Colonel Butler's Wolf

Dr David Audley & Colonel Jack Butler #3

by Anthony Price

The Russians are looking for a few good men...

...and they're doing most of their looking within the British university system. It's a ploy which has served them well in the past, but now there's a difference. As Dr. David Audley discovers very quickly, the aim of the Soviets is not simply to recruit, but lay the groundwork for destruction.

From the dim, comfortable reading rooms of Oxford to the bleak moors stretchin away from Hadrian's Wall, Audley searches for the Russian wolf in don's clothing. What Audley can't know is that the agent has been forbidden to fail...on pain of death!

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Mystery, Thriller, 20th Century

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Born in Hertfordshire in 1928, Price was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the Editorship of the Oxford Times. His literary thrillers earned comparisons to the best of Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Goddard.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has plots that take off cleverly from interesting historical episodes. In this case, the Hungarian uprising against the Soviets leads to long-term shenanigans by the KGB. Can our British heroes stop quibbling long enough to stop the bad guys in time?

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5 with a following wind

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book in Price's espionage series. Once again, minor characters from previous novels take center stage, and major characters are relegated to the background. In this case, the titular character, Colonel Wolf, is asked to go undercover to investigate student dissent among Britain's students. What at first seems a simple assignment gets more and more complicated, and this leads to all sorts of interesting twists and turns.

What's interesting about Price's novels, and I think I've written this before, is that there really isn't a lot of ACTION per se, but the suspense and intrigue is built around characters and the threat of upcoming violence.

You really have to pay attention when reading these books, because there are multiple characters and loyalties, not to mention all sorts of historical references that enhance your understanding if you can catch them. (In my case, I had to google several references, and I was glad I did each time.)

I'll definitely keep going in the series.

Recommended reading, but only for times when you're not going to be frequently interrupted or have a lot on your mind!

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erudite and cultured, Price’s spy novels have relatively little action but plenty of arcane intellectual detail and twists and turns typical of the duplicitous nature of the espionage business. The plot here concerns some radical students of the early-1970s and Soviet plans to infiltrate several of them masquerading as promising youngsters to British Universities which all leads to the title character in a showdown on Hadrian’s Wall. Here, the extraneous information is better than the action and occasionally artificial dialogue.

[Steve Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Price likes to drop you in to the middle of these spy stories and let you try to find your way through the reverses and double crosses. He sticks the landing on this one, but I found a few of the intermediate positions pretty confused and it decreased my enjoyment a tad over the previous two, but overall quite well done. Characterization was excellent.

[Peter Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite authors. I've started to go through the series a second time and this is book #2. The first in the series was ok.
What I like most about the series is how Price rotates the story teller through familiar but different focal character with each novel. It keeps things a lot more fresh than most series out there.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably 3.5, but this series definitely improves over the course of the first three books and I wanted to give credit where credit is due. These are hard(ish) books to come by in 2015, not really in print and not really in the local library anymore. I assume this is because while the stories are compelling and definitely worth reading for someone interested in cold-war spy thrillers, the stories also feel quite dated, not because of the cold war setting but because of the social assumptions and descriptions that go along with this book -- the way the characters talk and think about "liberated" young women, mini skirts, "students," the Irish, etc., are both interestingly of their time and awkwardly of their time.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The KGB is running a very devious bluff at British Intelligence, and it's all about promising British college students, potential moles, and murder. It's cat and mouse affair, but who's the cat and who's the mouse? Jack Butler is sent in as a stalking horse for tricky David Audley's intelligence shop with a thin cover story and an incomplete brief from Audley. He is at risk in the third of Anthony Price's espionage series.

[Tim Trewartha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really liked this book. Much better than Price's debut, can't understand how that won a Silver Dagger award. Oh well. The deceptions and double bluffs can get a tad confusing, but it all pays off by the end.

[Julian Worker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the clunky title I liked this book.

The Colonel Butler of the title is a top British intelligence officer investigating the background of a young university lecturer who has died under mysterious circumstances. It turns out that the lecturer was not who he claimed to be, that a Soviet agent had been impersonating him for the last few years! At a top British university foreign agents are ruining the careers of some of the best students.

A pattern emerges as does the large figure of Dr Audley who also works for the intelligence services. Dr Audley is a clever man who can't relate to people who haven't had the same education as he himself has received and is therefore a deeply unsympathetic character and antagonising character. He is also bossy and tells Butler to wander around Hadrian's Wall on the England - Scotland border so as to draw out into the open the chief Soviet 'asset' behind their campaign. This asset is a marksman too so Butler is in danger, but it transpires he's not the asset's target, someone else is...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plodding, full of stereotypes, trapped in its age and not in a good way. The characters deliver a "wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact" - the plot frequently reverses on itself, but almost never because of a new fact.

[David Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taut thriller involving the summarily promoted to Colonel, Jack Butler, who is tasked with investigating the history of an Oxford Graduate who became a Soviet agent but is killed in a motorcycle accident while travelling to Oxford. It soon becomes apparent to Butler that someone isn’t keen on his researches and is in deadly earnest.
It may be that the Russians have a long term plan to infiltrate top educational establishments and eliminate the very best students in order to prevent them becoming assets to the West. Or something. Butler is in the dark and David Audley seems perplexed as well. An encounter with the dead man’s former girlfriend leads Butler to a gathering of the best and brightest at a summer school near Hadrian’s Wall. Tailed there by the KGB it emerges that the Russians may have bigger fish to fry. There’s an exciting conclusion in the drizzle by a Mile Castle on the wall where the spirit of a long-deceased Roman cohort of Lusitaneans is evoked.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely don't understand why Anthony Price's books are out of print. They are superb.
Take "Colonel Butler's Wolf" (I read a 1980 faded paperback with creased covers... what a way to treat a book!!!)... This is a book which could so easily have transferred directly onto the TV screens back in the late 70s as a thrilling, yet also relaxed espionage thriller. Much of the action takes place over tea and biscuits in a comfortable study, or over a pie and a pint in a pub. It consists of conversations in a University dining room whilst a game of croquet goes on outside, or an old barn up by Hadrian's Wall. We walk along the wall and look at it through a soldier's eyes whilst also trying to figure out whether that was an assassination or suicide... and what are the Ruskies up to?
There's very little action but, where this occurs it's short and to the point. And the finale...
Why are Anthony Price's books out of print? Someone tell me.

[Ned Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right up there with John le Carré, even better? Too soon to decide. I am saddened to admit ignorance of Anthony Price until I read his obituary, last week. The writer posited my opening line. Having enjoyed le Carré since publication of “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold,” I thought it to be a brash assertion. “Butler’s Wolf” certainly lived up to the assertion. I suspect this Kindle edition was scanned into being by Hachette. How else to explain at least a half dozen occurrences of “Buder” for “Butler?” I’m at once saddened and elated at having read Price’s obit.

[Mc510 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly engaging, but I managed to slog through it in anticipation of the thrilling finish, beginning around the 80% mark. Once all players are in position, the book goes entirely to sleep, dominated by pointless dialog about meals, tedious dialog about history, long walks in the country, with plot resolution virtually forgotten. I wish I could have back the time I spent reading this book

[Jorn Barger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Hardy Boys Unmask a Russian Assassin? I still don't yet feel I've gotten a handle on this author. His theory of espionage is wholly eccentric, with psych-outs and mindgames at the heart of everything. And self-indulgent display of ancient history. And manipulative withholding of key info long after the main character has figured it out.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Price novel I have read. I disliked the first, but this was much better. Audley is still rather loathsome, but fortunately he is mostly in the background and Colonel Butler is a much more engaging character. Cold war spies on Hadrian's Wall (the reason I read it). There are some good descriptive passages and reflections on the Wall and its Roman garrisons.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember disliking Butler's point of view on previous reads. This time I have a bit more sympathy for him -- partly because I know that he later replaces Sir Frederick as the head of the section and does a good job of it. I do wonder how much of the plot of this one had a basis in reality.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent example of espionage novels at their early stages. A combination of an intricate puzzle and the interior mind of those who dwell in the realm of doubt and suspicion.

[Ronald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Complicated.

[B. Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A stand alone story which is part of a larger series, I was disappointed by the choppy flow of this book as well as having a hard time following the lingo and culture of early seventies Brits. Interesting main characters gave the book some color and interest, but rare and clipped bits of action were eclipsed by meetings among the characters that dragged on over the course of several chapters. I wanted to like this book, and wouldn't rule out giving Price another try, but can't say this was a good novel by any standards.

[Bryan Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third in Price's Audley series, this one is told from the perspective of Col. Jack Butler. Sent undercover to investigate the death of a Soviet sleeper, Butler discovers that he and Dr. Audley may be the ones being set up. Cumbria and Hadrian's wall feature prominently in the story and a good part of the action takes place on a tour of the forts.

[Sue Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of the series. Price hasn't decided what direction he wants Butler to go, but it's still a compelling yarn.
A brilliant young academic phones up his former Master at Oxford to confess he's a Russian spy but doesn't want to be. Is he the only sleeper or is Oxbridge riddled with them. Why aren't the Russians just cutting their losses?

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book in the series.

[Howard]

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