The Corners of the Globe
(The Wide World - James Maxted 2)
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- € 8,99
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Spring, 1919. James ‘Max’ Maxted, former Great War flying ace, returns to the trail of murder, treachery and half-buried secrets he set out on in The Ways of the World. He left Paris after avenging the murder of his father, Sir Henry Maxted, a senior member of the British delegation to the post-war peace conference. But he was convinced there was more – much more – to be discovered about what Sir Henry had been trying to accomplish. And he suspected elusive German spymaster Fritz Lemmer knew the truth of it.
Now, enlisted under false colours in Lemmer’s service but with his loyalty pledged to the British Secret Service, Max sets out on his first – and possibly last – mission for Lemmer. It takes him to the far north of Scotland – to the Orkney Isles, where the German High Seas Fleet has been impounded in Scapa Flow, its fate to be decided at the conference-table in Paris. Max has been sent to recover a document held aboard one of the German ships. What that document contains forces him to break cover sooner than he would have wished and to embark on a desperate race south, towards London, with information that could destroy Lemmer – if Max, as seems unlikely, lives to deliver it...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.