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Dr David Audley & Colonel Jack Butler #5
Other Paths to Glory
Discover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesA First World War battlefield hides a deadly secret - one that some are willing to kill forPaul Mitchell is a young military historian whose life is changed forever when two men, Dr Audley and Colonel Butler of the MOD, visit him with a fragment of a German trench map - and a lot of questions. Then somebody tries to kill him. Paul, his life now in danger, agrees to go underground on a mission to solve a dangerous what really happened during the battle of the Somme in 1916? And why does somebody want to keep it secret?
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
12 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Price
25 books39 followersBorn in Hertfordshire in 1928, Price was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the Editorship of the Oxford Times. His literary thrillers earned comparisons to the best of Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Goddard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
December 27, 2024
A very enjoyable thriller that uses events from the First World War to create a plot that impacts the current day (c1976 when written).
Paul Mitchell is a brilliant young historian specialising in First World War studies, notably the Somme area that was the focus of severe fighting, especially between June (preparatory barrages etc. prior to the start on 1st July) and November 1916. Paul finds that someone wants him dead and this leads to his discovering others have also been recently killed. But why? What does he know that someone would kill him, and how are these other deaths connected to a battle sixty years ago and why does it matter today?
I was very struck by Anthony Price's knowledge of The First World War, and the Somme battlefield. He was able to use real fighting, units and events to weave into his story making characters and the book's events in both 1916 and the 1970s believable.
Overall all, Other Paths to Glory is a enjoyable read that offers a realistic plot and also reminds the reader of the difficulties and courage British, Commonwealth and German troops displayed in 1916.
Paul Mitchell is a brilliant young historian specialising in First World War studies, notably the Somme area that was the focus of severe fighting, especially between June (preparatory barrages etc. prior to the start on 1st July) and November 1916. Paul finds that someone wants him dead and this leads to his discovering others have also been recently killed. But why? What does he know that someone would kill him, and how are these other deaths connected to a battle sixty years ago and why does it matter today?
I was very struck by Anthony Price's knowledge of The First World War, and the Somme battlefield. He was able to use real fighting, units and events to weave into his story making characters and the book's events in both 1916 and the 1970s believable.
Overall all, Other Paths to Glory is a enjoyable read that offers a realistic plot and also reminds the reader of the difficulties and courage British, Commonwealth and German troops displayed in 1916.
November 26, 2023
Quirky spy thriller with a nerdy World War I theme. It was entertaining and I learned something. This author is new to me so it was a pleasant surprise.
February 25, 2015
I first read this crime/spy novel; winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award, after hearing Alison Plowden’s really excellent 90min 1979 adaptation for BBC Radio, starring Martin Jarvis. Price sets his book in the present-day (1974); with a tightly written plot relating to the Somme in 1916, specifically the battle for “Hameau Ridge”. Sixty years on from the blood and fire of battle, a group of veterans plan to revisit the scene of past conflict. Dr David Audley, a historian-turned-spy attached to the British Ministry of Defence, and Paul Mitchell, a researcher whose specialism is the First World War battlefields of Northern France, walk into a situation every bit as complex and dangerous as those old soldiers once faced.
This time around I am acutely conscious of reading this book during a period when we commemorate the hundredth anniversary of hostilities breaking out in what was then called the Great War, before the unthinkable happened, and a Second World War was required to complete the unfinished business of the now First World War.
Britain joined the EEC in 1973. In setting his narrative in 1974, Price vividly captures changes wrought over the course of sixty years: “For all the little blobs on the photograph, British and German, this was the last hour of the last day of their war, and this was their corner of the foreign field. And now it was pointless to mourn men whose fatherless children were now grandfathers” (p.5).
Back in 1916, why should the capture, by the 29th Service Battalion of the Rifle Brigade of a Prussian redoubt located close to “Bully” Wood” now be of such relevance to the present day; and why are those with first-hand knowledge dying untimely deaths before Audley and Mitchell can reach and talk with them?
The survivors of the regiment plan their visit to pay their respects to their long-fallen comrades; lost to them in a landscape that locals and tourists approach with cautious respect for fear of the risk of unexploded ordnance. Farmers are nothing if not cautious. The old soldiers know well where to look. to pause and to remember; https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1263...
But others have a different agenda. The “War to end all Wars” did not. Or has not?
This book remains a remarkably compulsive and gripping read in 2014; and I expect, will continue to do so for decades yet to come.
This time around I am acutely conscious of reading this book during a period when we commemorate the hundredth anniversary of hostilities breaking out in what was then called the Great War, before the unthinkable happened, and a Second World War was required to complete the unfinished business of the now First World War.
Britain joined the EEC in 1973. In setting his narrative in 1974, Price vividly captures changes wrought over the course of sixty years: “For all the little blobs on the photograph, British and German, this was the last hour of the last day of their war, and this was their corner of the foreign field. And now it was pointless to mourn men whose fatherless children were now grandfathers” (p.5).
Back in 1916, why should the capture, by the 29th Service Battalion of the Rifle Brigade of a Prussian redoubt located close to “Bully” Wood” now be of such relevance to the present day; and why are those with first-hand knowledge dying untimely deaths before Audley and Mitchell can reach and talk with them?
The survivors of the regiment plan their visit to pay their respects to their long-fallen comrades; lost to them in a landscape that locals and tourists approach with cautious respect for fear of the risk of unexploded ordnance. Farmers are nothing if not cautious. The old soldiers know well where to look. to pause and to remember; https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1263...
But others have a different agenda. The “War to end all Wars” did not. Or has not?
This book remains a remarkably compulsive and gripping read in 2014; and I expect, will continue to do so for decades yet to come.
June 26, 2018
I have no idea why I ever bought this book, perhaps the title resonated with my beloved, and aged, copy of Alistair Horne's "The Price of Glory", but I did, put it on the shelf and there it stayed... for a long time. Every now and then I would spot it as I was looking for something new to read but there were more familiar fields to stroll through... so it stayed, untouched. Then, one day, about to take the train to York, I reached out for a book to read and Belle said, "You don't want to be lugging that around with you all day, take something lighter in weight." And lo! How things happen.
I can't believe I left this book on the shelf so long. How was this possible? That dramatic opening, that almost casual drop into the world of espionage and security, that merging of the trenches of the Somme with the more shadowy (yes, cliche, but appropriate) warfare that can even take place on the street out there, in that quiet cul-de-sac.
This book is a tour-de-force. Brilliant and not as dated as some reviewers would misleadingly have us believe. We have been raised on a diet of Bond and co with all their smoke and mirrors of sex and bravura, and forget that the world of espionage is less dramatic, almost ploddingly banal on the surface... the world of Le Carre and, as it turns out, Price.
And how amazed I was to discover that there's a series... and they really should be read chronologically... just right for an obsessive-compulsive reader like me! Oh brave new world!
I can't believe I left this book on the shelf so long. How was this possible? That dramatic opening, that almost casual drop into the world of espionage and security, that merging of the trenches of the Somme with the more shadowy (yes, cliche, but appropriate) warfare that can even take place on the street out there, in that quiet cul-de-sac.
This book is a tour-de-force. Brilliant and not as dated as some reviewers would misleadingly have us believe. We have been raised on a diet of Bond and co with all their smoke and mirrors of sex and bravura, and forget that the world of espionage is less dramatic, almost ploddingly banal on the surface... the world of Le Carre and, as it turns out, Price.
And how amazed I was to discover that there's a series... and they really should be read chronologically... just right for an obsessive-compulsive reader like me! Oh brave new world!
January 10, 2015
While this belongs to the thriller genre I enjoyed it because of the detailed historical information of the Battle of the Somme. Details large and small were quite fascinating and a wonderful addition to a rollicking good read.
Read
November 27, 2023I became aware of Price’s books through Jo Walton’s monthly reading columns at Tor.com. She says they’re her most-reread non-sff books and Other Paths to Glory is one of the series entry points that she recommends. They are, essentially, spy novels; this one involves a young historian of WWI being dragooned into a Cold War espionage situation because there’s something crucial buried in his deep knowledge of the battle of the Somme. Price is less hardboiled than Deighton, a less opaque plotter than Le Carré, but very very good indeed with characterisation (and not bad at writing women, certainly better than the mid-’70s would have demanded). Other Paths to Glory is about how quickly and easily we forget the details of war even when it remains within living memory, even when we’re monetising its aftermath. It’s a very thoughtful, considered version of the spy novel—I’ll certainly look for more of Price’s work.
September 6, 2013
This review also appears on my blog www.silashruparell.com
My one liner: The trenches of the First World War were horrific killing fields. Why would the French Secret Service be interested in their topography six decades on ? Other Paths to Glory is both a spy novel and a reminder of 20th Century European military heritage.
Other Paths to Glory won the Gold Dagger award of the CWA for its author Anthony Price. Dr David Audley is the hero of this, and other novels, by Price.
Paul Mitchell is a historian and expert on the French and Belgian battlefields of the First World War. He spends much of his time in the archive rooms of the British Commonwealth Institute for Military Studies.
Researching.
His mentor and hero is Professor Emerson, for whom Mitchell worked as a researcher at Cambridge. One day Mitchell is interrupted in the archive rooms by two men, and his life changes:
“Number Two spoke this time. And whereas Number One was a huge, rumpled, soft spoken, Oxbridge type, Number Two had “soldier” written all over him, from his carefully cropped red hair, and the mirror-shine of his boots, to the bark of his voice.”
Searching questions to Paul Mitchell about a small torn piece of German trench map produced by the two men. That night, Mitchell, who lives with his mother, is brutally attacked and thrown into the canal near his house. He manages to somehow clamber out, and make it back home, to the astonishment of the police constable, who have found his “suicide note.” And Professor Emerson has died that day. In a house fire. Except it wasn’t the fire that killed him.
Dr David Audley (British Secret Service) arrives at Mitchell’s house, and persuades him to go into hiding. Assumed identity...etc.
But Mitchell is also persuaded (seduced ??) into going further than that. If he is to maximise his chances of survival he must help Audley find out what he and Emerson “knew” that has resulted in one murder and one attempted murder.
This book is somewhat of a trip down memory lane for me. The school-trip that made the biggest impression on me as a teenager was a four-day tour of the battlefields of The Somme and Flanders, the main sites of the First World War trenches where millions of British, Commonwealth and German troops were killed.
“ “Terrible – yes, it was that sure enough,” he nodded. Only terrible wasn’t the half of it: if there was a word in the English language for the loss of fifty-seven thousand men in a few hours that first day he hadn’t been able to find it.”
Paul Mitchell has now become Captain Paul Lefèvre (pronounced “Lefever” – English Huguenot, you see) of the 15th Royal Tank Regiment. Accompanying Audley to find out what is was that had so intrigued and excited Professor Emerson on a recent visit that he had made. The problem is that every time they find a war veteran, or local, who has something useful to say, he drops dead.
Spy novels, when well-written have the air of imparting “inside” knowledge of the machinations of global geopolitics and secret services, as if they are facts. This one is no different. Whether it is indeed true or not, we are told of how “neutral houses” work:
“...That’s the curse of open diplomacy – one side’s got to be seen to win or lose, and if neither does then it’s just as bad. So the first thing that they came up with was the hot line...Except that when its a matter of life and death nothing beats face-to-face talking...So then they set up the neutral houses...if two countries have a problem they just approach a third party for a key to a neutral house. No publicity, no TV, no questions asked, permanent top security guaranteed at head-of-state level. France is a popular country for meeting...”
We find out that the French Secret Service has called its British counterparts to help out because a “neutral house” meeting is about to take place at a farmhouse in the Somme. And there has been some murderous activity in the area lately. So they are worried.
One of Paul Mitchell’s specialities is the Hindenburg Line. In particular he has done much research into the feats of a British Regiment called the Poachers. Recognised as one of the most incredible feats of the Battle of the Somme was the manner in which the Poachers captured a ridge where there was a Prussian Redoubt, which borders onto “Bully Wood”, or Bois de Bouillet. The objective had been to attack a village called Hameau which was near Bully Wood. The Prussian Redoubt was considered impregnable, built as it was into the side of a chateau. The story of how the Poachers captured it was one of both bravery and foolishness.
But maybe also interesting to someone trying, several decades on, to penetrate an even safer and more impregnable fortress on the border of Bully Wood.
The plot is clever, but the battlefield descriptions and the recounted tales of the veteran characters make this novel as much a work of military history as of fiction.
My one liner: The trenches of the First World War were horrific killing fields. Why would the French Secret Service be interested in their topography six decades on ? Other Paths to Glory is both a spy novel and a reminder of 20th Century European military heritage.
Other Paths to Glory won the Gold Dagger award of the CWA for its author Anthony Price. Dr David Audley is the hero of this, and other novels, by Price.
Paul Mitchell is a historian and expert on the French and Belgian battlefields of the First World War. He spends much of his time in the archive rooms of the British Commonwealth Institute for Military Studies.
Researching.
His mentor and hero is Professor Emerson, for whom Mitchell worked as a researcher at Cambridge. One day Mitchell is interrupted in the archive rooms by two men, and his life changes:
“Number Two spoke this time. And whereas Number One was a huge, rumpled, soft spoken, Oxbridge type, Number Two had “soldier” written all over him, from his carefully cropped red hair, and the mirror-shine of his boots, to the bark of his voice.”
Searching questions to Paul Mitchell about a small torn piece of German trench map produced by the two men. That night, Mitchell, who lives with his mother, is brutally attacked and thrown into the canal near his house. He manages to somehow clamber out, and make it back home, to the astonishment of the police constable, who have found his “suicide note.” And Professor Emerson has died that day. In a house fire. Except it wasn’t the fire that killed him.
Dr David Audley (British Secret Service) arrives at Mitchell’s house, and persuades him to go into hiding. Assumed identity...etc.
But Mitchell is also persuaded (seduced ??) into going further than that. If he is to maximise his chances of survival he must help Audley find out what he and Emerson “knew” that has resulted in one murder and one attempted murder.
This book is somewhat of a trip down memory lane for me. The school-trip that made the biggest impression on me as a teenager was a four-day tour of the battlefields of The Somme and Flanders, the main sites of the First World War trenches where millions of British, Commonwealth and German troops were killed.
“ “Terrible – yes, it was that sure enough,” he nodded. Only terrible wasn’t the half of it: if there was a word in the English language for the loss of fifty-seven thousand men in a few hours that first day he hadn’t been able to find it.”
Paul Mitchell has now become Captain Paul Lefèvre (pronounced “Lefever” – English Huguenot, you see) of the 15th Royal Tank Regiment. Accompanying Audley to find out what is was that had so intrigued and excited Professor Emerson on a recent visit that he had made. The problem is that every time they find a war veteran, or local, who has something useful to say, he drops dead.
Spy novels, when well-written have the air of imparting “inside” knowledge of the machinations of global geopolitics and secret services, as if they are facts. This one is no different. Whether it is indeed true or not, we are told of how “neutral houses” work:
“...That’s the curse of open diplomacy – one side’s got to be seen to win or lose, and if neither does then it’s just as bad. So the first thing that they came up with was the hot line...Except that when its a matter of life and death nothing beats face-to-face talking...So then they set up the neutral houses...if two countries have a problem they just approach a third party for a key to a neutral house. No publicity, no TV, no questions asked, permanent top security guaranteed at head-of-state level. France is a popular country for meeting...”
We find out that the French Secret Service has called its British counterparts to help out because a “neutral house” meeting is about to take place at a farmhouse in the Somme. And there has been some murderous activity in the area lately. So they are worried.
One of Paul Mitchell’s specialities is the Hindenburg Line. In particular he has done much research into the feats of a British Regiment called the Poachers. Recognised as one of the most incredible feats of the Battle of the Somme was the manner in which the Poachers captured a ridge where there was a Prussian Redoubt, which borders onto “Bully Wood”, or Bois de Bouillet. The objective had been to attack a village called Hameau which was near Bully Wood. The Prussian Redoubt was considered impregnable, built as it was into the side of a chateau. The story of how the Poachers captured it was one of both bravery and foolishness.
But maybe also interesting to someone trying, several decades on, to penetrate an even safer and more impregnable fortress on the border of Bully Wood.
The plot is clever, but the battlefield descriptions and the recounted tales of the veteran characters make this novel as much a work of military history as of fiction.
July 13, 2024
A disturbing, gripping and thoroughly compelling piece of literature! After reading this little novel (It was only 280 pages) this reader immediately compared it Le Carre, the best of Deighton, Seymour and even Ludlum came to mind. Although it might be a little novel it was big, and I mean very big, on character development, recreating and giving the reader a haunting feeling of the Somme and Vichy; But also, it was a great story that should knock the socks off you! After finishing it and reading the ending, this reader had to, then go over the story in his head to appreciate what the writer had truly done. A master class in hiding the truth. Written more than forty years ago, in 1974, this little novel deservedly won the CWA Gold Dagger Award and should be read by not only by cold war history fans, readers of war history, but also by all readers of top class literature.
Easily 5 STARS.
Here is this reader's all time Top 20 of spy fiction-nonfiction. (In order of date):
1. 'The Quiet American', Graham Greene. (1955).
2. 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', Le Carre. (1963).
3. ‘Funeral in Berlin’, Len Deighton. (1964).
4. 'Other Paths of Glory', Anthony Price. (1974).
5. ‘Harry's Game’, Gerald Seymour. (1975).
6. ‘Berlin Game’, Len Deighton. (1982).
7. ‘Home Run’, Gerald Seymour. (1989).
8. 'Other Kinds of Treason', Ted Allbeury. (1990). (SS)*.
9. 'The Line Crosser', Ted Allbeury. (1991).
10. 'A Polish Officer', Allan Furst. (1995).
11. 'Absolute Friends', John Le Carre. (2003).
12. The Slough House series by Mick Herron. (2010 ~ ).
13. 'A Treachery of Spies', Manda Scott. (2018).
14. 'A Long Night In Paris', Dov Alfon. (2019).
15. ‘The Insider’, Matthew Richardson. (2021).
16. 'The Scarlet Papers’, Matthew Richardson. (2023).
17. The Secret Hours’, Mick Herron. (2023).
*(SS): short stories.
and three best non-fiction spy reads:
18. ‘An Officer and a Spy’, Robert Harris. (2013).
19. ‘A Spy amongst Friends’, John McIntyre. (2014).
20. 'Agent Sonya', John McIntyre. (2020).
Easily 5 STARS.
Here is this reader's all time Top 20 of spy fiction-nonfiction. (In order of date):
1. 'The Quiet American', Graham Greene. (1955).
2. 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', Le Carre. (1963).
3. ‘Funeral in Berlin’, Len Deighton. (1964).
4. 'Other Paths of Glory', Anthony Price. (1974).
5. ‘Harry's Game’, Gerald Seymour. (1975).
6. ‘Berlin Game’, Len Deighton. (1982).
7. ‘Home Run’, Gerald Seymour. (1989).
8. 'Other Kinds of Treason', Ted Allbeury. (1990). (SS)*.
9. 'The Line Crosser', Ted Allbeury. (1991).
10. 'A Polish Officer', Allan Furst. (1995).
11. 'Absolute Friends', John Le Carre. (2003).
12. The Slough House series by Mick Herron. (2010 ~ ).
13. 'A Treachery of Spies', Manda Scott. (2018).
14. 'A Long Night In Paris', Dov Alfon. (2019).
15. ‘The Insider’, Matthew Richardson. (2021).
16. 'The Scarlet Papers’, Matthew Richardson. (2023).
17. The Secret Hours’, Mick Herron. (2023).
*(SS): short stories.
and three best non-fiction spy reads:
18. ‘An Officer and a Spy’, Robert Harris. (2013).
19. ‘A Spy amongst Friends’, John McIntyre. (2014).
20. 'Agent Sonya', John McIntyre. (2020).
February 20, 2024
A first world war battlefield hides a deadly secret - one that some are willing to kill for.
Paul Mitchell is a young military historian whose life is changed forever when Dr Audley and Colonel Butler of the Ministry of Defence visit him with a fragment of a German trench map. They also have lots of question.
Then someone throws him into the river and tries to drown him. His educational mentor is murdered.
His life is in danger and he agrees to go underground (literally at the end) to solve a mystery.
Anthony Price was a British author of a series of mystery thriller novels that he wrote between 1970 and 1990. Of the twenty novels written by Price, nineteen were spy thrillers, save for the nonfiction title, The Eyes of the Fleet.
I'd never heard of him until I read the list of books in the Penguin Modern Classics Crime & Espionage and saw this book. I'm ashamed that I've never read any of his books until now, better late than never I suppose. This book is brilliant and I can't wait to read the next one.
The story is so well constructed, highly believable, and educational too that I couldn't help turning the page. I didn't know so many underground tunnels were constructed during WWI by both sides and that so many men from both sides were buried alive underground along with their weaponry. These men are occasionally discovered by road construction gangs.
The book is refreshing because the hero is a modest man who lives with his mum and in the end, doesn't get the girl. This lack of glamour is appealing and realistic.
Paul Mitchell is a young military historian whose life is changed forever when Dr Audley and Colonel Butler of the Ministry of Defence visit him with a fragment of a German trench map. They also have lots of question.
Then someone throws him into the river and tries to drown him. His educational mentor is murdered.
His life is in danger and he agrees to go underground (literally at the end) to solve a mystery.
Anthony Price was a British author of a series of mystery thriller novels that he wrote between 1970 and 1990. Of the twenty novels written by Price, nineteen were spy thrillers, save for the nonfiction title, The Eyes of the Fleet.
I'd never heard of him until I read the list of books in the Penguin Modern Classics Crime & Espionage and saw this book. I'm ashamed that I've never read any of his books until now, better late than never I suppose. This book is brilliant and I can't wait to read the next one.
The story is so well constructed, highly believable, and educational too that I couldn't help turning the page. I didn't know so many underground tunnels were constructed during WWI by both sides and that so many men from both sides were buried alive underground along with their weaponry. These men are occasionally discovered by road construction gangs.
The book is refreshing because the hero is a modest man who lives with his mum and in the end, doesn't get the girl. This lack of glamour is appealing and realistic.
July 15, 2018
Exciting and complex thriller from 1974 when there were still old soldiers from World War One worth killing to prevent their telling what they knew about the plausible but fictional battle of Hameau Ridge on the Somme.
It is left to a young researcher, Paul Mitchell, to be co-opted by the MoD and help unearth the mystery following an attack on his own life. The story is told from Mitchell’s point of view and he gradually realises that his encyclopaedic knowledge of WWI history holds the key to why someone is so keen to bump him off. The introduction of a ravishingly beautiful French interpreter distracts our hero and we know how James Bond would have handled their initial enmity but this story is unconventional and unpredictable.
It is left to a young researcher, Paul Mitchell, to be co-opted by the MoD and help unearth the mystery following an attack on his own life. The story is told from Mitchell’s point of view and he gradually realises that his encyclopaedic knowledge of WWI history holds the key to why someone is so keen to bump him off. The introduction of a ravishingly beautiful French interpreter distracts our hero and we know how James Bond would have handled their initial enmity but this story is unconventional and unpredictable.
September 9, 2017
Well read audible book and fine listen for long car rides. While the combination of historical recounting of the WWI battle was interesting, it was hard to see justify the detail devoted to any connection to the story line. Still enjoyable enough.
March 29, 2020
From the opening moments, when Paul Mitchell's researches into individual actions in WWI France are interrupted by two strangers who should never have been able to get unaccompanied into the Great War Documents Room of the British Commonwealth Institute for Military Studies, to the end of the book, on the First World War battlefields of the Somme, the pace of this book never slows. There are murders made to look like accidents, clever information-gathering to make a suicide convincing, and a very unusual collection of Intelligence personnel from different countries, but throughout it all is woven the story of that war, its massive casualties (57,000 men lost in one day), the sense of commitment, bravery, camaraderie, and determination to go on, whatever the cost (and no, it's an insult to all the men to say they went on because they had no option, there's a lot more to it than that).
The team of Dr David Audley and Col Jack Butler are the true professionals in this game of detection, and it's fascinating to watch Paul Mitchell not only try to work out the relationships between the players, but at the same time bring his excellent brain with its amazing depth of knowledge and analytical ability into play in this bewildering new world. Nothing is simple or straightforward, and the story is on several levels, for there is still the present-day plot intertwined with the battlefields and unexploded munitions being ploughed up annually.
I'm glad I discovered Anthony Price, even if I did arrive late to the game.
"In a few years' time, when this war is a romance of memory, the soldier looking for his battlefield will find his marks gone. Centre Way, Peel Trench, Munster Alley, and these other paths to glory will be deep under the corn, and gleaners will sing at Dead Mule Corner."
~~ John Masefield, "The Old Front Line," 1917
The team of Dr David Audley and Col Jack Butler are the true professionals in this game of detection, and it's fascinating to watch Paul Mitchell not only try to work out the relationships between the players, but at the same time bring his excellent brain with its amazing depth of knowledge and analytical ability into play in this bewildering new world. Nothing is simple or straightforward, and the story is on several levels, for there is still the present-day plot intertwined with the battlefields and unexploded munitions being ploughed up annually.
I'm glad I discovered Anthony Price, even if I did arrive late to the game.
"In a few years' time, when this war is a romance of memory, the soldier looking for his battlefield will find his marks gone. Centre Way, Peel Trench, Munster Alley, and these other paths to glory will be deep under the corn, and gleaners will sing at Dead Mule Corner."
~~ John Masefield, "The Old Front Line," 1917
October 15, 2019
I first discovered Other Path to Glory by Anthony Price back in the 1990s, in a local market. Thinking it was a book about the First World War (which it sort of is) I instead slipped in to the world of David Audley and was mightly pleased to be introduced. Having completed Price's books many years ago and not entirely convinced by October Man, Other Paths to Glory was everything I remembered and a great payoff at the end which I had forgotten in the mist of time. This book was well worth read.
September 7, 2025
Seriously overrated as a spy/ crime thriller.It starts very well but slowly gets bogged down in a quagmire of rumination,useless irrelevant arcane details (nobody but an historian is likely to give a shit about ), too much stopping in in his tracks by the protagonist explained by half page long expositions which ultimately means nothing and adds nothing to the story .
This book needed a serious trimming of about 40% to make it a good book .
I have read enough books by Lecarre ,Deighton,Gardner ,Lyall, Bagley and Higgins,Follet etc. to know that this author just does not belong in the same league.The plot is not good enough and except the last 10% there is not much suspense…chapters are ended with apparently momentus discoveries but becomes a damp squib by the time the next chapter is two page old.There is very little authentic spy craft . The mysterious department of Audleys is very unauthentic . Anybody who is expecting to get something Deighton or lecarre is going to be seriously disappointed. There is no treasure here and if a book takes 75% pages to define what the mystery is … its not really worth reading as a mystery .
So why did it win the awards…? I would say it’s because it is verbose and pretentious and thus an easy choice for critics .
Its much easier to justify any longwinded exposition filled book as a literary achievement than a taut well plotted thriller because to do that one needs to read it for enjoyment .
As far as I am concerned, I am not likely to try another Anthony Price anytime soon . Life is short enough and the time would be better spent in re-reading Gavin Lyall, Ambler and Bagley for adventures and Lecarre, Forsyth, Deighton, Adam Hall and Ted Albeury etc. for authentic spy fare .
This book needed a serious trimming of about 40% to make it a good book .
I have read enough books by Lecarre ,Deighton,Gardner ,Lyall, Bagley and Higgins,Follet etc. to know that this author just does not belong in the same league.The plot is not good enough and except the last 10% there is not much suspense…chapters are ended with apparently momentus discoveries but becomes a damp squib by the time the next chapter is two page old.There is very little authentic spy craft . The mysterious department of Audleys is very unauthentic . Anybody who is expecting to get something Deighton or lecarre is going to be seriously disappointed. There is no treasure here and if a book takes 75% pages to define what the mystery is … its not really worth reading as a mystery .
So why did it win the awards…? I would say it’s because it is verbose and pretentious and thus an easy choice for critics .
Its much easier to justify any longwinded exposition filled book as a literary achievement than a taut well plotted thriller because to do that one needs to read it for enjoyment .
As far as I am concerned, I am not likely to try another Anthony Price anytime soon . Life is short enough and the time would be better spent in re-reading Gavin Lyall, Ambler and Bagley for adventures and Lecarre, Forsyth, Deighton, Adam Hall and Ted Albeury etc. for authentic spy fare .
February 25, 2025
I will admit that this was a bit of a strange one - not helped by the fact that I discovered it was number 5 in a long running series.
I originally picked this book as part of the Crime Masterworks series - a shorter lived series of books in a similar vein to the SF and Fantasy versions from the same publisher. In that style the series consisted of a wide range of titles that showcased the best of their genre.
So when I picked this up I wasnt sure what I was letting myself in for - now considering my self imposed rule of no spoilers its hard to discuss this book suffice to say that the in hindsight was straight forward I had absolutely no clue what was going on or where it was going. After how does the history of a WWI battle connect to a modern day espionage adventure - but it does..
I originally picked this book as part of the Crime Masterworks series - a shorter lived series of books in a similar vein to the SF and Fantasy versions from the same publisher. In that style the series consisted of a wide range of titles that showcased the best of their genre.
So when I picked this up I wasnt sure what I was letting myself in for - now considering my self imposed rule of no spoilers its hard to discuss this book suffice to say that the in hindsight was straight forward I had absolutely no clue what was going on or where it was going. After how does the history of a WWI battle connect to a modern day espionage adventure - but it does..
December 3, 2024
Just not for me. It's a 'clever' plot, very intricate, but at times, I found it too obscure. There was a lot of detail about a battle in the Somme campaign, but with so much reference to places and the positions of battalions, I could have done with a map! Written in 1974, I found some of the language and attitudes jarring. Interesting concept to link events from a battle in WW1 to a crime in 1974. Despite being a short book, I struggled to get through it.
January 3, 2022
The Crime Writer’s Association awarded Anthony Price’s fifth novel a Gold Dagger in 1974. In 2005 they also shortlisted it for the Dagger of Daggers, an award for the best crime novel of the previous fifty years.
Price entwines two plots. Foremost is a cold war skirmish that leaves a trail of dead historians and old soldiers. The second is a detailed account of the battle for Hameau Ridge. Price interlaces the two stories, slipping between a history lesson and a present-day murder to create tension and bewilderment in both his protagonists and readers.
At the same time, Price lets you into the mind of the confused and frightened Paul Mitchell. A twenty-something academic who finds himself dangerously out of his depth. His only ally is David Audley from the ‘Ministry of Defence’. But Audley is a man with his own flaws and no James Bond. He doesn’t drive an Aston Martin with the poise of a stunt man, in fact “he gave the impression of someone who was determined to give only a quarter of his mind to a job which required at least half of it.”
If you are looking for an all-action blockbuster you are in the wrong place. There is little sex, the action is sparse and the violence is curt but don’t think this will be a nice cosy read. The book exudes a subtle ruthlessness. The players don’t take prisoners.
Some criticise the book for being boring and dated. As one reviewer says “virtually nothing happens in the first 80% of the story”, and he is right. But who would you like to protect your country’s interests? A loner who shoots from the hip as he careers down an alpine ski run, or a shrewd, quiet man in a suit who pulls strings and then cuts them?
Intense, compelling and ever so subtle, this is a gripping read, but only if you like your thrillers stirred, not shaken.
Read a little more here https://crimebooks.uk/book/other-path...
Price entwines two plots. Foremost is a cold war skirmish that leaves a trail of dead historians and old soldiers. The second is a detailed account of the battle for Hameau Ridge. Price interlaces the two stories, slipping between a history lesson and a present-day murder to create tension and bewilderment in both his protagonists and readers.
At the same time, Price lets you into the mind of the confused and frightened Paul Mitchell. A twenty-something academic who finds himself dangerously out of his depth. His only ally is David Audley from the ‘Ministry of Defence’. But Audley is a man with his own flaws and no James Bond. He doesn’t drive an Aston Martin with the poise of a stunt man, in fact “he gave the impression of someone who was determined to give only a quarter of his mind to a job which required at least half of it.”
If you are looking for an all-action blockbuster you are in the wrong place. There is little sex, the action is sparse and the violence is curt but don’t think this will be a nice cosy read. The book exudes a subtle ruthlessness. The players don’t take prisoners.
Some criticise the book for being boring and dated. As one reviewer says “virtually nothing happens in the first 80% of the story”, and he is right. But who would you like to protect your country’s interests? A loner who shoots from the hip as he careers down an alpine ski run, or a shrewd, quiet man in a suit who pulls strings and then cuts them?
Intense, compelling and ever so subtle, this is a gripping read, but only if you like your thrillers stirred, not shaken.
Read a little more here https://crimebooks.uk/book/other-path...
January 2, 2021
Paul Mitchell's début as Audley's Man
Another intelligence thriller from my favourite author Anthony Price as he combines his own background of historical studies with writing a cracking good tale that holds one's atttention to the last paragraph with its last twists and turns. And almost has me shaking the book in case of a hidden page.
The Audley intelligence thrillers have an overlapping cast of characters and Paul Mitchell begins as an academic anti hero in Other Paths to Glory during which he is blooded and succumbs to the excitement of the Greatest Game ever played.
Paul Mitchell is the closest successor that David Audley ever acquires. His meticulous eye for detail rescues Audley's more reckless plans. But both men share the the same streak of ruthlessness that is a prerequisite for any intelligence officer in the field.
I have been reading and rereading Anthony Price's Audley thrillers for over thirty years now and I felt a tinge of personal sadness on learning of his death in 2019.
Another intelligence thriller from my favourite author Anthony Price as he combines his own background of historical studies with writing a cracking good tale that holds one's atttention to the last paragraph with its last twists and turns. And almost has me shaking the book in case of a hidden page.
The Audley intelligence thrillers have an overlapping cast of characters and Paul Mitchell begins as an academic anti hero in Other Paths to Glory during which he is blooded and succumbs to the excitement of the Greatest Game ever played.
Paul Mitchell is the closest successor that David Audley ever acquires. His meticulous eye for detail rescues Audley's more reckless plans. But both men share the the same streak of ruthlessness that is a prerequisite for any intelligence officer in the field.
I have been reading and rereading Anthony Price's Audley thrillers for over thirty years now and I felt a tinge of personal sadness on learning of his death in 2019.
April 12, 2024
First published in 1974, and the winner that year of the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger Award. A real "page turner" that I discovered quite by chance in the fairly sparse library of the cruise ship I was travelling on recently. It was one of the few books in English and I "neglected" to return it to the library before the cruise ended. I will next year though as I will again be on the same ship.
The prose is very much of the time, and can be a but pompous at times. A lot of "old chap" style prose if you get my drift. Still it's a ripping yarn, devoid of today's electronic devices, technology and modern surveillance techniques. The plot architecture is centred on the WW1 battlefields of the Somme River in northern France, only 60 years old then but over a century now. Fascinating stuff. Politicial intrigue aplenty, and of the times. Loved it.
The prose is very much of the time, and can be a but pompous at times. A lot of "old chap" style prose if you get my drift. Still it's a ripping yarn, devoid of today's electronic devices, technology and modern surveillance techniques. The plot architecture is centred on the WW1 battlefields of the Somme River in northern France, only 60 years old then but over a century now. Fascinating stuff. Politicial intrigue aplenty, and of the times. Loved it.
January 28, 2018
The fascination of a well-researched and authentic WWI novel allied with a mystery with gradually unveiled political overtones provides a gripping read in this book from 1974. A young researcher, an expert on the Western Front, survives an attack meant to kill him as others researching, or with knowledge of, a part of the Somme offensive of 1916 are being killed off. The action moves to France and the battlefields half a century later with a plausible resolution to a brief but moving and engaging story.
January 15, 2021
Poirot meets Indiana Jones. I was not expecting this to be a 5 star hit, me who dropped history lessons the first chance I got. But it has all the elements of a fantastic read. Really true characters, a gripping plot, vivid imagery and a kick ass ending. It totally deserved it's award of the CWA Gold Dagger.
January 10, 2024
This was quite an awesome spy drama. I enjoyed the first half in England trying to track the path of Emerson more than the second half in Somme, France. The mystery in it was quite fascinating. Though the final suspense was a little bit of a let down.. kind of like a cinematic clímax. However the overall academic tracing portions of the book was absolutely unputdownable.
February 6, 2018
Three and a half stars really. It's a little dated but a good story. Anything with a WWI component is likely to be popular with me. It cracks on and never drags and I will probably search out the other Audley books.
April 5, 2022
Fascinating spy fiction from one of the classic British authors from the 1970s. Anthony Price was an historian and fiction writer with a gift for combining both into engrossing fiction. His obit in the NYTimes is revelatory and an interesting introduction to his work.
March 3, 2018
A cracking read. A seventies thriller tied up in the history of the great war. Pacy, always interesting, Very enjoyable.
October 30, 2018
This was my first Anthony Price book, which I went to when I was in the mood for some LeCarre or Greene, but wasn't yet ready to invest a re-read slot in any of those. On the basis of this first foray alone, I'm not ready to line these up alongside those greats, but I'll eventually try another one. At times I had the impression that I was reading something by Alistair MacLean, in which he was challenged not to rely on action scenes or Indiana Jones heroics, and the whole thing just didn't work very well. I'll credit the plot as being clever, and the writing as being adequate, and better than average...but it's not Maugham. Once again, half stars would be very helpful here, as two stars looks terrible in today's world, where everyone expects everything to be five stars. It was okay...that's what two stars means. I even almost liked it, even as I felt it dragged a little bit getting to the clever bit, and then rather rushed through to the climax. My two-star probably equates to some people's 4 star, so if you want a moderately interesting page-turner, you could do far worse. If you're expecting Graham Greene, as Goodreads suggested to me, I fear that you'll be disappointed.
January 9, 2021
I found the book utterly boring; Other Paths To Glory was my first Anthony Price and surely will be my last. The main merit of the novel is of being short, nevertheless I felt like it was double the length: virtually nothing happens in the first 80% of the story, which is stuffed with fastidious and scholarly anecdotes from the Somme battle of 1916. The intent of the whole book seems to be to keep the reader on edge wondering what could be the link between remote events of WW1 and those of present time; but when the long expected big unveil and final twist come, they were rather ordinary.
If, based on the blurb, you are expecting an espionage thriller from this book, well, make no mistake, you won't find either: no espionage and no thrill. The book is dated and has not aged well; I thought I was reading a bad Conan Doyle story (no offence intended mr Doyle) with Dr Audley as Sherlock and Professor Mitchell as Watson.
If, based on the blurb, you are expecting an espionage thriller from this book, well, make no mistake, you won't find either: no espionage and no thrill. The book is dated and has not aged well; I thought I was reading a bad Conan Doyle story (no offence intended mr Doyle) with Dr Audley as Sherlock and Professor Mitchell as Watson.
May 16, 2024
I can clearly imagine who would like this book: a Daily Telegraph reader, male, with some experience of playing soldiers in the OTC of his minor public school, or perhaps in the Territorials, not much time for women except for the most decorative purposes, partial to a round of golf, and a complete bore when it comes to militaria. Such individuals are well turned out and always polish their shoes, which I do regard as a virtue, but I cannot imagine wanting to spend any more time with them than strictly necessary. I read 'Other Paths to Glory' because I'd had luck with other volumes in the Penguin Crime Classics reissues, but this one left me completely dead. It's 50 years old and feels a good deal older. It did keep me company through a period of poor health, but it was pretty poor company all round.
July 4, 2023
Nobody does it like Anthony Price: the combination of cold-war spy-thriller and riddles from older history is unique and pure joy to read/ listen to. It is as if the investigating detective/spy is constantly fed with clues straight out of a time machine.
In this book there is something odd about a WW1-battlefield. The young military historian Paul Mitchell is first pushed into a river and then into an adventure…
I read this book 30 years ago and was enchanted by the thriller-history mix. The repeat as an audiobook improves the experience, making it a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable few hours. And even better: all 19 books of the series are available for download.
In this book there is something odd about a WW1-battlefield. The young military historian Paul Mitchell is first pushed into a river and then into an adventure…
I read this book 30 years ago and was enchanted by the thriller-history mix. The repeat as an audiobook improves the experience, making it a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable few hours. And even better: all 19 books of the series are available for download.
December 2, 2025
Picked this up at a charity shop and what a fantastic bargain it turned out to be. A tight 70s thriller full of genuinely moving WWI history. There’s no messing about. The action starts quickly with an apparently random murder attempt on a historian come puzzle-solving expert. As you follow his investigation you have to work out when it’s set and who the characters are as the twisty story unfolds. If you like army clichés and impossibly beautiful French women as much as I do, then you’re in for a great time.
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