more modern partnership of equals.

  That is a very minor criticism, however, of a great read.  Towards the end, I found myself feeling that I didn’t want the book to finish and that I hoped Goddard would use Max as a recurring hero.  I was, therefore, delighted when the book ended without the loose ends having been tied up and being set up for a sequel.  I was even more delighted when I discovered that The Ways of the World is the first in a planned trilogy.  Now, of course, I have the frustration of having to wait for the second instalment.

I’d like to thank Random House UK for allowing me to read The Ways of the World via Netgalley and, as we are, finally, in summer, would heartily recommend this as a cracking holiday read.