The Labyrinth Makers

[sawyl]

Following the references in The Fuller Memorandum I've been re-reading Anthony Price's delightful The Labyrinth Makers, which I haven't read since my great summer of spy novels 20 years ago. The book is set in 1970 or so and features David Audley, Price's spook/historian hero who appears in a number of his novels.

When a crashed WWII Dakota is discovered in a newly drained lake, David Audley finds himself dragged in to the office in the middle of the night, only to be summarily removed from his work on the Middle East and instead assigned to discover why the Russians are interested in the downed plane. Despite not being a field man, Audley heads off to the belated funeral of the plane's captain, John Steerforth. Here he meets the plane's only passenger, now married to Steerforth's widow, and tries to match the man's account with the descriptions of the plane's final flight provided by the other crew members. After noticing some interesting discrepancies between the various accounts, Audley goes haring off after the rest of the crew in an attempt to get answers from them before the KGB do.

As the story unfolds, Audley tries to unravel the mystery of the plane's cargo. The cargo must have been valuable at the end of the war when Russia had access to all the wealth of a defeated Germany, which would seem to rule out any form of great treasure. But the cargo is still valuable after 25 years, which would seem to rule out anything other than material wealth. Wrestling with this conundrum, Audley's suspicions fall on a wily Soviet apparatchik and archeologist called Panin — just the sort of man who would be willing to pursue an item for the sake of history — who, he learns, has been granted permission to come to Britain to investigate the matter in person.

I really enjoyed The Labyrinth Makers, both for the twisty plot and the engaging characters. Audley, in particular, is a great delight. He has a sharp and incisive mind from the very outset, playing Sherlock Holmes like tricks with Brigadier Stocker in the initial security briefing. But his insights don't seem to extend to himself. He doesn't seem to realise how stuffy and hide-bound he has become stuck behind his desk, calling in favours and forecasting events in the Middle East. So when he is cut free from his old existence and forced to fend for himself, he feels like a man finally waking up to his full potential. Even when he doesn't entirely like what he finds.

I also rather liked Audley's unfolding relationship with Faith, who turns up one evening and parks her car in the barn and never really leaves. Not only is she a sharp foil for Audley, but her feelings towards him are often ambiguous, especially once they both realise that he has a definite dark side to his personality — and one that he is determined to keep in check. It was also nice to see the somewhat sexist Audley — sexist by current standards, but probably not by late-60s standards — suddenly becomes aware that he has feelings that are based on more than simple physical attraction and culinary abilities!