Fall of Man in Wilmslow

By: David Lagercrantz

Narrated by: John Lee

From the author of the #1 best seller The Girl in the Spider’s Web—an electrifying thriller that begins with Alan Turing’s suicide and plunges into a post-war Britain of immeasurable repression, conformity, and fear

June 8, 1954. Several English nationals have defected to the USSR, while a witch hunt for homosexuals rages across Britain. In these circumstances, no one is surprised when a mathematician by the name of Alan Turing is found dead in his home in the sleepy suburb of Wilmslow. It is widely assumed that he has committed suicide, unable to cope with the humiliation of a criminal conviction for gross indecency. But a young detective constable, Leonard Corell, who once dreamed of a career in higher mathematics, suspects greater forces are involved.

In the face of opposition from his superiors, he begins to assemble the pieces of a puzzle that lead him to one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war: the Bletchley Park operation to crack the Nazis’ Enigma encryption code. Stumbling across evidence of Turing’s genius, and sensing an escape from a narrow life, Corell begins to dig deeper. But in the paranoid, febrile atmosphere of the Cold War, loose cannons cannot be tolerated and Corell soon realizes he has much to learn about the dangers of forbidden knowledge.

He is also about to be rocked by two startling developments in his own life, one of which will find him targeted as a threat to national security.

©2016 David Lagercrantz (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Absorbing. . . . Gets the synapses sparking.” —The Sunday Telegraph (London)

“Illuminating . . . a rewarding book to read.” —The Washington Times

“Lagercrantz has the lingo, the mood and the place down pat.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

a bit slow for my liking, and shallow.

Seems like the author found a death by questionable circumstances to be fertile ground for a societal commentary. no alternatives were explored or even tracked.

Tedious

Interesting subject and story but found the book tedious as far as listening. Do enjoy Simon Vance as a narrator.

Uh, okay.

Good narrator. struggled to finish. dull subject. best at the end chapters. history of computers.

Terrific character study!

i was hesitant to buy this based on the other reviews. I saw it only because I'd read "The Girl Who Died Twice" the latest GwtDT book by Lagercrantz. As a character study, it's fantastic. As a story surrounding Turing, it's fantastic. (If you liked "The Imitation Game", you like this.) As historical fiction, it's great as well. It does take a bit to get to the payoff, but as stories go, it's worth it. If you're familiar with the work of Lagercrantz elsewhere, this is definitely worth a go.

Took hours & hours to get to crux of story.

It took many hours to get to the crux of the story if you didn’t know the story and history in advance. I had to look up Alan Turing to find out what he was all about. But as it got to the last hour all the pieces fell into place

Subtly engaging!

The characters have fantasies and insecurities that really take the story to a personal, informal level. In fact, I feel like I was slowly going insane while listening to this, I was so wrapped up in the complexities. It comes off as a calming but I think that's the narrator. Intriguing "faction"!

Did not finish.

Got to chapter 5, what is the point of the book?
Not engaging enough to finish. Story line was obnoxious & insulting.
Narration by John Lee was excellent.

Letdown

For me, not up to "Girl with dragon tattoo". How much fact, how much fiction? Disappointed overall.

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Not interesting or entertaining

Too many long ramblings about social issues of the times. Not enough insight into AT. Boring.

Extremely disappointed

I could not even finish. I cannot remember when I could not force myself to finish a book. I found the story line poor even though there were the ingredients of a great tale. I started this because of the author's work on "the girl" story that he took on.