The Labyrinth Makers

Dr David Audley & Colonel Jack Butler #1

by Anthony Price

David Audley is an unlikely spy. True, he works for England's Ministry of Defense, but strictly as a back-room man, doing meticulous research on the Middle East. This new assignment, then, comes as something of a surprise: A WWII-era British cargo plane has been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake, complete with the dead pilot and not much else. Why are the Soviets so interested in the empty plane and its pilot? interested enough to attend the much-belated funeral? And why has Audley been tapped to lead the investigation? As Audley chips away at the first question, he can't stop asking the second. Could he possibly have been given the assignment in order to fail, to preserve the decades-old secrets at the bottom of the lake? If that's the case, someone's made an error. Audley's a scholar by training, temperamentally allergic to loose ends. And the story he unravels is going to make some people very uncomfortable indeed.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Spy Thriller, Audiobook

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Born 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.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, the first in the series, is set 25 years after WWII. David Audley is a desk man in British intelligence, who is suddenly asked to go into the field. During the war, a pilot was smuggling from war torn Berlin to Britain. He intended to do one last haul, of something so valuable that Russia have been searching for it ever since. His plane crashed on the way home and the pilot,the plane and the secret hoarde disappeared with him. Now, the plane has suddenly been unearthed, and the story has also been unburied. The Russians are still interested and Audley is sent to find out what he stole and where it is.

During his investigation, Audley meets the pilot's daughter and becomes involved with her. He is a very human character and nervous of the violence and danger he encounters. I liked him very much and thought the plot was thought provoking and extremely interesting. The book is set during 1969/1970 (I wasn't quite sure of the exact date), and there is a casual sexism in the way people talk, which placed the novel firmly during that time period. There is also a real feeling for those Cold War years, when suspicion reigned on all sides and the second world war was still something that most of the population remembered personally.

I have to admit that I had never read this author before and it is always wonderful to discover a great author that you have missed. This is an intelligent and well written thriller, a pleasure to read and I look forward to following Audley's adventures.

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good example of a spy/thriller novel in which brains are used much more than muscles or any other technical gadgets.
There is fiction around reality facts, there are many twists in action, the main characters are more than ok, the romantic part is welcome, so does the philosophical one.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of the nineteen David Audley spy novels showed what the series would become: literate, low key, and clever. Espionage as described by Price is deadly work, but without the glamorous surface of the Bond books. In this case, the book begins with a death from out of the past when a World War II-era cargo plane is uncovered after a private lake is drained unexpectedly. The trouble is that the plane isn't where it should have been, is carrying a half dozen boxes of rubble from Berlin (in place of what?), and was piloted by the late lamented master smuggler of the RAF. So where is the real cargo, why have some of those who knew died at the hands of apparently Russian agents, and how does Audley, on the outs with his masters for being right about the Middle East once too often, learn to run agents. Reread after forty-some years (and because I still own the set), I remembered why I first liked it.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historian who just happens to work for a spy agency in the UK is driven out into the field to find out exactly what was going on when a WWII pilot crashed into a lake with seven boxes of rubble in the back of his plane. Smuggling, sure, but...broken bricks?!?

An intellectual spy tale, the kind that has way too many bureaucratic details and not enough plot until suddenly you're like, "Wait, what?" An excellent quick read. A bit dated.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than average clever spy thriller as an excuse for a good history lesson about interesting stuff regarding Stalin, Nazis, WWII--not to mention Troy. Somewhat dated.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book on tape, a bit dated--British spy novel of the sixties. Less James Bond, more accessible than Le Carre.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a crashed WWII plane is discovered in a dried up lake in Lincolnshire, Dr David Audley is taken from his desk job in the Ministry of Defence and sent out in the field to investigate. It appears that the pilot may have been involved in smuggling, but it isn’t clear why the Russians should still be taking an interest in the plane and its contents.

I really enjoyed this 1970s espionage novel which felt very authentic in its treatment of the Cold War period - both for the tension and political manipulation involved and for the haphazard successes of the blundering protagonists. The attitudes are also of that time, so sexism definitely crops up in the depiction of the main female character, but there is a kind of affectionate protectiveness in Audley’s attitude which made it less jarring than, for example, a James Bond encounter.

The plot is clever and keeps the reader guessing right up to the denouement, and there are revealing glimpses of the harsh reality of the espionage world without anything too graphic detracting from the mystery. I was pleased to discover a new author of spy thrillers and will definitely read on in the series.

[^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone with an agile brain this is a tense and thoroughly un-putdown-able thriller. I’m not going to write a review here, because a great review has already been written by Nick Jones; at http://www.existentialennui.com/2011/... Please respect his copyright © 2007–2016 Nick Jones.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...

Nothing like rereading Book 1 in a series to make one immediately determined to reread the following 18!

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first novel in the series of books featuring the unassuming civil servant Dr David Audley who is more of a backroom intelligence officer than a field operative. However, in this novel he is required to go and find some lost treasure that was smuggled out of Berlin in the final days of the Second World War by an RAF Pilot and his crew in a Dakota aircraft.

The Dakota is found at the bottom of a drained lake over twenty years later with the unfortunate pilot still in the cockpit. Audley meets the crew of the Dakota as well as the family of the pilot, including his daughter, Faith, who inexplicably finds Audley attractive even though he's very awkward with females and has some difficulty even talking to them.

It transpires the treasure was brought to the airfield and then the Dakota flew back to Berlin two days later on another smuggling flight but crashed on the way back with all the crew apart from the pilot ejecting safely.

The treasure is thought to be Schliemann's treasure from Troy. The twist is that the Soviets are incredibly interested in the plane and its contents. As Audley, Faith, and other British intelligence officers start to investigate and interview the remaining crew and track the ground staff who dealt with the plane in 1945, a number of bodies start to appear and Audley finds out that an important Soviet archaeologist is heading to England.

The denouement in a farmer's field where the old airfield was located shows that the Soviets weren't really interested in the Trojan treasure, but in other documents describing a possible coup against Stalin from members of the army. At the end of the book, the story describes how disparate elements on the Soviet side have different agendas...and that's all I can really say.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonably interesting (especially once I found out what the treasure was), but not enough to get me to read the others in the series. Also, I really only have to hear once how flat-chested the hero's love interest is, please, Mr. Price.

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This... didn't age very well, no sir. The protagonist is your model British brilliant amateur, coming with his own private and slightly updated priest hole and a set of woeful opinions on women, the plot powers on mostly on authorial fiat, but the supporting cast is pretty good, whenever Price allows that rabble to appear and do something.
Couldn't help but think that in a Gavin Lyall novel the roles would be reversed - it would be the aircraft crew and technicians as protagonists, and the archeologist spy doing the support, if not henching it for the bad guys. And yes, I do prefer Lyall.

[Tim Trewartha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, if somewhat clumsy in parts, thriller, let down by small doses of sexism and some of the most awkward love scenes ever written. The author would go on to do way better.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second encounter with the work of Anthony Price and I don't regret a moment of it. It is enthralling and engrossing. I read it in a day and a half - I just couldn't put it down.
A bomber has been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake. The pilot is still in it, as are a number of boxes... The Russians are interested... From this moment on we are led down a path of investigation and murder. We think we know where we are being led but don't be stupid... this is the Cold War, these are spies, this is politics....
For the life of me I just don't understand why these books are out of print... Price is priceless!

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well-written espionage novel set during the Cold War. It has links to archaeology and WW2, but the majority of the action, such as it is, is set in the late 1960's, I would guess.

It's the first in a long-running series that I've had recommended to me several times, so I decided to finally give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised by the characterization and the quality of the writing. While there is very little action per se (ie. car chases or explosions) there is a lot of subterfuge and machinations as the protagonist tries to find out the truth behind the contents of a mysterious WW2 bomber found at the bottom of a man-made lake.

Highly recommended.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Price’s first novel from 1970 and if it hasn’t got the smooth assurance of his later efforts, the love story being a little awkward for one, it’s still an engaging narrative of the newly discovered wreckage of a Dakota bomber lost in September 1945, the pilot involved in smuggling the treasures of Troy from the Reich. The Russians are still interested as a staid MI5 type officially assigned to the case and his new love, the daughter of the pilot, attempt, with others, to locate the hidden loot. Well-written and involving.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a re-read. I won't provide a review since so many others have done so, but say only if someone can give me a better spy series I want to know. The series just kept getting better, and I have 11 of them.

[Brettsinclair70 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russians, Nazis, crashed bombers and a brainy hero. Ideal, really.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absurd and frankly completely unbelievable establishment tosh with a Daily Mail style hero, sexist in the extreme (he’s a British Intelligence officer who drags in a younger woman to ostensibly ‘help’, but whom he expects to cook for him whilst he moithers on about the size of her breasts..). Yet another story where one man, by himself, loads several large boxes of gold onto a trolley, drags it across rough grass, buries it in an archaeological excavation with the trolley on top and back fills the whole lot so that nobody notices for decades, and all in the twinkling of an eye. Only people who have never moved a heavy load or dug a hole in their lives could write such pish.
The fact that the book won awards when it was written and is now considered by Penguin to be a Modern Crime & Espionage Classic makes my avoidance of spy novels look inspired!

[Tim Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must confess that I came to read this late. I only really heard about Anthony Price from his Times obit. It was interesting enough to make me want to read the first in the series. It's wonderfully written, but what makes this really stand out is the way that Anthony Price brings in the past in several waves to make a deeply textured espionage novel. It starts with a story about a lost plane from the 40's found in a man-made lake that is drained. It immediately draws the novel back to the 1940's thorough its characters' memories and deals with how the past continues to haunt the present. There is also a great allusion to Anthony Price's early reviews and interviews with JRR Tolkien.
A great espionage novel!

[ShanDizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Audley's contacts was Theodore Freisler. Outwardly the archetypal German of the twentieth century world wars, hard-faced and bullet-headed. But within the Teutonic disguise lived an Old 19th century literal whose spiritual home was on the barricades of 1848.
Audley said "Theodore, I'm glad to have caught you. I'm always expecting to find you've gone back to Germany."
"One day, David, one day. But until that day I shall make my personal War reparations by letting your Chancellor have most of my royalties. That is justice, eh?" Their friendship had started years before when Theodore, no Nazi-lover, had volunteered the information which had set the Israeli propaganda on the German experts in Egypt in its proper perspective. Since then he had been Audley's private ear in West Germany on Arab-Israeli policies. "I am at your service, Dr. Audley." The formality marked the transition from banter to business.
" Theodore, I've got a riddle for you: what is it that was of great value to the Russians in 1945, was attractive enough for a private individual to steal, and is still of interest to the Russians today?" There was a short silence at the other end of the line.
"Is this a riddle with an answer?"
"If it is I haven't got it."
"Do you have any clues?"
"It came out of Berlin in the summer of 1945, possibly in seven wooden boxes, each about the size of that coffee table of yours, Theodore. Roughly, anyway."
"You don't want much do you? In 1945 there were a great many things of value to be had in Berlin, and the Russians took most of them..."
"You can't think of anything?"
"Give me time, Dr. Audley, give me time!..."

[Nigel Pinkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realistic, authentic and entertaining! This reader really enjoyed the romantic interlude in the story too. Perhaps, not his best work, but still a very good read. Even though it was written some fifty years, it gave you a solid sense of the time back then before satellite imagery, high tech weapons, spyware, satellite phones and drone warfare. It was good to read the first story to see where it all began. Mr. Price clearly showed he was the master of the obtuse. Read on my Kindle for the bargain price of $3! Recommended! This reader was sorry to hear of his passing.

[Carol Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligence thriller where we meet Audley's people for the first time.

Anthony Price has produced all the turns promised by the title. The joy of this thriller is that we are drip fed not only a polished story but person by person we meet all the recurrent characters that people Audley's world in a tour de force prequel.
I read with baited breath as the coiled tapestry unfolded before my eyes.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am actually listening to the Audible edition, but that version isn't currently available on Goodreads. I last read this in the early 1990s, and so much has changed since then (in the world and me). I notice the male gaze stuff so much more -- the main character can't hardly look at the female character without commenting (both mentally and aloud) about the flatness of her breasts compared to his previous lover and the artificial enhancements she uses. Gah. On the other hand, the plot is as wonderfully twisty as I remembered. And last time, the bit about the listening device that's called Jenkins's Ear went by me, and this time I cracked up.

[Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stumbled across this whilst on holiday in Ireland, and am so glad I did. A great spy story with an intriguing protagonist (Dr. Audley) which really keeps you guessing, all the way to the end. I particularly enjoyed the fact that he is a quiet brainy back-room file-cruncher who suddenly finds himself on the front-line ...

[Chris Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the tone and the look back at 1970. I will probably read more of the series. BUT... the awful attitude to women and the farcical romance between Audley and Faith are breathtaking. The rest I enjoyed.

[Jorn Barger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know where I picked this up, but I was slowly charmed by the characters. The ending was so badly handled I wanted to toss the book-- you don't make the climax a ten-page history lesson completely unrelated to the book so far. But I'll give #2 a chance to see where the characters go.

[MR R. EDWARDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got better as I read more

At first it seemed very similar to the many books now found in this genre but the plot development was more clever in the development through several layers of intrigue and double cross.

[Courtenay Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Price is one of the most intelligent and dry-humoured spy writers there is: far and way above Fleming, Deighton, Le Carre, etc.

His hero, David Audley has few redeeming features - other than an exquisite sensitivity. However, I’d like to meet Faith.

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Spy Novel