Overview

""Wes Davis' fast-paced tale of wartime sabotage reads more like an Ian Fleming thriller than a mere retelling of events."" ―Wall Street Journal ""The story unfolds with the rich characterization and perfectly calibrated suspense of a great novel. It can be hard at points to remember the book is actually a work of nonfiction."" ―Christian Science Monitor The Ariadne Objective is the extraordinary story of the Nazi occupation of Crete told from the perspective of an eccentric band of British gentleman spies. These amateur soldiers―writers, scholars, archaeologists―included Patrick Leigh Fermor, a future travel-writing luminary; John Pendlebury, a pioneering archaeologist whose walking stick concealed a sword; Xan Fielding, who would later translate books like Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes into English; Sandy Rendel, a future Times of London reporter; and W. Stanley Moss, who would write up his account of their exploits in Ill Met By Moonlight (Paul Dry Books, Inc.). Alongside Cretan partisans, these British intelligence officers carried out a daring plan to sabotage Nazi maneuvers, culminating in a high-risk plot to abduct the island's German commander. Wes Davis presents the scintillating story of these legends in the making and their adventures in one of the war's most exotic locales. Includes 17 black and white photographs.

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9781589881884

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Reviews

"""Wes Davis' fast-paced tale of wartime sabotage reads more like an Ian Fleming thriller than a mere retelling of events."" ―Wall Street Journal ""Pendlebury and Fermor are just two of the extraordinary characters in Wes Davis' The Ariadne Objective. . . . The story unfolds with the rich characterization and perfectly calibrated suspense of a great novel. It can be hard at points to remember the book is actually a work of nonfiction."" ―Christian Science Monitor ""Exciting stuff, to be sure, but what really sets the book apart from the host of look-alikes is Davis's dedication to fleshing out the eccentricity of the main players. . . . It is surely is a good thing that we no longer associate war with adventure; if it were always as appealing as Davis has made it here, we would grow to love it too much."" ―The Daily Beast ""Fascinating."" ―New York Post ""Already thrilling in premise, Davis's execution of this previously untold war story is spot on especially when he colors in history with intricate descriptions of the exotic locale."" ―Publishers Weekly ""An exciting, tense narrative that unfolds like an espionage novel."" ―Booklist ""History both crucial and swashbuckling."" ―Library Journal ""An exciting, earnestly narrated World War II story."" ―Kirkus Reviews"

""Exciting stuff, to be sure, but what really sets the book apart from the host of look-alikes is Davis's dedication to fleshing out the eccentricity of the main players. . . . It is surely is a good thing that we no longer associate war with adventure; if it were always as appealing as Davis has made it here, we would grow to love it too much."" ―The Daily Beast ""Fascinating."" ―New York Post ""Wes Davis' fast-paced tale of wartime sabotage reads more like an Ian Fleming thriller than a mere retelling of events."" ―Wall Street Journal ""Pendlebury and Fermor are just two of the extraordinary characters in Wes Davis' The Ariadne Objective. . . . The story unfolds with the rich characterization and perfectly calibrated suspense of a great novel. It can be hard at points to remember the book is actually a work of nonfiction."" ―Christian Science Monitor ""Already thrilling in premise, Davis's execution of this previously untold war story is spot on especially when he colors in history with intricate descriptions of the exotic locale."" ―Publishers Weekly ""An exciting, tense narrative that unfolds like an espionage novel."" ―Booklist ""History both crucial and swashbuckling."" ―Library Journal ""An exciting, earnestly narrated World War II story."" ―Kirkus Reviews ""Wes Davis's brilliant chronicle of the battle for German-occupied Crete is doubly rich in its descriptions of character and of the perilous varieties of combat. This story tells how classically literate and well-nigh fearless Britons allied with brigandish locals to confound, confuse, and finally defeat the Nazi occupiers."" ―Robert Stone, author of Dog Soldiers ""Meticulously researched and gracefully narrated, The Ariadne Objective shows close-up the final gaudy flowering of the imperial swashbucklers―reckless, decadent mischief-makers―who made their home in the world before George Smiley took over his grudging service to the Empire."" ―Geoffrey Wolff, author of A Day at the Beach ""The Ariadne Objective is a ripping yarn, and Wes Davis is the perfect person to spin it. Ariadne will appeal to fans of Ben Macintyre's books like Double Cross and Operation Mincemeat and, in fact, to anyone who enjoys a good story well told. This book kept me up well past my bedtime: I couldn't go to sleep until I finished it."" ―Ben Yagoda, author of About Town ""In the grand tradition of John le Carré, Wes Davis has created a thrilling tale of espionage in the face of great peril. This is a gripping history, masterfully told."" ―McKay Jenkins, author of The Last Ridge

Author Information

Wes Davis is the author of American Journey: On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs and editor of An Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry. He served for two years as an assistant to the director of excavations at Kavousi in Eastern Crete, not far from the plateau where Patrick Leigh Fermor parachuted onto the island during WWII. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Princeton University and is a former assistant professor of English at Yale University. Davis has written for many publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The Nation. He lives outside New York City.

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