This was fantastic, my first and definitely not my last book by this author. I've read quite a lot of books set during World War Two, but not many in the period that Corpus is set, which made it really interesting. I loved the political intrigue and the pace was perfect.

I really liked Thomas Wilde as the reluctant hero trying to find out what happened to his neighbour's old school friend. I love the fact that he wasn't fobbed off by the police, the Cambridge Dons or the English Gentry.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys crime, mysteries, historical fiction or is a fan of Robert Harris.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for my digital copy.

I really enjoyed all the John Shakespeare novels. This one is nothing like as good. The characters are mostly unpleasant, the story telling slow and laboured.

An exciting and intriguing mystery thriller set in pre-world war II Britain

The year is 1936 and Europe is divided, with Hitler’s right and Stalin’s left dominating the political scene. A young woman, Nancy, is recruited by the Communists to deliver documents to a Jewish physicist in Berlin that will help him escape his increasingly hostile country. A few months later, Nancy is found dead in her flat in Cambridge, presumably suicide or an accidental heroin overdose. Her friend Lydia believes that Nancy has been murdered and asks her neighbour, history professor Tom Wilde, to investigate her death. Wilde agrees, but shortly after he begins asking questions, a man and his wife whose daughter was friends with the dead girl are also found murdered in their country house. Soon, Wilde and Lydia find themselves being dragged into a world of Communist and Nazi plots, elitist societies and conspiracy, and as the body count increases, Wilde begins to realise that something big is going on and by getting involved he may be putting himself in serious danger.

‘Corpus’ was one of the best thrillers I’ve read for a long time. Right from the start, the story drew me in and I raced through it in order to get to the end and find out what was going on. The plot is complicated with multiple factors playing a role, including the King’s abdication, the Spanish Civil War and, of course, the pre-WW2 turmoil ongoing in Germany and Russia, but it never feels overly-convoluted or becomes confusing. There are many potential suspects, loads of clues and red herrings and the story keeps you guessing who is involved and what is going on until right at the very end when all is revealed in a thrilling finale. Having studied this period years ago, in History, I found it fascinating to experience it from the point of view of the characters and all the secrecy and opinion-clashes that were going on at this time make a great setting for espionage-themed thriller such as this.

Tom Wilde is an excellent lead – he is brave, intelligent and capable, but does have his flaws and certainly isn’t an unrealistic ‘hero’. His reluctance to believe everything he is told and his compulsion to dig deeper when faced with facts that don’t add up made him both likable and easy to follow as a main character. Additionally, his historian’s curiosity and fondness for Lydia made his readiness to get involved in an unknown girl’s death seem quite genuine, and being, as he describes himself, politically ‘dead centre’, his observations and interactions with the Nazi-and communist-sympathisers he encountered were intriguing to read. I find it refreshing in stories when there are no clear ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sides, and with both the communists and Nazis trying to blame each other for various evils and subsequently promoting their own goodness (which Wilde eloquently thinks is like ‘arguing that lions must be tame because tigers were wild’), this book perfectly captures this clash of ideals and makes you yourself consider which, if either, was the better alternative.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this novel - the writing was excellent, the plot was exciting (if at times, a little unbelievable, which would be my only criticism of the story) and I enjoyed every minute of reading it. I will definitely be looking out for more stories featuring Tom Wilde and would also be interested in reading the author’s previous works, as his talent for creating thrilling and multifaceted mysteries is evident. I have given this novel 5 stars as it is a truly entertaining book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the thriller-mystery genre.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Bonnier Publishing Zaffre. Thank you.

For my first time reading a Rory Clements novel I really picked a doozie! I love to read a mystery novel set in a previous time period just to see how the author will present the day-to-day setting for me. This 1936 feels absolutely right. Sometimes I forget how many British citizens were sympathetic to the Hitler agenda and how that sympathy crossed all class lines. You would have thought that couldn't happen since the elite classes and the lower classes were so divided, and yet each group thought that what Hitler was offering would be best for their country. The atmosphere of espionage permeating all layers of British society is very well developed and this is one novel where you have to go all the way to the end to be really sure you know which side some of the characters are really on.

Two young British women go to Berlin for the Olympic Games and for some vacation time. One of them has a mission to perform which will have ramifications she could never have imagined. Cambridge University is filled with men who have secrets they don't want revealed and a plot develops to make sure that Edward VIII remains on the throne so his belief in the cause of the German Nazi party will result in an unshakeable ally for Hitler. Unfortunately for Edward, he is being pushed to make a choice between the throne of England and Wallace Simpson. Not only is she considered unsuitable because of her divorce, but she is also a Nazi sympathizer. How will events unfold behind the scenes to give us the results we know from history?

Yes, this is a work of fiction, but that doesn't stop the ideas of what went on behind the scenes during this turbulent time period from capturing my attention from first page to last. This story can be confusing at times because many of the characters are publicly following one line of political belief while privately working for another one. All of Europe was seething during this time, Russia, Spain, France, Germany, Britain - all with tangled political politics both in public and behind the scenes. I really liked the Thomas Wilde character. He's really quite a well rounded fellow; an American with an Irish mother, a Cambridge professor of history, birdwatcher, motorcycle enthusiast and interested in boxing. All of those interests ensure that Thomas can stick his nose into pretty much any investigation the author wants him to in future books in the series. I don't know that this will become a series, but there is certainly enough historical material available to allow for that. Now that I've seen what a great author of mysteries Clements is I'm going to have to check out one of those John Shakespeare novels I've seen for sale.

Cambridge University in 1936, like so much of the country, was restless, dissatisfied. People were tired of the worldwide depression and looked for someone to blame and someone to lead them back to the ways things were or the way things should be. Political passions flared on all sides. The Communist sympathizers blamed the upper classes and entrenched politicians for the lack of jobs, poor wages, bad living conditions, complacency, the unwillingness to change. The more extreme thought the Soviet Union was doing right by their labor force and England should adapt at least some of the USSR’s ideas.

The Old Guard, the aristocrats who were land poor and saw the end of their privileged status, the industrialists who feared the power of the unions, the folks who felt threatened by foreign workers, had a different view. National Socialism was the way to go. Didn’t Hitler turn Germany around? Get rid of troublemakers and the ethnics who keep to themselves while cheating the honest citizens. Bring back healthy family values, patriotism, and pride in one’s flag.

The vine-covered buildings of Cambridge’s colleges held the same beliefs, only on a more lofty and intellectual level. But Professor Thomas Wilde, an odd man out if only because he was an American, tried to stay away from either side of the political debate because there could be no true debate. Discussions became emotional and Wilde was a man of facts. He demanded of his students opinions based on solid facts. He told them to question everything, no matter how altruistic the cause may seem. Examine it. Don’t believe it until it can be proven within a reasonable doubt. Don’t even trust what I say because I could be twisting the facts to suit the argument. Thomas Wilde’s field of expertise was Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Sir Thomas Walsingham. After studying the man for years, Wilde knew nothing is clear-cut, nothing is as it appears.

Wilde is a great protagonist in this novel of the rise of National Socialism and murder in hallowed halls. It is much more than the sub-genre university mystery. It is a historical novel, a murder mystery, a study of extreme political views, all the while describing fascinating fleshed-out characters in tragic conditions that seem too real.

Briefly, in order not to reveal too much of an intricate plot, Wilde becomes involved with the murder of his attractive neighbor’s former college roommate. Worried about her having missed an anticipated movie date, Lydia goes to her friend Nancy Hereward’s flat only to discover Nancy dead. The police dismiss it as a drug overdose, but Lydia believes that there may have been foul play linked to an event which occurred during Nancy’s trip to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics. She asks Wilde to help her ferret out the truth.

When the parents of a second roommate are butchered in their manor house, the police blame a communist assassin since the couple was enthusiastic supporters of Osbert Mosley and his National Socialist Party. The murders don’t seem to be connected except for the coincidence of two tragedies happening in Cambridge within a few days of each other to a communist-leaning girl and the fascist parents of her university best friend. Though the Cambridge common room is buzzing with theories, Wilde withholds any opinions while he gathers facts. And what facts he gathers! German idolaters in prominent university and government positions; people willing to risk their positions in society and even their lives to avoid a war with Hitler; secret societies filled with Burke’s Peerage listees who ally themselves with the Third Reich, to undermine or even overthrow the elected government. Communist faculty members are recruiting undergraduates to work dangerous undercover assignments, playing on their idealism of a better and more equal life for all.

And people keep getting murdered. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Are there any good guys left?

Although the murder mysteries are resolved very satisfactorily, there are loose ends. The daughter of the murdered couple seems to be missing. A trusted friend may be a double agent, but for whom. And there is a budding romance between the intelligent Wilde and the very clever Lydia.

They would make a formidable team in a series.

Rory Clements is best known for his John Shakespeare series, but Corpus is the first of his books I’ve read, so I was unsure that I would like it - I'm pleased to say that I loved it.

The setting of Corpus in 1936 is well done, a time when Europe was once more on the brink of war. Civil war has broken out in Spain, in Britain some people are openly supporting the Nazis in Germany and politicians are torn between wanting Edward VIII to abdicate the throne or give up his relationship with Wallis Simpson. Against this background Corpus focusses on Tom Wilde’s investigations first into Nancy’s death, aided by her friend Lydia, who is convinced that Nancy was murdered, and then into yet more murders.

I was totally convinced by the characters, in particular Tom Wilde, a professor of history who is writing a biography of Sir Robert Cecil, the Elizabethan and Jacobean statesman, the successor to Sir Francis Walsingham as the Queen’s spymaster (a nod to his earlier series, I thought). And I was immersed in the mysteries, with spies, communists and Nazis, Spanish Gold, Soviet conspirators, politicians and academics all intricately woven into the plot. It’s pacy, full of action, violence and double-cross – a most satisfying and compelling thriller.

I loved Corpus and I shall certainly look out for Rory Clements’ other books.

This is a historical thriller set in 1936 as tumultuous political events take place in Europe prior to the second world war. In Berlin, Nancy helps a Jewish physicist only for her to apparently die of an accidental drug overdose in Cambridge a few weeks later. Three high level establishment figures meet and trigger a set of event aimed at changing the political landscape of Britain. We have the constitutional crisis with a King who looks on the Nazis in a favourable light and is intent on marrying the American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson. The battles between left and right are fought intensely in Cambridge and within the colleges.

Lydia Morris is convinced that Nancy's death is not an accident and convinces history professor, Thomas Wilde, to look closer into the matter. Connections are seen in the gruesome murders of the Langleys which ostensibly seem to be committed by the forces of the left. Other murders take place and for Wilde it seems that there might be more to the events than the left being responsible. We encounter Spanish Gold, Nazis, conspiracies, White Russians, treachery, betrayal, double crosses and the Intelligence Agencies. Thomas and Lydia have to fight for their lives as danger comes to engulf them. Events culminate into a thrilling finale.

This is a well written and exciting novel that easily holds the attention of the reader. The plotting may not always convince but it does entertain. The character of Thomas Wilde is strong and sufficiently charismatic enough to build into a series. It captures and utilises well a period of history where Britain and its Royalty is not immune to what is happening on the continent and where there are foreign interests that desire to influence events. An enjoyable read. Many thanks to Bonnier Zaffre for an ARC.