Corpus: A gripping spy thriller

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The mystery of Nancy's death stays at the centre of the book, as the story branches out with other murders and subterfuges. At the end of the book you'll find a well documented Afterword by the author, and it's there where the historical details concerning this story are wonderfully explained. Thomas Wilde is an American, and a History professor at Cambridge. He's focused on his students reaching their full potential, by questioning everything they come across. And he is determined not to let himself be swayed by any of the propaganda and the increasingly impassioned and volatile politics. Although there were times when I found it necessary to suspend disbelief about some of the plot developments, I felt enough engagement with the characters to feel able to do so with good humoured tolerance! Tom’s forays into the dark, murky world of espionage, whilst demanding more suspension of disbelief, did allow the author to explore the labyrinthine interrelationships and rivalries between MI6, MI5, Special Branch etc. However, I was able to feel much more straightforwardly engaged with the more realistic complexities of the relationship between Tom and Lydia, and the will they/won’t they ever get married question which continues to hang over it. Each of them is likeable and convincing and at the end of the story I was left wanting to know what will happen to them as the war progresses! I really don’t know how Rory Clements keeps turning out books that are more brilliantly enjoyable than the last. I was already a fan of the author’s books from his ‘John Shakespeare’ series set in Elizabethan England. I greatly enjoyed Corpus, the first in his ‘Tom Wilde’ series set in the run-up to World War 2, and loved the second book, Nucleus. However, to my mind, Nemesis is the best yet. I can’t even begin to bring myself to think about the possibility this might be the last in the series...

Can he trust Cecil to have the best interests of the crown at heart? And can the search for a woman who is missing and a colony in the new world be more connected than anyone thought? More than that, will his wife Catherine leave him so she can practice Catholicism? Tensions at home and abroad run high. Moving between Scotland, Sweden and wartime London, at certain points the author also transports the reader to the heart of the Third Reich giving a chilling insight into its evil efficiency and the personal rivalries between its key figures.

Summary

I loved this book and devoured in in 2 sittings. It is absorbing, compelling and sinister, reminding me in some way of The 39 Steps, with its twisting, racing, hunted nature. With the conspiracies growing by the day, John Shakespeare is living a rather quiet life. That all goes up in flames when he receives a summons from Robert Cecil. Cecil is a young statesman who must be taken seriously. In his career, he has been able to dominate within the structure of the Queen’s reign. Now he is demanding that Shakespeare enter the service of the government and the queen once more. Whether or not Shakespeare wishes to do so is irrelevant; he must serve his country. Especially since these are times of war and strife with great uncertainty. It’s well enough written in many ways, but there is an awful lot of ponderous historical detail which was sometimes so basic and clumsily presented that I felt rather patronised. Similarly with the geography of Cambridge; it’s a city which I know and love, but do we really need to be told constantly that characters turned right from this street to that one and then...etc? There’s a lot of extraneous detail which doesn’t add to the atmosphere or setting but really slows down the narrative. Characters tend to be rather thin stereotypes of either extreme communists or odious fascists, whereas most people at the time were neither – the exception, of course, being Wilde who is wise, thoughtful and well-balanced. Yes, yes, yes. Exactly right. This is what history teaches you. Work hard for your opinions, search, evaluate, criticise, look for more, ask who benefits, challenge every assumption. Do this every day. Not just what people are telling you, but WHY. Look beyond what you are given, seek what is being hidden.

The truth is I was bored, and struggled to read for more than twenty minutes without losing concentration, and I don't know why. It is slow-building drama, perhaps I found it a little too dawdling and quaint. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining read which intermingled fact and fiction to make a compelling novel. Highly recommended. Corpus is quite rich in history and detail within the plot, so there are many threads to follow. The author has done a great job of weaving it together cohesively and the end result is a highly intriguing read.' * Bibliophile Book Club * In this outing we find Tom Wilde being charged with the task of getting to the truth behind an aeroplane crash in the north of Scotland ... a plane that had been carrying George, the Duke of Kent, younger brother of the King of England. Was it purely an accident, or was some form of sabotage involved? If the latter, then what was the motive and who was responsible?

Publication Order of John Shakespeare Books

This is the fifth book by Rory Clements to feature the character of Professor Tom Wilde, an American who lectures in history at Cambridge University and who doubles up as an agent for the O.S.S. I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series, but I didn't feel that this hampered my ability to enjoy this novel in its own right. During the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a young Englishwoman delivers vital forged documents to a Jewish scientist. This is her first ‘assignment’, she is out of her depth and justifiably scared – and in a very short time she lies dead of an apparent heroin overdose in a Cambridge bedroom. The characters and the relationships between them (both new and established) feel brilliantly worked out and detailed and I have a soft spot for some of the side characters (Jimmy Orde and Anders Skoog in particular) which shows Clements dedication to making each aspect work with every other aspect. I feel I need to start this review by admitting that I don’t generally read historical fiction as a genre, it’s just not something I have ever gotten into so when the opportunity arose to read and review Corpus as part of the blog tour, I threw caution to the wind and said why not!

This fabulous entertaining spy thriller is the 5th volume of the fantastic "Tom Wilde" series, from the formidable author, Rory Clements.

The author gives us another scenario; a clandestine recce mission to meet his cousin, Prince Philipp von Hesse, in Sweden, to see if there was sufficient common ground for a truce between Britain and Germany. However, are there more sinister forces at work here? Wilde’s painstaking investigation then takes him on a rollercoaster ride in search of the truth. Rory Clements is best known for his highly acclaimed Elizabethan murder/espionage books featuring John Shakespeare. Now he has another string to his bow in the form of an American professor, although there is a link between the two. Tom Wilde specialises in Elizabethan history with a particular interest in Frances Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's secretary and one of her more successful spymasters. (Note to budding authors: make your research work doubly hard for you!) The prof therefore has a second hand knowledge of espionage that will come in very handy. That and a line in national neutrality that will come in handy when he seeks to retain a sense of objectivity when all around lose theirs. I felt the book was well done but that the main character was not opened up to the reader as much as it could have. Traditionally, I enjoy a book so much more when I care about that character. Maybe what was missing was some form of inner conflict or crucible.

Can a ruthless spy ring change the course of war? In a great English house, a young woman offers herself to one of the most powerful and influential figures in the land - but this is no ordinary seduction. She plans to ensure his death . . . On holiday in France, Professor Tom Wilde discovers his brilliant student Marcus Marfield, who disappeared two years earlier to join the International Brigades in Spain, in the Le Vernet concentration camp in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Wilde secures his release just as German tanks roll into Poland. Meanwhile, a U-boat sinks the liner Athenia in the Atlantic with many casualties, including Americans, onboard. Goebbels claims Churchill put a bomb in the ship to blame Germany and to lure America into the war. As the various strands of an international conspiracy begin to unwind, Tom Wilde will find himself in great personal danger. For just who is Marcus Marfield? And where does his loyalty lie?" I love this series featuring American Cambridge History Professor Tom Wilde and his partner Lydia Morris.

Publication Order of Tom Wilde Books

Main character John Shakespeare is given both cases to solve. Mary, Queen of Scots, is scheduled for execution and the Spanish Armada is ready to strike. Traitors and enemies have their heads displayed on pikes high above the London Bridge. It is a time of peril for England, where chaos and fear threaten to reign. Shakespeare must go into an underworld that includes a strange array of people– including his brother Will, the struggling writer.