I thought I was going to enjoy this but couldn't get past the first chapter. Very unusual for me - it just didn't grab me at all.

I didn't like the writing style, the characters or the constant 'dun dun duh' alleged underlying tension.

Not for me, I am afraid, but I am sure there are many others who will disagree with me. Maybe spy thrillers aren't my thing.

Dyer used to be a journalist in South America, but gave up journalism after spiking what could have been his best ever story on ethical grounds. He has moved to Oxford to send his son to a prep school where the other parents are almost uniformly rich and influential. He makes friends with an Iranian physicist on the touchline of the football pitch and when the Iranian makes a major discovery and then disappears he leaves Dyer with some clues to his work. Many agencies would kill or pay handsomely for the information and Dyer has the moral dilemma of deciding what to do with it and the problem of keeping himself and his son safe. Its an exciting, complex and well written thriller - hugely enjoyable. I hadn't read any of Shakespeare's previous work and at first glance this looks like a departure but I hope he can write more like this..

The Sandpit by Nicholas Shakespeare is a bit of a slow burner but well worth persevering with.

John Dyer, an ex journalist, has returned from Brazil to Oxford with his son and enrolled him in the rep school that he had attended nearly 50 years ago. Life is dull and predictable in the middle class Oxford academic and school community until an Iranian, Rustum Marvar, parent entrusts John with the results of his research. When Marvar and his son disappear, the mystery unfolds at pace as different intelligence services and murky business interests encircle John and his son trying to find the potentially world changing secret.

The Sandpit is elegant, well observed and quite readable but overall a little unsatisfying.

Interesting book of the spy genre. I didn’t find it especially easy to get into finding the lead character somewhat reflective and sedentary.

I’m not that well read in this genre so perhaps it is better for those who are. Well written with characters of depth.

A rather beautifully written thriller which became more about a journey than a thrilling conclusion. John Dyer, a man haunted by his past is passed a red hot baton by an enigmatic Iranian scientist, for a relay where he spends the majority of the race trying to safely offload it. The baton in question being the solution to sustainable nuclear fusion on Earth. Maybe Dyer should have taken a short ride in his Beetle to Culham just up the road from Oxford to get a feeling as to where he could possibly deposit it? A sequential release to ITER would have been a good idea as it is an organisation comprised of 35 countries with a common goal of sustainable fusion. The various 'actors' do not come out of it well as the quickest way to have secured the secret document would have been to kidnap his son. Anyway, Dyer gets to choose where the baton is passed but fails to make the unwitting recipient aware of the dangers.
A minor niggle, John Dyer as a boy would have used polystyrene cement, not Araldite on his model aircraft (the description of the smell was that of the former).

I struggled to make a connection with The Sandpit. For me, it seemed somewhat disjointed and I could not get into it, though the espionage genre is one I most relish. It's easy to blame lockdown as my home-based activities have certainly ratcheted up so I have been distracted.

This was a slow build that just didn't hit me at the right time. A thoughtful, reflective novel we spend a lot of time with Dyer as he reflects on his past life as a married journalist in Brazil and his current state being a single parent to a boy in an expensive private school that may be beyond his means as he researches his next book. A case of bullying introduces him to the father of his son's classmate and that leads to more than expected. A good premise but one that I couldn't latch on to, sorry.

I haven’t read a lot of books in the espionage genre but I have read Le Carre , so I thought I’d give it a go. I wasn’t overly taken with the story but what threw me was the horrible writing style which consistently bumped me out of the story. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I’m sorry to say but The Sandpit wasn’t for me as I found it a struggle to get into and just not entertaining or gripping.

Whether it was the style of writing or the storyline I’m not sure

Not one I would recommend

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. I have never read any of the author’s previous work and for the first half of the book, I was totally engrossed. The writing is exceptional with some wonderfully descriptive prose and I loved the way the author changed to the use of the third present tense, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph. Authors such as Hilary Mantel have written whole novels (or even trilogies) in this tense and whilst some people seem to find it irritating, I think that when used appropriately, it adds an additional layer of urgency and pulls the reader deeper into the book.

I also found the central premise of the novel – the moral dilemma attached to a potential scientific discovery that could change mankind forever and just as importantly, how you would handle the secret, intriguing and thought-provoking. The central characters were believable and well-drawn out and as other reviewers have suggested, this had all the makings of a novel to stand alongside the best of Le Carre and Greene.

Unfortunately for me, I found the second half of the novel disappointing. I felt that the author had literally lost the plot which started meandering off in several different directions (including a treatise on the basics of fly fishing). I also found the sudden re-appearance of Dyer’s schoolboy friend, Rougetel who was now a sort of down-and-out hippy, contrived and unconvincing and led to an unsatisfactory conclusion to the novel.

Finally, whilst I always enjoy a book which leaves a few loose ends about which you can make up your own mind, this book seemed to leave just about every major plotline unresolved. For example (spoiler alert), what happened to Marvar and Samir, what did Rougetel do with the information he received, where did Dyer’s relationship with Miranda go, etc etc.

So for me, this was a real curate’s egg. I am going to give it 4 stars (just) for the superb first half and the wonderful writing but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that a potentially great addition to the genre, ended very tamely.

My thanks to Netgalley and to Random House, the publishers, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Nicholas Shakespeare's spy novel is both subtle & sophisticated but still packs a powerful punch. It has the style & elegance of vintage John le Carre & the evocative passion of a Graham Greene classic.
Imagine our world on the verge of destruction. Now the holy grail of challenges for scientists is to find out how to replicate the processes of the sun & stars on earth - forever solving our energy problems.
Anyone who has read Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novels will know the Jericho area of Oxford well. Amidst the libraries & posh schools a father tries to protect himself & his son but he has something that every nation in the world wants.
In a singularly beautiful & moving novel fear & tension permeates throughout.

This novel is about a retired journalist who moves back to his hometown of Oxford having spent many years abroad and tries to make a new life for himself and his young son. I found the start painfully slow, though thankfully the pace picked up about a third of the way through when the main protagonist unwittingly finds himself caught up in a dangerous drama of espionage and suspicion. The premise is very interesting and there's insightful thinking about the surrounding politics, but unfortunately I didn’t really gel with the narrative style which I found overly tangential so I kept losing interest in what was otherwise a fascinating plot involving an Iranian nuclear physicist who may or may not have made a scientific breakthrough and the terrible dilemma faced by his involuntary ally.

I was completely drawn into this book, and felt quite bereft when I had finished it. It was a joy to read such an intelligent, well-written book, and I thought the author's evocation of Oxford was spot on. I worked in Oxford for many years (although I am not rich or clever enough to move in the circles described in the book) and I enjoyed reading about places I know very well. The story is gripping, and the characters (even the completely awful ones) are compelling. I will definitely read more of Nicholas Shakespeare's books.

Lovely story.enjoyed this one immensely.

John Dyer ,ex journalist and novelist returns to his home city of Oxford. He has been in Brazil and has come back to Oxford with his son Leandro aged 11, leaving the sons mother in Brazil where she married and has other children.

He has put Leandro into the same school where Dyer himself went to, The Phoenix. While Dyer is there watching his son .play football he makes an acquaintance with an Iranian ,Marvan who also has a son there,Samir.Samir also plays football with Leandro.This chance meeting between Marvan and Dyer leads to a world of international intrigue when Marvan goes missing leaving Dyer with vital information which everyone wants.

Wonderful book where Dyer visits his memory of attendance at the school where he eventually meets some of his old school chums who now appear not to be who he thought they were.

A very interesting and thought-provoking book based on an unusual topic.
The book provided a different take on Oxford than one is used to reading but this made the setting more interesting.
The writer sets the book out with a wide range of characters from various backgrounds randomly thrown together in Oxford and defines them very skillfully. How they are then drawn together is cleverly done.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book although I found the ending a bit strange. I did, however, understand the point the author was making.

Phew, I did persevere until the end in the hope that there would be some plot development, how wrong I was. It felt more like a history of privilege and public education in Oxford than “contemporary thriller”. In fact it wasn’t thrilling at all.
I did not realise who the author was until I googled the name. I think the style of writing is more in keeping with non-fiction than a mystery or thriller.

Nicholas Shakespeare's fascinating literary espionage thriller is reminiscent of the classic espionage literature, and draws on issues facing our contemporary world. With the collapse of his marriage, former foreign correspondent, John Dyer has returned to Oxford with his 11 year old son, Leandro, from Brazil. Spending his time doing research in the library on the Tupi, an obscure indigenous Brazilian tribe, John is struggling to find his feet in his new life after years spent abroad, he is a man riddled with doubts and indecision. He finds himself on the edges of the kind of influential social circles that would normally have been beyond his sphere, lacking the equivalent financial resources, through Leandro's private prep school, the Phoenix, a school he himself attended as a child. The school's intake is now distinctly international, with parents from a wide ranging set of backgrounds, including hedge fund managers, Russian oligarchs and the intelligence services.


Leandro and his friend, Samir, are being bullied which leads to John meeting the groundbreaking Iranian nuclear scientist, Rustum Marvar, working at Oxford University, and having discussions with him on issues such as social class. A disturbed and worried Marvar finds himself confiding his concerns and breakthrough with John, prior to him and his son vanishing. John suddenly finds him under strong and intense pressure, interrogated, under the spotlight, finding himself a person of interest to various parties as the last person to have seen Marvar. He tries to protect his son, whilst mulling ove his moral dilemma that is weighing him down, whilst being surrounded by danger, intrigue and the murky world of espionage.

Shakespeare's storytelling is compulsive, if overly wordy in a manner which may put off some readers, and I very much liked the ongoing theme of the sandpit in the past and what it might signify in the present. The novel covers issues of social class, global politics and conflict, power, money, espionage agencies and amorality through its disparate cast of characters. This is an engaging read, intricately plotted, inhabited by complicated characters, that skilfully resonates with the complexities of our contemporary world today. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

THE SANDPIT

by

Nicholas Shakespeare

John Dyer moves back to Oxford, his childhood home with his son Leandro who is enrolled at his father’s old school, the Phoenix. Dyer spends much of his time in the library researching a book he is writing having retired from his post as a renowned journalist. But when Leandro and his new friend, an Iranian boy are both badly bullied by Vasily, a Russian child, Dyer and the boy’s father, Marvar, form a loose friendship.
Standing on the touchline at sports events Dyer absorbs the conversations of other parents, a Russian Oligarch, a spy, a physicist, a CIA officer and the odd entrepreneur. He is familiar with a few and is invited to dine with them where his journalist ear picks up on sinister undercurrents.
This is a literary thriller that covers espionage, international tensions and politics, peppered with social climbing and greed. The story is very up to the minute and is intricately compiled and most interesting.
Marvar arrives at Dyer’s shaking with fear, convinced his wife and baby are under arrest in Iran because of a discovery he has made regarding fusion. Dyer and go for a walk and a drink and Marvar in Dyer. When Marvar and his son disappear without trace, Dyer comes under severe scrutiny and interrogation from the Secret Service as they are certain Marvar has confided in him. Dyer is now a target with a moral dilemma regarding Marvar’s trust in him.
A tense slow burning book that builds to a superb crescendo, this is a different style of thriller and a superb read. Much of the focus is on politics and men in powerful positions with a strong grain of truth within as tensions of which we are familiar are explored. A quote that made me smile was ‘the present incumbent in the White House may have earned the right to be considered the biggest spurt of piss ever to be let out’. Who could that be?
This is a gripping and fascinating thriller, totally different to any thriller I have ever read. A finely crafted novel.
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I didn’t really go for this book. It was full of stereotypes, the aloof Russian mother and her industrialist husband, the rather loud CIA agent and the hinted at stiff upper lip Spooks of the British Secret Service. Throw into this heady mix an Iranian nuclear scientist and an author writing about obscure Brazilian tribes, and you have this rather slow, meandering story about schoolboys being bullied, and a sandpit.
John Dyer is the author, divorced and living in Oxford with his son, Leandro. Rustum Marvar is the scientist, living with his son, Samir. His wife is being held captive in Iran, in order that any scientific discoveries, are reported back to the Iranians and not sold to the Americans. Both boys are being bullied, and their fathers form a friendship, in which they argue the rights and wrongs of the social classes, who has the right to nuclear power and is it right to give in to bullies.
I found the novel confusing. Most of the characters were male, the women were seen as decorous, haughty and cold. The sandpit is either for hiding secrets, or a approximation of an ostrich hiding its head in the sand in order not to deal with local problems instead of always wanting to put the world to rights. I didn’t like the conclusion, it wasn’t plausible, just conjecture. Not the authors best book.

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'The Sandpit' is an enormously difficult novel to review, and I find my observations mixed. More Le Carre than Fleming, an espionage thriller with a certain cerebral edge is usually my preferred interpretation of the genre. But Nicholas Shakespeare's novel is not quite in the vein of Le Carre, either. There are commonalities: the ordinary man placed in an extraordinary situation is a classic trope of Le Carre's novels, and this jumping off point for Shakespeare's incarnation, too. Men - as is usual in this genre, guided by an unerring morality free of the tribal, morality-free loyalties of the professional spy. This is the central artery of this book, too, distilled in the figure of the journalist John Dyer, a man whose expertise extends to obscure Brazilian tribes, not the warring tribes of nuclear nations. There is the chance encounter with an Iranian nuclear physicist, a precipitating event for Dyer's decent down the rabbit-hole of the smoke and mirrors world of modern-day espionage. This is quite Le Carre-esque, too. Shakespeare, however, manages to deploy these classic tropes in new and innovative ways, giving his own inimitable take on the genre, which was, at times, both intriguing and compelling. But, there is an element of style triumphing over substance in Shakespeare's novel that became increasingly irksome. Shakespeare has a prodigious vocabulary; at times, a poets turn of phrase. A master wordsmith? Sure, this view is not without validity, but it has its place in a novel of this type. Too much and it diminishes the intricacy of the careful, nuanced plotting of the author. In the world of literary espionage, where opacity is the central theme, sometimes simplicity and clarity in exposition is the greatest tool in the author's armoury. Sadly, this is a little lacking in this book, and it detracts from a potentially engrossing read.

Recommended with some reservations.

Intriguing, literary thriller full of vivid descriptions of scenes, thoughts and emotions. Very evocative - made you fell as if you were in the location