The Labyrinth Makers

The Cold War Espionage novel, The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price was that author’s debut novel, first published in 1970. The book introduces David Audley, a government back-room research man whose specialty is the Middle East. Therefore no one is more surprised than he at his new assignment. A WW II British plane has been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake, complete with the dead pilot. What has got everyone so intrigued about this is that the Soviets are very interested in both the plane and the pilot. Audley is charged with finding what happened to the smuggled cargo that should have been on the plane and why it is so important to the Russians.

Although the exact timing of the novel isn’t pin-pointed but it certainly show more felt like it was set in the 1960’s, with mentions of mini-skirts, The Lord of the Rings, and casual attitudes towards sex. As Audley investigates the situation, he meets the deceased pilot’s daughter and they become involved. As he digs deeper he has to deal with a witness being murdered and his own home being bugged.

I found The Labyrinth Makers to be a tense and compelling story much more along the lines of a Graham Greene novel than one of Ian Fleming’s. The author gives us a complex plot rife with hidden agendas and an intelligent, slightly detached main character to put the pieces together. The novel is well crafted and gives us a pragmatic look at the mid 20th century spy business. show less

An enterprising RAF pilot named John Steerforth smuggled looted antiquities out of Berlin after WWII, but his last flight went down. The plane is found in a drained lake in England twenty-five years later and the Soviets really want whatever was supposed to be on the plane - but wasn't.

Dr. David Audley, a historian with the Ministry of Defence, more of a middle-east expert, and definitely not a field man, is tasked with finding the disappeared supposed artifacts. He's accompanied by the deceased Steerforth's daughter, Faith, seeking answers of her own. And he's actually supposed to help a shadowy Soviet official, presumably KGB, to get the goods. But Audley knows there's more to the story than he's been told. And he's getting closer to show more Faith Steerforth than he anticipated.

Another highly intelligent and enjoyable story from Anthony Price. show less

The first book in the Audley series. An RAF plane lost shortly after the end of WWII is found with a dead pilot inside and seven boxes full of bricks. What was the original cargo, where is it now and why are the Russians interested?
Events as set down here have been overtaken by recent history (the looted art in question has since turned up in Moscow), but this does not detract from an intricate plot deftly brought to a satisfying conclusion. Audley is an annoying character, but the plans within plans within plans still work.

The reality of post-war espionage in all its shades of grey is credibly brought to life by Price through the character of his reluctant hero David Audley, more a middle class Harry Palmer than any sort of James Bond. I'll definitely read 'em all.

This has many of the hallmarks of a debut title, not just the first title in the series. We need quite a bit of background about many of the characters and the book takes a while to get to the central plot. I'm not sure that I ever understood the meaning of the title properly.

At the beginning the author attempts to establish that Dr. David Audley, in his mid 30s, has been sidelined by the Ministry of Defence after what he considers to be a successful career in Middle Eastern Affairs. He thinks that he successfully predicted various events such as the Suez Crisis ahead of the pack. He doesn't take kindly to being allocated to investigate events of World War II, particularly incidents of local origin.

The date is 1969 and the plane crash show more occurred nearly 25 years before. But when a Russian espionage agent shows enough interest to fly to Britain to investigate the contents of the Dakota, Audley's interest is spiked. Even more when the daughter of the Dakota's pilot, a baby when her father died, turns up on his doorstep.

To reveal what the Russian thinks the plane contained would be to tell you too much of the plot, but you might want to look at this Wikipedia article.

Published in 1970, the title is an illustration of how many British authors were interested in the legacies of the Second World War, and the impact on international politics of the Cold War.Very readable thrillers were the result.

Part of the attractiveness of the book is that it is relatively short, and I liked it enough to begin reading the second in the series, THE ALAMUT AMBUSH. show less

Anthony Price's first novel in which he introduces David Audley, a character that pops up in most of his books. This really is one of those books I had trouble putting down. If you like le Carré, Ted Allbeury, Len Deighton and Graham Greene, you will like the Anthony Price novels.

ITV dramatised the first three Audley books in the late 70s / early 80s, and over the next few years I went through the whole set. Gripping, ingeneous and frighteningly believable (at the time), Price knocks Le Carre into a cocked hat!