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THE WAYS OF THE WORLD
by Robert Goddard
Bantam, August 2013
492 pages
$23.95 CAD
ISBN: 0593069730


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

There are many themes to focus on during Remembrance day, including the memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, or simply the immense suffering on all sides and on all fronts, or perhaps the futility of it all, as the ultimate fallacy – of force replacing reason – is elevated to the level of national and even international policy. But British author Robert Goddard focuses on a very different aspect of the dynamics of war that is often ignored: the power vacuum that emerges in the immediate aftermath of war, and the violence that can erupt when opportunists move to fill that vacuum. His theme makes for compelling reading, both insightful and entertaining.

Paris, 1919: in the wake of the Armistice of World War I, the victors gather in Paris to carve out not only a New Europe, but a New World. Each nation has its own agenda, and while the official delegates meet at conference tables and in ante-rooms to decide the fates of millions, others, less official, try to map out their own individual destinies in a rapidly-changing world. The gamut ranges from ex-soldiers looking for a new beginning, aware that their skills are no longer in demand, to the amoral henchmen of the defeated powers, looking for new ways to employ their dark skills. Some turn to the black market, where their talents can serve them well; but others have larger, more ambitious aims, and satisfying them can bring into jeopardy the very peace that the conference-members are seeking to establish.

Ex-RFC pilot "Max" Maxted is in Surrey, busy making his own post-war plans to start up a flying school in England with Sam Twentyman, his wartime mechanic and friend, when he receives a life-changing telephone call from his mother: his father has been killed in Paris. A former diplomat, Sir Henry Maxted had been attached to the British delegation as one of many experts laboring in the background, and Lady Maxted charges Max and his elder brother Ashley with arranging for Sir Henry's body to be returned to England for burial. She is also apprehensive about the circumstances of her husband's death, and charges her sons with safeguarding the family's good name.

Soon after arriving in Paris, Max finds good reason to question his father's reputation. Sir Henry had apparently fallen to his death from the rooftop of a building in Montparnasse, a dissolute district of Paris. The apartment that gave on to the roof belonged to a young woman with a checkered past, with whom Sir Henry evidently had a close personal relationship. Moreover, Max learns that his father had been recently reclaiming valuable family treasures on loan to a museum with the intent of selling them. To what end, and what other family assets might have been compromised? On the face of it, Sir Henry was involved in an affair, both tawdry and personal in scope. But before long Max discovers that the full story spills over onto the international stage, with ramifications that could affect the direction and success of the Peace Conference itself.

Informed by the author's understanding of history, and grounded in a strong sense of place and time, THE WAYS OF THE WORLD is an original, literate, and sweeping tale, utterly believable in its depiction of the machinations of post-war Europe, and the conflicts, both national and personal, that defined those troubled times. More a traditional puzzle mystery than an action thriller, its deliberate pace may not resonate with some readers; but THE WAYS OF THE WORLD is an excellent read in which the author skillfully explores an ambitious theme – the murky world of global politics set against one man's search for truth.

§ Since 2005 Jim Napier's reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on websites worldwide. He can be reached at jnapier@deadlydiversions.com

Reviewed by Jim Napier, October 2013

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