Il teorema di Cambridge

by Tony Cape

L'apparente suicidio di uno studente laureato all'Università di Cambridge inizia come un caso di routine per il sergente Derek Smailes, ma i segreti politici mezzo secolo prima, suggeriscono che la morte di Simon Bowles avrebbe potuto essere un omicidio. Smailes, il protagonista di questo thriller dalla coinvolgente atmosfera, è un detective CID più insolito: lui indossa stivali da cowboy di pelle di lucertola, ama la musica di Willie Nelson e generalmente è ossessionato da tutto ciò che è americano. Scopre che Bowles, un genio della matematica, era stata recentemente sottoponendo gli eventi storici a rigorose analisi logica, ha sviluppato un teorema interessante individuare il vero assassino di John F. Kennedy e il lavoro avviato per individuare l'uomo di che lui definisce''Quinto''nel noto gruppo di spie sovietiche assunti a Cambridge nel corso del 1930. Le indagini portano a rivelazioni sorprendenti di Bowles e la sua ricerca, nonché padre del detective poliziotto deceduto, la bella studentessa americana a cui laureato Smailes è attratto e il torbido mondo dello spionaggio internazionale.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Espionage

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really complex book and needs to be read carefully, but it's very satisfying and is an interesting "snapshot" of 80s Cambridge and the long shadows cast from WWII. Also very authentic in its Britishness.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

DS Derek Smailes is assigned the task of looking into the suicide of Cambridge University student Simon Bowles. Bowles was a graduate student in mathematics, and in his spare time, he liked to apply mathematical logic to unsolved crimes, for example, the Kennedy assassination. While Smailes is willing to admit that Bowles' death was a suicide, as the investigation progresses, he finds himself being given vague answers and outright lies, and then discovers that Bowles was working on a new project involving the Cambridge spy ring (Philby, Blunt, Maclean and Burgess). But unlike his other projects, the files on this project have gone missing. Smailes begins to wonder if quite possibly this newest of Bowles' projects was tied into his death. The investigation heats up for Smailes, leading him into places that some people do not wish him to go and placing his very life in danger.

I think that the reader may want to have even a vague understanding of the Cambridge spy ring -- I spent a lot of time on the internet refreshing my memory about this piece of history. The story never lags, and the suspense builds throughout. I figured out most of the "whodunit" before the end, but it was still a very good read. The characters are drawn well and the story was quite good and mostly plausible.

I'd recommend this to people interested in British mysteries, and people who enjoy stories about espionage. Although this really isn't a hard-core spy novel, it does deal with spies and betrayals and does it well. I believe this is the first of a series featuring DS Smailes, and I would definitely be interested in reading more.

[Elaine Cougler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cambridge Theorem by Tony Cape made a good read especially having visited Cambridge the summer before I read it. This exciting thriller delves into personal as well as mystery details making for a novel with more to it than simply mystery. The unraveling of Simon Bowles' death is the framework around which we see a detective's life outlined, the inner working of the town/university of Cambridge bared, and the interweaving of international spy cases unearthed. A very good book.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun mystery - related to the Cambridge spy ring - and the mysterious 5th member. I enjoyed the academic setting and the elements that took place in England. The sections set in Russia felt extraneous and less well thought out than the rest of the book. But the element of a mystery unraveling a mystery appealed very strongly.

[Amanda Bright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the story --especially once I got to the end. However the beginning was laborious reading and I nearly put it down and moved onto something else. In the end I'm glad I kept ploughing on with it

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction as murder mystery makes for a riveting read in the capable hands of Tony Cape - a very impressive effort for his debut novel. I knew nothing of the Cambridge Five when I picked up this book but quickly learned and became intrigued about this real life story. A group of students were indoctrinated / converted / coerced - whatever verb you chose to use they wound up in the same place: Communists. Sympathizers would be far too mild a word, as the five men ultimately became some of the most effective spies in political history. Apparently it was a much different world when they were persuaded by the comrades - communism was the only alternative to the fascism spreading across Russia, the Continent, and then England as the inevitable next stop. So five intelligent young men as Cambridge students took very different paths in life, all winding up in positions of power with access to government intel, which was then leaked in various ways to their comrades in the Soviet Union.
Cape takes liberty with his artistic license by re-imagining the fifth and final member of the Cambridge Five to be unveiled and reinvents a new character for his plot in this novel. Luckily there is plenty of humanity and personality and psychology and warmth in the book to bring it to life. Derek Smailes is a complicated man, and at times I wish the author pared down some of the long sections on Derek's father and both of their roles on the police force. This backstory influences most of Derek's decisions and interactions... the whole sub plot could have been eliminated and it would have been a stronger mystery and tighter plot. It's just one small example of the attention to detail that Cape takes in building and presenting his characters. We also get a portrait of the young man who dies and sets the rest of the book in motion, Simon Bowles, and insight into his family dynamic and their motivations. We get brief snapshots of Simon's friends and professors and extensive dives into his research... There's a whole dossier on the JFK research that could have been summarized in two pages instead of several chapters devoted to it. Detective Smailes reads the work, analyzes excerpts, and slowly comes to his own conclusions at his favorite pub near the police station. The main point of this whole interlude is to establish that Simon did thorough research and came to groundbreaking, well reasoned conclusions, almost foolproof in their mathematical calculations. By eliminating all the impossible scenarios you arrive at the answer, no matter how improbable. Which then lays the foundation for DS Smailes to take his Cambridge Theorem research seriously and consider it a possible motive for murder. Simon had reason to think there was a fifth member of the Cambridge group that still was unmasked after all these years, and that he was still alive and flourishing at Cambridge. That makes many of the dons and profs suspects.
The book is rather slow to start, but Cape is a fantastic writer (and I am an empowered reader who now gives herself carte blanche to skim the boring bits!) so it didn't feel like too much of a slog. By the middle of the book the suspects pile up and the plot pacing accelerates and next thing you know Derek blows up at his boss which immediately results in his suspension from the force and then he's chased by an unmarked white van... always a good sign that the detective is on the right track! The last 100 pages were a revelation of twists and counter-twists that were dizzying in the most satisfying way - like rolling down a good hill as a kid in fragrant green grass in early summer. Thrilling if somewhat disorienting. Overall a great read and refreshing in that the espionage angle is slightly outside my normal reading genre. If at any point Felony & Mayhem republish the next couple installments featuring Smailes I would pick them up!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel will keep you thinking and turning the pages.
Dectective Sergant Derek Smalies is working in Cambridge. His life is devoted to work and seeing his daughter from a previous marriage. His boss George has always taken him under his wing to make sure that he gets ahead.
Simon Bowles is a graduate math student at Cambridge who is able to look at unsolved mysteries in a mathematical way and logically solve them. He is working on trying to find out who the 5th man was in the Cambridge spy ring.
Lauren Greenwald is studying at Cambridge working in engineering. She is an American student. She is a friend of Simon Bowles.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK detective story regarding Russian spies at Cambridge. Detective Sergeant Derek Smailes eventually solves the case of a genius student found dead by handing, presumably self-inflicted. Smailes has an uneasy feeling and works through the complex web of espionage that dated back to the 1930's. While I didn't guess who the real culprits were, I didn't like how everything was explained at the end in a conversation. Took me a while to read, so I really wasn't into it.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this book. It took too long to read. I didn't care, the characters all seemed 2-dimensional and the plot was stretched out in parts and then mashed together in other parts. Another disappointment.

[Terry Irving · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's reprint of a novel originally published in the 80s and shows it. On the other hand,no one knows enough about the spies who completely betrayed and broke both the American and British intelligence communities and reading it as a detective novel is better than any other way of learning.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Great espionage thriller.

[Pam]

rec via bookmooch

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this but maybe if I was British I would be more familiar with the circumstances depicted in the novel. Though it was not the spy thriller I was hoping for I liked it.

[Irene]

Great mystery, very clever those cambridge spys.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

good read