Customer Reviews

The Fulcrum Files

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In inter-war Britain forces are at work either trying to prevent or prepare for a second world war. Ben Clayton is more interested in sailing and fisherman's daughter Lucy. When an apparent accident kills his friend Ben is plunged into a world of intrigue, plots and counter-plots. As a sworn pacifist he doesn't even want to be involved with the production of warplanes like the Spitfire, but events force him to rethink his position. His beliefs aren't the only thing under threat, as his relationship with Lucy is threatened by the seductive Anna.

This novel is primarily a spy thriller but for me it was much enhanced by the historical element. I found the writing so evocative of the period. I could picture the people and their dress and it captured the tensions, including class divisions, of the time. When the story moved to Germany I found some of the narrative chilling and very tense, and I read on keen to get to the bottom of the tale. I found the author's note about certain facts that pertain to the story fascinating. They were facts I weren't aware of and often it's the stories like those that bring history to life for me. Sailing also plays an important part, and is a recurring and interesting theme in Mark's novels (no great surprise if you read his author biog)

Ben is a very empathetic character. His life looks to be heading in exactly the direction he wanted, but he rapidly finds it all unraveling and unwittingly becomes a key to the course of the future. The strength of his beliefs has alienated his parents and he doesn't seem to fit within any particular class, and now he finds himself pulled from all angles. It's impossible not to be on his side. Lucy is also an attractive character and the polar opposite of slick, glamorous Anna. There are some very interesting dynamics among the various characters and while there is a lot going on it wasn't hard to follow the twists and turns, and unlike some spy stories I didn't find myself scratching my head trying to figure out what I had missed at the end.

This was a really enjoyable read and for me it cast a new light on the run up to World War II. The writing is fluid and allows the story to move on at a good pace. This was quite a departure from The Defector, by the same author, but Mark Chisnell's books are very welcome on my kindle.

Take a classic novel and combine it with a modern thriller format, set it in the world-famous sailing hub that is Hamble, which was also where the Spitfire was built, and you have an idea of Mark Chisnell's latest offering. Very different in feel from his previous novels, it still has some of the the same characteristics; gripping plot, well-drawn characters and a sharp attention to detail.

Set among the politics and social system of pre-WW2 England, it incorporates a number of the issues of the day as well as the novel's central plot, surrounding the murder of the main character's friend. Pacifism, class discrimination, sailing, intrigue, romance, sailing... Part Erskine Childers' Riddle of the Sands part John Buchan's Thirty-Nine Steps, this has the potential to be a real classic - I read it in one sitting with just a brief break for my eyes. Looking forward to a print version which is going to solve a few birthday present problems!

The Fulcrum Files is a rollicking good thriller which picks up the heritage of John Buchan and Erskine Childers. Set in the late 1930s, primarily in and around the factories producing the newly-designed Supermarine Spitfire, it tells the tale of a young pacifist who is drawn deeper and deeper into a web of intrigue surrounding the death of a friend.

The central character, Ben Clayton is well formed and precisely thought through, with some powerful conflicts in his psyche. The baddies are also well-drawn, with just enough arrogance to really get you hating them, and the supporting cast is equally well-rounded.

One of the things I was particularly impressed by was Chisnell's attention to period detail. His descriptions of landscapes and cityscapes both in Britain and mainland Europe have a kind of magic to them which utterly enchants - conveying the excitement of a young man who has not been much out of his country before.

In all, this story pulls you along, from the small local beginnings in a boatyard on the south coast of England, before it takes on an international dimension of spies and the tension in Europe before the start of World War 2. I particularly appreciated his close descriptions of Munich before the war - an insight into a world I have rarely encountered in "war themed" books.

Having said that, this book is not about a war. Central to its unfolding is the integrity that Ben Clayton has in his beliefs, in his relationships with his friends, and in the romance he tries to embark on with Lucy - in the face of overwhelming class prejudice.

Very enjoyable.

Chisnell's third thriller is another that's impossible to put down, with an intricate plot, superb characterisation and unexpected twists that maintain suspense - and surprise - right to the end.

Excellently well plotted thriller set against the build up to the Second World War.
This novel goes beyond conventional as it also explores issues of class, gender and sexuality of the period. A fine read.

Mark Chisnell's THE FULCRUM FILES opens in 1922 when the young English boxer, Ben Clayton, snatches victory from the jaws of defeat by knocking out - and severely injuring - his ring opponent. Guilt ridden, Ben turns to pacifism as his life's guiding philosophy.

Fast forward to 1936.

Ben is now a structural engineer recently employed by Supermarine Aviation Works, Ltd., a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs Aircraft, Ltd. A keen amateur sailor since his college days, Clayton and his best friend, mentor, and fellow engineer, Stanley Arbethwaite, are now working to equip the racing yacht Windflower, owned by Supermarine executive Harold Dunwood, with a revolutionary mast made of duraluminum, one of the earliest types of hardened aluminum alloys. But Harold is killed in a freak accident while rigging the mast. Ben comes to believe that his friend was murdered. But why? And by whom?

Ben's investigation into Stanley's death is the central plot of the novel told against a background of a reemerging and bellicose Nazi Germany, a divided England (appeasement versus national rearmament for war), and the development of the famed Spitfire warplane.

THE FULCRUM FILES is part murder whodunit and part espionage tale with a love interest thrown in (for the female readership?).

The book contains an excess character or two and at least one superfluous subplot that stretched out the storyline and should perhaps have been left on the cutting room floor. Indeed, it isn't until Ben finds himself in Germany about two-thirds of the way through that the plot really thickens. I wish there had been less about the yachting and (much) more about the development of the Spitfire, but that's only my personal preference. (The author's penchant, based on his writing history, is for the sailing of small boats, so I get it.) Moreover, I just never found Ben to be a compelling hero. However, the ending does include a surprise character twist that added a nice touch to the whole.

THE FULCRUM FILES was above average to the extent that it engaged my interest enough such that I wanted to finish, but not so much that I couldn't put it down to take care of more mundane responsibilities. That, to me, is the definition of a four-star read in the fiction genre.

The author's previous two thrillers, The Defector (Janac's Games #1) and The Wrecking Crew (Janac's Games #2), are eminently worth acquiring and reading.

The superb climax of this novel takes place among the low lying Friesan Islands and makes explicit reference to Erskine Childers's classic Riddle of the Sands. It's an appropriate parallel as both novels are concerned with amateur espionage - sailors seeing things that a potential enemy would prefer to keep hidden. Many differences of course - not least that this is a consciously crafted historical thriller set in 1936 and filled with well-researched period detail. An enjoyable, absorbing read. Full review will appear later on the indie ebook review site

As a sailor who spends a lot of time in Hamble and a lover of historical fiction, The Fulcrum Files was a great read. Chisnell weaves sailing, pre-WWII England and Germany and a little bit of romance together skillfully. The book will appeal to anyone that has spent time in Hamble, enjoys America's Cup or WWII history or just a good thriller. He gives enough technical detail to show he has done his homework without alienating the luddite reader. I was taken back in time to some very familiar places and hesitant to leave them at the book's end.

I have to be honest, I find sitting down and reading a book extremely difficult. I have bought, and started plenty of books, but until this one came along I cannot remember the last time I finished one.

The book is a fascinating blend of fact and fiction, and the action is mainly centred on the Hamble and surrounding area. I was riveted to the plot and although I was always trying to guess the next twist I never quite managed to get it right!

10 out of 10. I would unreservedly reccommend reading this book.

All Ben Clayton wants to do is take to the Atlantic Ocean and America as engineer on board the yacht `Windflower', and it looks as though this dream is about to become reality, when - in a scene as memorable as the opening chapter of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love - a shocking accident changes everything. Clayton suddenly finds himself drawn into an increasingly complex tale of murder, politics and espionage.

Having read and reviewed both of Mark Chisnell's previous novels, The Defector and The Wrecking Crew, I was surprised and curious that he had chosen this time to write an historical thriller, based on real events. But he carries it off with great assuredness.

In the English boatyards around Hamble and The Solent pre-World War 2, there is more concern with class divisions than the seemingly unlikely prospect of another war. Yet beyond the upper-class gambling clubs and expensive racing yachts; beyond the struggles and hand-to-mouth existence of the striking fishermen, other forces are at work. When the action moves to Germany, Munich is painted as fashionable, vibrant and alive, but the bonhomie of the beer halls is undermined by the chilling presence of uniformed Gestapo on the streets. It is to the writer's credit that despite the reader's knowledge of the historical outcome, there is still, through Clayton's eyes, the sense of a moment in time: where such things have not yet come to pass.

As ever with a Mark Chisnell novel, we are treated to his pre-occupations with psychology, philosophy, and of course, sailing. The moral dilemma this time is represented by the conflict Clayton faces given his commitment as an avowed pacifist, when pitted against the enormity of the potential threat that looms. And there is a thrilling chase, starting off by train and overland that, as other reviewers have said, is reminiscent of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, before taking to the sea, in an open homage to Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands.

I have compared his previous novels to `Boy's Own adventures', so am delighted to say that this time Chisnell gives central roles to not just one, but two female characters, and that both are convincingly portrayed. There is feisty, loyal Lucy, who sails boats and is naturally beguiling even when kitted out as a deckhand in an oversized seaman's jacket; and by contrast, the sophisticated, seductive and mysterious Anna. Clayton is a social maverick, who easily straddles the divide between fisherman's daughter Lucy and upper-class Anna, but which way will he fall when the romantic chips are down? Overall, there is a maturity to Chisnell's writing in this novel; for alongside the intrigue and the fast-paced action, there are some very credible and alluring scenes of tenderness.

As such, this may well be his best novel so far.