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The book takes place entirely in the Spring of 1919. Most of the action (and plenty of it!) takes place in Paris, where the Peace Conference is occuring. There are small references to the fact that James Maxted was a pilot in the war and that he spent the last year of the war as a POW. The book opens (or nearly opens) with the information that James' father, Henry Maxted is dead. His mother had supplied little in the way of concrete information. Sir Henry had died in a fall from a roof, apparent...
Definitely above average in broad spectrum of espionage fiction. It leans toward: historical atmospherics, though with less of a focus than in Furst’s World War 2 tales; suspenseful intrigue, though less twisted than Le Carre; and levels of thriller action that are less pervasive than most, perhaps on the level of early Follett. As a plus we are treated to the fascinating setting of Paris after World War 1, a time when so many countries and factions had people in town trying to tilt the negotiat...
Setting: Paris, France; 1919. This is the first book in The Wide World trilogy and features ex-WW1 flying ace, James 'Max' Maxted. As the Peace Conference rumbles on, Max's father, a former diplomat who is part of the British delegation, dies following a bizarre accident. But when Max and his elder brother Ashley both travel to Paris to recover their father's body at the behest of their mother, Max is convinced that his father has been murdered and did not die in an accidental fall as the French...
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Starts brightly but as the pages mount the cleverness that marked the other books by this author flee to be replaced by a real clunker, great for anyone who loved Biggles and wanted a non ironic refresh. This book thuds flatly. Maybe splats might be a better description.
An excellent spy story set in the aftermath of the Great War. It's 1919 and the victorious gather in Paris to decide the fate of Germany. When one elderly diplomat falls from a roof, his son Max travels from England to prove that his death was not an accident. The war continues...Full review http://forwinternights.wordpress.com/...
3.5 - 4 stars.The Ways of the World tells the tale of James “Max” Maxted’s efforts to uncover the truth behind his diplomat father’s death in Paris, during the 1919 peace talks. The city is full of international diplomats discussing what should be the outcome of Germany’s defeat in the First World War, when Sir Henry Maxted falls from a roof and dies. The French police have decided that suicide is the most likely reason for the fall, but Max uncovers certain clues which will not let him rest.The...
This book is written to a formula;a formula that has been out of date since 1957, about when I started reading thrillers. I enjoy a good thriller, but this is not a good thriller.There are derogatory and anachronistic references to the Japanese.. the use of 'Jap' very jarring in the context of 1919; it should be remembered that we fought on the same side in WW1 and there would have been none of that sort of reference.There won't be any spoilers as I've stopped reading it on page 190 and I've giv...
Excellent reader, intriguing plot, but I wish there had been a proper ending. It was inconclusive, to pave the way for volume 2, presumably, but I wasn’t expecting that.
The Paris Peace Conference was an international meeting that took place in January 1919 at Versailles, with its purpose to establish and agree the terms of the peace after the Great War. In total the number of nations attending was almost 30, but the main representatives and influencers were France, Britain, America and Italy (the big four), and it is amongst this gathering of nations and inter-country politics that Robert Goddard's new book links itself and is set.The story has many twists and
I have read all of Goddard's novels, but this novel disappointed me so much I can't see myself rushing to buy another. The cover promises 'adultery... Paris 1919', but the adultery took place before the novel started, and - apart from some crippled veterans begging - there was little sense of place. I love historical mysteries for being educated whilst being entertained, but know no more about The Treaty of Versailles and postwar Paris after 500 pages.As Max tried to discover his father's murder...
After reading a good many of Robert Goddard’s novel one thing he does to perfection is take you back to the past. I’m still not sure how he does it - whether it is the tone of his writing, the way his characters talk or an accumulation of details relevant to a particular time but it works. You are in that particular decade and not just because he mentions one famous incident associated with that decade; you are in that particular part of the country and not just because he names it. I trust Godd...
seemed interesting and the first few pages were entertaining, but then it became a run of the mill thriller which I fast read just in case it became more interesting; even a sort of cliffhanger ending left me completely uninterested in more
The Ways of the World is a period espionage thriller set at the end of WWI, and the first of a trilogy featuring Lieutenant James “Max” Maxted, a royal flying corps veteran. Robert Goddard's novel is impressive, full of well-developed characters, fast paced action, and accurate historical details. Any lover of mysteries set during the end of WWI will enjoy The Ways of the World.Some of my favorite Agatha Christie novels are her classic spy thrillers, such as The Man in the Brown Suit and The Sec...
If you were about to sit down and write a historical espionage thriller what better setting could you imagine than Paris following the Great War. Paris, 1919 with historical characters ranging from Ho Chi Minh to Woodrow Wilson all together in the city of lights, trying to redraw the boundaries of defeated empires and bring about self-determination is an amazing setting. It is on this stage that Robert Goddard has created an engrossing tale entitled, THE WAYS OF THE WORLD. Goddard has written ov...
The time is 1919, the war is over, and an ex-RFC pilot, James Maxted, learns that his father, a senior British diplomat, has died by falling off a roof in Paris. At the same time, an important conference involving the victors is going on, James suspects that the death of his father was no accident. James' elder brother inherits everything, including the baronetcy, and wants the father's death to be buried, and just about everyone else shows little interest, nevertheless with a lot of effort, ver...
James Maxted is an ex-RFC (Royal Flying Corps) pilot, hero, and POW. When his father, a retired British diplomat, baronet, knight of the realm etc. falls to his death in Paris while serving as an aide to the British delegation at the Versailles peace conference, James ("Max" to all but his family) goes into action to find out the truth about his father's death (that it was murder). Max shows the same gutty disregard for personal danger that he showed in the war. Aided by his former chief mechani...
like someone else said it was like biggles all over again, which i read over 50 years ago, i have put away childish things, including religion..
"The truth, it struck him, was like that, revealing itself, if at all, only by its effect on something else.”How good is this book? Let me count the ways…etc.Beautifully written, a wonderful evocation of a much maligned and partially forgotten time - apart from those who lived through it, I guess - and tense and thrilling and intriguing and all that and more.The period between the two great Wars (in Europe I should perhaps hasten to add) has interested me for a number of years now and is reflect...