Other Paths to Glory by
Anthony Price
Not really a crime story at all, but rather an espionage thriller. It is a re-issue of a 1974
book in the Orion Crime Masterworks series and is one of Anthony Price's series which
has Dr David Audley as the running character, a Cambridge don rather like John le
Carre's George Smiley. He belongs to some esoteric organisation in the Ministry of
Defence and in this bookenlists the services of Paul Mitchell, a young postgraduate who
is researching the campaigns of World War One. Paul's mentor is killed in a suspicious
house fire and within days, an attempt is made on Paul's life, as well as a number of old
people who had knowledge of a specific attack on Hameau Ridge during the battle of the
Somme.
The story unfolds against a detailed background of the bloody campaigns on the Somme.
It is difficult to know, without expert knowledge, of the military history of that time and
place, how much of the story is true, but a considerable part of the book is taken up with
graphic descriptions of the battles, which have an impressive ring of truth to them.
The action in the book moves to Northern France when a coach-load of veterans make
their pilgrimage to the battlefield and ends in a gripping climax.
The writing is impeccable and I look forward to searching for other Anthony Price books,
as I seem to have missed them the first time around. Probably not a book for the ladies, as
they are almost absent from the pages - the plot revolves almost totally around eighty
year-old military history, and there's not a DCI or a SOCO in sight!
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