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Inspector Troy #1
Black Out
In the tradition of John le Carré, Eric Ambler, and more recently, Joseph Kanon, Black Out is a stunning wartime thriller.As the Luftwaffe makes its last, desperate assaults on the battered city in 1944, Londoners take to the underground shelters amidst the black out. Detective-Sergeant Troy starts with the clue of a neatly dismembered corpse leading him into a world of stateless refugees, military intelligence, and corruption all the way to the top of Allied High Command.
422 pages, ebook
First published May 1, 1995
643 people are currently reading
3063 people want to read
About the author
John Lawton
38 books324 followersJohn Lawton is a producer/director in television who has spent much of his time interpreting the USA to the English, and occasionally vice versa. He has worked with Gore Vidal, Neil Simon, Scott Turow, Noam Chomsky, Fay Weldon, Harold Pinter and Kathy Acker. He thinks he may well be the only TV director ever to be named in a Parliamentary Bill in the British House of Lords as an offender against taste and balance. He has also been denounced from the pulpit in Mississippi as a `Communist,’ but thinks that less remarkable.
He spent most of the 90s in New York – among other things attending the writers’ sessions at The Actors’ Studio under Norman Mailer – and has visited or worked in more than half the 50 states. Since 2000 he has lived in the high, wet hills ofDerbyshire England, with frequent excursions into the high, dry hills of Arizona and Italy.
He is the author of 1963, a social and political history of the Kennedy-Macmillan years, six thrillers in the Troy series and a stand-alone novel, Sweet Sunday.
In 1995 the first Troy novel, Black Out, won the WH Smith Fresh Talent Award. In 2006 Columbia Pictures bought the fourth Troy novel Riptide. In 2007 A Little White Death was a New York Times notable.
In 2008 he was one of only half a dozen living English writers to be named in the London Daily Telegraph‘s `50 Crime Writers to Read before You Die.’ He has also edited the poetry of DH Lawrence and the stories of Joseph Conrad. He is devoted to the work of Franz Schubert, Cormac McCarthy, Art Tatum and Barbara Gowdy. (source: http://www.johnlawtonbooks.com)
He was born in 1949 in England.
He spent most of the 90s in New York – among other things attending the writers’ sessions at The Actors’ Studio under Norman Mailer – and has visited or worked in more than half the 50 states. Since 2000 he has lived in the high, wet hills ofDerbyshire England, with frequent excursions into the high, dry hills of Arizona and Italy.
He is the author of 1963, a social and political history of the Kennedy-Macmillan years, six thrillers in the Troy series and a stand-alone novel, Sweet Sunday.
In 1995 the first Troy novel, Black Out, won the WH Smith Fresh Talent Award. In 2006 Columbia Pictures bought the fourth Troy novel Riptide. In 2007 A Little White Death was a New York Times notable.
In 2008 he was one of only half a dozen living English writers to be named in the London Daily Telegraph‘s `50 Crime Writers to Read before You Die.’ He has also edited the poetry of DH Lawrence and the stories of Joseph Conrad. He is devoted to the work of Franz Schubert, Cormac McCarthy, Art Tatum and Barbara Gowdy. (source: http://www.johnlawtonbooks.com)
He was born in 1949 in England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 348 reviews
abandoned
August 26, 2018This fine novel repeatedly brings to mind LeCarré. Scott Turow
Um, ... in what respect, Mr. Turow? Nothing about it brings to mind LeCarré except that I would rather be reading LeCarré than Lawton.
To be fair, it's not horrible, but it brings to mind Jacqueline Winspear more than it does LeCarré; and to be fair to Ms. Winspear, even Maisie Dobbs would have moved the storyline apace by page 101. The mystery would have been half-way resolved, rather than only partially outlined. Even the hapless Billy would have had more to offer by this point in the story. Instead, there's too much dragging out, with no sense of mystery, intrigue, purpose.
I may try again. Or may not. I'd have to be stuck in an airport or train station, without means of escape.
A great premise for my new genre literature: click-lit. (Made-for-TV.)
Addendum: It all makes sense now, having just found out Lawton is a TV producer, first and foremost.
Um, ... in what respect, Mr. Turow? Nothing about it brings to mind LeCarré except that I would rather be reading LeCarré than Lawton.
To be fair, it's not horrible, but it brings to mind Jacqueline Winspear more than it does LeCarré; and to be fair to Ms. Winspear, even Maisie Dobbs would have moved the storyline apace by page 101. The mystery would have been half-way resolved, rather than only partially outlined. Even the hapless Billy would have had more to offer by this point in the story. Instead, there's too much dragging out, with no sense of mystery, intrigue, purpose.
I may try again. Or may not. I'd have to be stuck in an airport or train station, without means of escape.
A great premise for my new genre literature: click-lit. (Made-for-TV.)
Addendum: It all makes sense now, having just found out Lawton is a TV producer, first and foremost.
January 28, 2025
3.75 stars
This is a detective historical fiction set mostly in World War II England as Frederick Troy tries to solve a series of murders that seem to involve foreign nationals in the lead up to D-Day. The first two thirds of the book was better than the last one third. It just had too many endings for me to truly rate this book any higher.
The atmosphere of London during World War II was portrayed effectively and Troy was certainly an entertaining character as were his work colleagues. However, some of the others were not so well drawn especially the female characters.
This is a detective historical fiction set mostly in World War II England as Frederick Troy tries to solve a series of murders that seem to involve foreign nationals in the lead up to D-Day. The first two thirds of the book was better than the last one third. It just had too many endings for me to truly rate this book any higher.
The atmosphere of London during World War II was portrayed effectively and Troy was certainly an entertaining character as were his work colleagues. However, some of the others were not so well drawn especially the female characters.
November 17, 2011
I wanted to like this book. I really wanted to like this book. I just couldn't do it. The blurb on the cover from Scott Turow says, "This fine noel repeatedly brings to mind Le Carre." I agree. I repeatedly thought to myself, "Lawton is no Le Carre."
Lawton writes himself into a corner with his mystery, and the only way out is to give us multiple endings. Which he does. I kept thinking, "enough already." Also, the female characters are barely two dimensional - though one's dialogue is enjoyable, if not out of place in this WWII era.
There's an enjoyable twist at one point about 2/3 through, but by then I so disliked the hero, Inspector Troy, that I didn't much care if he was surprised. He's beaten, shot, stabbed, trampled, blown up, and still he keeps coming. Just like a Steven Seagal character. Again, enough already.
And finally, I found the novel to be shockingly overwritten at times. For example: "She pressed her lips upon his. A momentary glance as their eyes met before she closed hers and time past overflowed into time present and the smell of her scent threatened death by drowning and with it the awful, inescapable stench of carbide gas and the brief glimpse of the swirling dust of carnage before his overloaded senses forced it from his mind and the touch of [her] drenched him."
Yeah, okay. (I redacted the character name above so as not to spoil anything.)
Overwritten, overplotted, over-sexed in parts. This is not a Le Carre-like novel.
Lawton writes himself into a corner with his mystery, and the only way out is to give us multiple endings. Which he does. I kept thinking, "enough already." Also, the female characters are barely two dimensional - though one's dialogue is enjoyable, if not out of place in this WWII era.
There's an enjoyable twist at one point about 2/3 through, but by then I so disliked the hero, Inspector Troy, that I didn't much care if he was surprised. He's beaten, shot, stabbed, trampled, blown up, and still he keeps coming. Just like a Steven Seagal character. Again, enough already.
And finally, I found the novel to be shockingly overwritten at times. For example: "She pressed her lips upon his. A momentary glance as their eyes met before she closed hers and time past overflowed into time present and the smell of her scent threatened death by drowning and with it the awful, inescapable stench of carbide gas and the brief glimpse of the swirling dust of carnage before his overloaded senses forced it from his mind and the touch of [her] drenched him."
Yeah, okay. (I redacted the character name above so as not to spoil anything.)
Overwritten, overplotted, over-sexed in parts. This is not a Le Carre-like novel.
October 6, 2016
A murder mystery that morphs into a tale of espionage and counter-espionage in the closing days of WWII in London. Well written with excellent characters and a meaningful underlying plot.
August 12, 2012
I found the first 100 pages or so of Bloack Out a little frustrating. The story kind of ambled along and exploited a whole series of coincidences that I found very convenient and unlikely. This is a big city, full of millions of people, and yet half a dozen principle connected characters coincide in time and space. Perhaps one, maybe two, coincidences would have been realistic. But several was unrealistic. In addition, Troy has remarkable luck – for example he’s the only survivor of a bomb explosion. I almost stopped reading. I’m glad I didn’t as the story really picks up and the tension starts to mount and I ended up really enjoying the book. And there are some great twists towards the end. There was actually no need for the coincidences and the book would have worked equally well if the characters had been strangers. The characterisation is good throughout and I thought Kolankiewicz, the foulmouthed pathologist, and Tosca, the feisty New Yorker, were great creations. Lawton captures the atmosphere of black out London and the story eventually evolves into a convoluted and gripping tale. Overall, despite a frustrating start, Black Out really grew on me, the latter half more than making up for the first.
May 19, 2021
An author I didn’t know, but an interesting novel, a breathtaking thriller, set in London during the WWII.
The main character is Scotland Yard sergeant Frederick Troy, called to investigate the discovery of an arm in a bombed residential area. This will prove to be the beginning of a complicated investigation and will be only the first in a series of murders that will cross with the delicate relations between the Americans and the British in the London in 1944.
The story is well written, it starts with a crime with little basis to investigate, but the author give to Troy the right mix of obsession and investigative skill and gradually builds an increasingly intricate plot, transforming a simple crime into a real spy story. In addition to the investigation, Lawton shows us the daily realities of London in wartime: the bombings, the difficulty of finding food due to rationing and social and ideological differences.
Sergeant Troy himself is an atypical policeman, coming from an aristocratic family is a tormented person who puts all his effort in his job, in the belief that justice must be always pursued. As the plot proceed, various aspects of Troy's personality and character emerge, bringing attention to the rest of his family and the relationship, not always peaceful, that he has with them. His manners are very reminiscent of the hero of an action movie: they shoot him, he ends up under a bombing, he risks his life several times, but he always continues undaunted in his personal manhunt.
All of this, creates a great overall picture of this character, with the addition of very well build secondary characters: there is the femme fatale Diana Brack, Kolankiewicz the eccentric coroner, Wildeve the young agent ready to follow in Troy's footsteps and Tosca the intriguing American girl.
From what I've seen in this first novel, it's definitely a series worth pursuing.
The main character is Scotland Yard sergeant Frederick Troy, called to investigate the discovery of an arm in a bombed residential area. This will prove to be the beginning of a complicated investigation and will be only the first in a series of murders that will cross with the delicate relations between the Americans and the British in the London in 1944.
The story is well written, it starts with a crime with little basis to investigate, but the author give to Troy the right mix of obsession and investigative skill and gradually builds an increasingly intricate plot, transforming a simple crime into a real spy story. In addition to the investigation, Lawton shows us the daily realities of London in wartime: the bombings, the difficulty of finding food due to rationing and social and ideological differences.
Sergeant Troy himself is an atypical policeman, coming from an aristocratic family is a tormented person who puts all his effort in his job, in the belief that justice must be always pursued. As the plot proceed, various aspects of Troy's personality and character emerge, bringing attention to the rest of his family and the relationship, not always peaceful, that he has with them. His manners are very reminiscent of the hero of an action movie: they shoot him, he ends up under a bombing, he risks his life several times, but he always continues undaunted in his personal manhunt.
All of this, creates a great overall picture of this character, with the addition of very well build secondary characters: there is the femme fatale Diana Brack, Kolankiewicz the eccentric coroner, Wildeve the young agent ready to follow in Troy's footsteps and Tosca the intriguing American girl.
From what I've seen in this first novel, it's definitely a series worth pursuing.
March 5, 2020
Man, this book grabs you at the beginning but then everything goes too far. Some good background info on life in London during WWII and afterwords but events were not realistic or believable and it is a very long book considering those objections.
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January 11, 2017
An excellent mystery story set in WWII London.
January 11, 2024
Suddenly at the halfway point of this World War II espionage thriller, it became nonstop sex, with two different women. One was dramatically taller than the hero, and very posh, the other dramatically shorter and as rough and foul speaking as a stevedore. But none of the sex scenes were dramatically interesting. The tall, posh woman wore Je Reviens perfume. Even when she was hiding in the next room, the hero could smell her. Then the hero went blind. (Temporarily.) The next thing he knew, he was smelling Je Reviens, and the woman wearing it kissed him. But it was the short stevedore. She had started wearing it too.
There was also a posh homosexual in MI5, arrested because "I was on my knees giving a boy a gobble."
Two characters met at a park for a discussion; one brought sandwiches his landlady made, with "national loaf" (wartime brown bread), a dab of butter, and raspberry jam.
"I can't eat this muck."
"Let's see if the ducks will eat them."
"And then perhaps we could eat the ducks."
"We're in a Royal park. Those ducks are the King's property. You're talking treason."
The short woman "leapt naked from the bed and ran to the refrigerator. The fridge fought back for a second or two, then sighed deeply and with one last, begrudging suck yielded up its treasure."
New vocabulary: "All over London, gas-holders sat squat on the skyline like gigantic gibuses." (A kind of collapsible top hat.)
"Ruby...produced a pair of striped winceyette pyjamas." (A British flannelette of cotton napped on both sides and used especially for underwear, pajamas, and house dresses.)
September 8, 2014
While Lawton effectively recreates the atmosphere of wartime London, the plot begs more questions than it answers.
Lawton needs to return to square one. He has a character, an era of interest and feeling, now all he needs are some story-telling skills and he'll be a novelist!
Lawton needs to return to square one. He has a character, an era of interest and feeling, now all he needs are some story-telling skills and he'll be a novelist!
November 28, 2010
Not really police procedural, not really espionage, not really thriller, not really realistic. Marred by caricatures with a bent for silly porny bits. Lawton is an American author who sets his novels in Britain. Curiously, his American characters are the least realistic and the most annoying.
May 9, 2021
Black Out by John Lawton is the first book in his WWII mystery series featuring Scotland Yard DS Frederick Troy. I don't think it was perfect but it was entertaining, action-packed and ultimately satisfying.
Troy is a DS in bombed out London and is called to investigate the discovery of an arm in a bombed out house. The arm is discovered by a bunch of kids who spend their days playing in the ruined houses on London's streets. Troy is sure that a murder has occurred as the arm appears to have been surgically removed. He gets the boys to keep searching and when further evidence is discovered, he is sure of the murder. In a somewhat convoluted way, he now may be related to other disappearances / murders of ex-patriot German scientists, who may have been brought to England to work on the British munitions program. (As I said, somewhat convoluted).
This leads to possible American OSS involvement, a possible serial killer and ultimately, a trip to Berlin after the war's conclusion. There are many leaps of intuition (to my mind anyway) by Troy, but they don't take away from the entertainment of the story. Troy is one of those frustrating characters; he's determined, solitary, smart and never listens to his boss, preferring to work on his own assumptions. On his own, the story might not have been so enjoyable but it is also peopled with an excellent surrounding cast; his subordinate DC Wildeve, who is some ways is smarter than Troy; the fascinating, sexy American Sgt Tosca, a bit of a maneater, even his boss, DCI Onions, frustrated by Troy's attitude but also willing to give him his rein. There are others that also make the story richer, the Polish / English coroner Kolankiewicz and his assistant Anna (who I hope makes more appearances in follow-on stories) and even Troy's neighboring hooker acquaintance, Ruby, who looks after him during his many injuries.
It's a messy story. London is a mess, bombed out with people living in the subway stations (described very well, in fact), the case is a messy one and even the sex is messy. There is lots of action, lots of violence. Troy is injured seriously many times but continues to get up and plug away at his case, refusing to let it go even after the end of the war. Lawton creates a rich, dark story and setting and I do look forward to seeing how the next one moves Troy's life along. (3.5 stars)
Troy is a DS in bombed out London and is called to investigate the discovery of an arm in a bombed out house. The arm is discovered by a bunch of kids who spend their days playing in the ruined houses on London's streets. Troy is sure that a murder has occurred as the arm appears to have been surgically removed. He gets the boys to keep searching and when further evidence is discovered, he is sure of the murder. In a somewhat convoluted way, he now may be related to other disappearances / murders of ex-patriot German scientists, who may have been brought to England to work on the British munitions program. (As I said, somewhat convoluted).
This leads to possible American OSS involvement, a possible serial killer and ultimately, a trip to Berlin after the war's conclusion. There are many leaps of intuition (to my mind anyway) by Troy, but they don't take away from the entertainment of the story. Troy is one of those frustrating characters; he's determined, solitary, smart and never listens to his boss, preferring to work on his own assumptions. On his own, the story might not have been so enjoyable but it is also peopled with an excellent surrounding cast; his subordinate DC Wildeve, who is some ways is smarter than Troy; the fascinating, sexy American Sgt Tosca, a bit of a maneater, even his boss, DCI Onions, frustrated by Troy's attitude but also willing to give him his rein. There are others that also make the story richer, the Polish / English coroner Kolankiewicz and his assistant Anna (who I hope makes more appearances in follow-on stories) and even Troy's neighboring hooker acquaintance, Ruby, who looks after him during his many injuries.
It's a messy story. London is a mess, bombed out with people living in the subway stations (described very well, in fact), the case is a messy one and even the sex is messy. There is lots of action, lots of violence. Troy is injured seriously many times but continues to get up and plug away at his case, refusing to let it go even after the end of the war. Lawton creates a rich, dark story and setting and I do look forward to seeing how the next one moves Troy's life along. (3.5 stars)
December 6, 2021
Most people who have access to British television or PBS in America are familiar with the outlines of the modern British detective procedural. The honest lead copper and his long-suffering detective-constable partner doggedly pursue a murder case that involves half a dozen likely, wildly diverse suspects. Our Heroes pick up the slim tendrils of evidence as they go along, slowly rule out some of the suspects, arrest the wrong person about halfway through, then finally annoy the perpetrator into making a full confession in the last ten minutes. It's like Noh theater with pints of ale and black taxis.
Black Out is none of these things. Unfortunately, it suffers from this lack.
Detective Sargent Frederick Troy of the London Murder Squad could be the protagonist in a Scandinoir murder mystery: the scion of an aristocratic family, he's a cross between an unmade bed and the world's unluckiest human, but (naturally) supposedly a detecting prodigy. He also (of course) has no regard for rules, procedure, policy, or his superiors, which, judging from this story, doesn't help him much in the prosecution of his cases. He happens across a severed human arm in the Blitz-ravaged London of 1944 -- not exactly unusual under the circumstances, but this one has been surgically removed rather than blasted off by a bomb. This discovery leads him to multiple killings, skulduggery among the pre-D-Day American military high command, a sociopathic killer, and inter-agency rivalries within the UK and US security apparatus.
The author's depiction of a ruined, haunted London is the star of this particular show. The blackouts, food shortages, black-market wheeling-dealing, and general disintegration of orderly society both feels right and makes its own kind of sense. The dialog also seems fitting for the characters and the times, including period references that actually appear to be correct for the milieu.
Unfortunately, the case itself has so many loose threads and so many dead ends that even after four hundred pages, it's hard to describe, far less understand what exactly is going on. Troy doesn't make it easy on us. He makes leaps of intuition (many of which end up being wrong but are pursued extensively anyway) that are often unsupported by any evidence we the readers have been allowed to see. The final resolution is both out of left field and hard to tie back to everything that has happened up to the final chapters.
In addition to causing his boss more tsouris than any real-life superintendent would put up with given the small return in evident progress, Troy's personal dramas fill up so much time that it's amazing that he manages to get any policing done at all. In the course of this story, Troy gets shot, stabbed, beaten to a pulp (multiple times), bombed (twice, and I don't mean "drunk"), and spends uncounted weeks in the hospital. He has wild monkey sex with not one but two beautiful, oversexed women, both of whom have personal agendas so obvious that it's a wonder our ace detective didn't spot them until it was too late. (Unfortunately, the sex scenes did nothing to change my general opinion of sex scenes in books: they stop the plot cold and abound with bad prose.) All this strains both credulity and patience -- the story seemed endless even though it was frantic with incident.
The supporting characters are a mixed bag. Troy's long-suffering but far more sensible partner, DC Wildeve, spends much of his time being bewildered by his guv's behavior, confused by the wildly messy case, or covering up for Troy's misbehavior, making him a perfect touchstone for the reader. I'd rather have spent the bulk of the story with Wildeve than Troy. Troy's put-upon DI boss has the patience of several saints, though we don't know why. Troy's two female playmates never seem to become real people; one has a manner and an arc that's so outlandish, it barely misses becoming comic relief.
Black Out is an example of masterful scene-setting undone by plate-of-spaghetti plotting and uneven characterization. If you like this one, there are six others in the series; if you don't, you can safely stop right here. I have the second book in the series and will probably read it someday. Until then, I'll keep the author's skill with atmosphere in mind while I forget the mess that surrounded it.
Black Out is none of these things. Unfortunately, it suffers from this lack.
Detective Sargent Frederick Troy of the London Murder Squad could be the protagonist in a Scandinoir murder mystery: the scion of an aristocratic family, he's a cross between an unmade bed and the world's unluckiest human, but (naturally) supposedly a detecting prodigy. He also (of course) has no regard for rules, procedure, policy, or his superiors, which, judging from this story, doesn't help him much in the prosecution of his cases. He happens across a severed human arm in the Blitz-ravaged London of 1944 -- not exactly unusual under the circumstances, but this one has been surgically removed rather than blasted off by a bomb. This discovery leads him to multiple killings, skulduggery among the pre-D-Day American military high command, a sociopathic killer, and inter-agency rivalries within the UK and US security apparatus.
The author's depiction of a ruined, haunted London is the star of this particular show. The blackouts, food shortages, black-market wheeling-dealing, and general disintegration of orderly society both feels right and makes its own kind of sense. The dialog also seems fitting for the characters and the times, including period references that actually appear to be correct for the milieu.
Unfortunately, the case itself has so many loose threads and so many dead ends that even after four hundred pages, it's hard to describe, far less understand what exactly is going on. Troy doesn't make it easy on us. He makes leaps of intuition (many of which end up being wrong but are pursued extensively anyway) that are often unsupported by any evidence we the readers have been allowed to see. The final resolution is both out of left field and hard to tie back to everything that has happened up to the final chapters.
In addition to causing his boss more tsouris than any real-life superintendent would put up with given the small return in evident progress, Troy's personal dramas fill up so much time that it's amazing that he manages to get any policing done at all. In the course of this story, Troy gets shot, stabbed, beaten to a pulp (multiple times), bombed (twice, and I don't mean "drunk"), and spends uncounted weeks in the hospital. He has wild monkey sex with not one but two beautiful, oversexed women, both of whom have personal agendas so obvious that it's a wonder our ace detective didn't spot them until it was too late. (Unfortunately, the sex scenes did nothing to change my general opinion of sex scenes in books: they stop the plot cold and abound with bad prose.) All this strains both credulity and patience -- the story seemed endless even though it was frantic with incident.
The supporting characters are a mixed bag. Troy's long-suffering but far more sensible partner, DC Wildeve, spends much of his time being bewildered by his guv's behavior, confused by the wildly messy case, or covering up for Troy's misbehavior, making him a perfect touchstone for the reader. I'd rather have spent the bulk of the story with Wildeve than Troy. Troy's put-upon DI boss has the patience of several saints, though we don't know why. Troy's two female playmates never seem to become real people; one has a manner and an arc that's so outlandish, it barely misses becoming comic relief.
Black Out is an example of masterful scene-setting undone by plate-of-spaghetti plotting and uneven characterization. If you like this one, there are six others in the series; if you don't, you can safely stop right here. I have the second book in the series and will probably read it someday. Until then, I'll keep the author's skill with atmosphere in mind while I forget the mess that surrounded it.
October 27, 2018
My 2nd book by this author and the first of the Inspector Troy series. Good book, short and quick chapters that move the action along. Here Sergeant Troy is tasked with finding the murderer when the only clue is a severed arm found amid the rubble of a bombed area of London. This quickly turns into the search since a 2nd murder victim is identified and then a potential 3rd victim who has disappeared without a trace. It is interesting in that in this book the bad guys are those in the CIA (OSS at the time) and we have an interesting interplay with a Communist leaning femme fatale along with a OSS Communist hunter, and then there is Sergeant Troy who has mixed loyalties. His family came from Eastern Europe, but he was a British citizen who is not overly patriotic, but rather is in search of Justice. A lot of interesting characters, but as in Lawton's other books we get information sort of just dumped on us. Troy figures things out that nobody else can and we never really get the A to B = C sort of evolution of facts and final plot. As in his other books the ending is a bit far fetched, but overall it is a good effort. Troy is not an overly sympathetic character because he rushes full speed into things, get shot a few times, beaten severely, hospitalized, etc. all because of his penchant for lone wolf justice and attempts at retribution. Good book, may read another or so from this author. Again, it you like this sort of mystery books then it will be a different and good read for you.
November 2, 2014
I have been a fan of Alan Furst for years. His evocative approach to espionage and his character development made his World War II noirs exciting and hard to put down. Now, I have discovered another master of that genre, John Lawton. The first book in Lawton’s Frederick Troy series entitled BLACK OUT features the intrepid Frederick Troy and his cohorts in Scotland Yard and an amazing array of individuals, who live in London in February, 1944, and a number of them who will also turn up in Berlin during the 1948 airlift The mystery opens with a dog digging around in the trash and seizing an object, then runs with it in its mouth and drops it in front of a boy, the object is a human arm. The night before this incident an American soldier gets his throat cut at Trafalgar Square. Once an investigation begins Detective Sergeant Troy starts to connect a murder that took place a year earlier to the “arm” victim and the American soldier. Troy is friends with another “copper” from Scotland Yard, George Bonham who lives in a house that rents apartments, and a Peter Wolinski, who worked at the George V dockyard, has turned up missing for unknown reasons. Wolinski supposedly had taught college in Germany until Hitler forced him to leave and was a close friend of Bonham. Once the investigation commences we begin to meet a series of interesting characters that include Ladislaw Kolankiewicz, who since 1934 had been the senior pathologist in Herndon. Cooperating with Kolankiewicz, Troy pieces together the possibility that the two deaths and another missing person are all linked. Troy, whose uncle Nikolai Rodyonavich worked with a team of scientists at the Imperial College in the Applied Physics Department provides a photograph to augment Troy’s suspicions. When a socialite, Diane Ormond-Brack is seen leaving Wolinski’s apartment with a copy of the same photograph that Nikolai had shown Troy, suspicions are further aroused. What Troy gathers is that these individuals may have been developing “lightweight alloys, tough, non-corrodable, and thin. And they were also on to what that is-on to chemical propulsion,” rockets.(88) When Troy visits N.A.G. Pym at MI5, and a Colonel Zelig at American headquarters in London to obtain answers he is stonewalled by both and gets nowhere, reaffirming his suspicions that all three incidents are linked to rocket development by the Germans. In laying out the plot Lawton has drawn the reader into his web of British accents and language, espionage, and a case that is definitely beyond Inspector Troy’s pay grade.
Frederick Troy is a wonderful character to build a World War II and post war noir around. His family emigrated from Russia after Stalin took control. Troy’s older brother is an RAF pilot and in 1936 Troy was a raw recruit from the countryside who was taken in my George Bonham and his wife and shown the ropes concerning survival in London and pursuing police work in a city that had been ravaged by the Luftwaffe for five years. What Troy strongly suspects is that after a fourth murder that an American Major Jimmy Wayne, an Office of Strategic Services (OSS-precursor to the CIA) agent is involved with all of them. His investigation seems reflect Wayne’s guilt, but evidence is circumstantial. Troy is joined by his protégé Jack Wildeve, and his commander at Scotland Yard, Stan Onions in seeking the truth. Two women are also present to confuse and cajole Troy. First, we revisit Diane Ormond-Brack, a girl friend of Major Wayne who later will become Troy’s lover. Second, is M/SGT Larissa Tosca, seemingly Colonel Zelig’s secretary, but even while she is bedding Troy has an interesting shadow life that he is unaware of. The novel places the reader in the heart of London right before D Day, June 6, 1944. Characters have to deal with shortages of food and other staples. In addition, we witness the underground community that lives beneath London subways to escape years of bombing, and English resentment of American soldiers who seem to have taken over their country and especially their women. At this time the United States and the Soviet Union, realizing that the end of Nazi Germany will soon be at hand engage in a race to bring out of Germany as many scientists and intelligence assets that they can.* The story changes focus once the war ends and shifts to post war Berlin which is enduring the 1948 air lift.
The novel is exceptionally written and Lawton’s integration of events is very helpful for the reader in developing historical context. Throughout the narrative the author merges his own opinion of certain historical figures that are not only humorous at times, but very accurate. For example, Lawton references General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Troy has grown increasingly frustrated when OSS Colonel Zelig claims that the D Day commander that a meeting with Major Wayne was an alibi to block Troy’s suspicions. Describing Zelig and Eisenhower, Lawton writes, “The rain was beginning to soak through his overcoat. He went quickly back to the car. Was it worth a try? One bald-headed American was probably much the same as any other bald-headed American. The only difference lay in the amount of scrambled egg on the cap. Though, being fair, Troy felt Ike had better table manners.”(106) Along with numerous astute observations, Lawton regales the reader by placing certain literary figures throughout the narrative as an intellectual tease. The relationship between the OSS and MI5 is explored in detail and British distrust for that “pernicious organization” is readily apparent. For the Americans they had had it with British, “procedure and protocol.” Lawton also introduces Soviet espionage in the last part of the novel that reorients both Troy and the reader.
Troy finds himself in the middle of turf battles of allied intelligence agencies throughout the book. His investigation is blocked by both agencies and his fight to solve, what he thinks are four murders in the shadowy background of D Day and after is fascinating. The author’s conclusion tying pre and post war espionage is calculating and keeps the reader guessing. Lawton first installment of Detective Troy is a great read and I look forward to engaging the entire series.
• See “The Nazis Next Door,” by Eric Lichtblau reviewed by Deborah Lipstadt, New York Times October 31, 2014.
Frederick Troy is a wonderful character to build a World War II and post war noir around. His family emigrated from Russia after Stalin took control. Troy’s older brother is an RAF pilot and in 1936 Troy was a raw recruit from the countryside who was taken in my George Bonham and his wife and shown the ropes concerning survival in London and pursuing police work in a city that had been ravaged by the Luftwaffe for five years. What Troy strongly suspects is that after a fourth murder that an American Major Jimmy Wayne, an Office of Strategic Services (OSS-precursor to the CIA) agent is involved with all of them. His investigation seems reflect Wayne’s guilt, but evidence is circumstantial. Troy is joined by his protégé Jack Wildeve, and his commander at Scotland Yard, Stan Onions in seeking the truth. Two women are also present to confuse and cajole Troy. First, we revisit Diane Ormond-Brack, a girl friend of Major Wayne who later will become Troy’s lover. Second, is M/SGT Larissa Tosca, seemingly Colonel Zelig’s secretary, but even while she is bedding Troy has an interesting shadow life that he is unaware of. The novel places the reader in the heart of London right before D Day, June 6, 1944. Characters have to deal with shortages of food and other staples. In addition, we witness the underground community that lives beneath London subways to escape years of bombing, and English resentment of American soldiers who seem to have taken over their country and especially their women. At this time the United States and the Soviet Union, realizing that the end of Nazi Germany will soon be at hand engage in a race to bring out of Germany as many scientists and intelligence assets that they can.* The story changes focus once the war ends and shifts to post war Berlin which is enduring the 1948 air lift.
The novel is exceptionally written and Lawton’s integration of events is very helpful for the reader in developing historical context. Throughout the narrative the author merges his own opinion of certain historical figures that are not only humorous at times, but very accurate. For example, Lawton references General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Troy has grown increasingly frustrated when OSS Colonel Zelig claims that the D Day commander that a meeting with Major Wayne was an alibi to block Troy’s suspicions. Describing Zelig and Eisenhower, Lawton writes, “The rain was beginning to soak through his overcoat. He went quickly back to the car. Was it worth a try? One bald-headed American was probably much the same as any other bald-headed American. The only difference lay in the amount of scrambled egg on the cap. Though, being fair, Troy felt Ike had better table manners.”(106) Along with numerous astute observations, Lawton regales the reader by placing certain literary figures throughout the narrative as an intellectual tease. The relationship between the OSS and MI5 is explored in detail and British distrust for that “pernicious organization” is readily apparent. For the Americans they had had it with British, “procedure and protocol.” Lawton also introduces Soviet espionage in the last part of the novel that reorients both Troy and the reader.
Troy finds himself in the middle of turf battles of allied intelligence agencies throughout the book. His investigation is blocked by both agencies and his fight to solve, what he thinks are four murders in the shadowy background of D Day and after is fascinating. The author’s conclusion tying pre and post war espionage is calculating and keeps the reader guessing. Lawton first installment of Detective Troy is a great read and I look forward to engaging the entire series.
• See “The Nazis Next Door,” by Eric Lichtblau reviewed by Deborah Lipstadt, New York Times October 31, 2014.
July 23, 2011
I enjoyed this book, although I thought it got ridiculous when the main character suddenly changed from a reasoned, intelligent person to a ridiculous man being entirely led by his prick - might happen in real life but didn't ring true here! Good evocation of a London during wartime, although I felt it was slightly too ambitious, starting as a routine police procedure to become an international cold war spy thriller.
July 12, 2012
Sold to me as "If you liked Foyle's War on PBS, you'll love Inspector Troy." At first I wasn't so sold, Troy was a bit prickly and hard to understand his motivations. However, once he started interacting with his peers, it all fell into place. The atmosphere is fantastic complete with bombed out neighborhoods that are rubble and air raids spent in the Underground shelters. In this war-time mystery, someone is killing refugees who are known communists. The clues are slim and the leads tenuously take Troy to the top echelons of Allied Command. As you can imagine that doesn't sit well with his superiors and the Government. Then the book morphs and you realize the story is actually a BIG cold war spy novel. At that point I was hooked. Flashbacks to LeCarre and those awesome cold war spy novels of the last century I devoured in college came roaring back. Do you realize it has been years since we've had a good spy novel? Well this one starts at the beginning and I'm happy to say there are plenty of Inspector Troy novels to entertain me for a while!
July 24, 2016
First in the Inspector Troy thriller series and revolving around a Scotland Yard cop who pursues his man in 1944 London.
My Take
I enjoyed Black Out, although I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series. Then again, the way the story ended makes me wonder what Troy did. And I do want an answer to Major Toskevich's obscure statement. Inquiring minds want to know!
Lawton's technical writing is amazing — I only remember a few blips that bugged me. As for creating a pull…no. Sure I wanted to know if and when Troy got the bad guy, but I didn't feel invested in him.
Nor did those obscure clues help. I felt as though Troy was getting a lot more information than I was. I sure don't see why MI5 needs Troy to do the investigating. Why was Tosca so quickly accommodating? How could (and why) he be so stupid about Diana? What about her perfume?? How did Troy make that connection between the victims?
Lawton did pull me in with the setting. I was there. I felt the London of 1944 with its manners, culture, clothing, attitudes (!), the lack, and the rationing. I suspect how casually the police treated evidence and bodies — they stuck the arm out the window to keep it cold! — would drive today's cops wild. That bit about Heath Row being built. That new term, air port? What's wrong with aerodrome? Yep, it definitely felt real.
I did enjoy the outraged wife selling off her straying husband's toys, lol.
Onions says that Troy is one of his bright boys, but I sure wouldn't want to hang around him too much. He gets blown up, beat up, shot up, lost half a kidney, and more, multiple times.
The Story
A neatly dismembered corpse leads DS Troy into a world of stateless refugees, military intelligence, and corruption all the way to the top of Allied High Command.
The Characters
Detective Sergeant Frederick Troy has been a cop for the past years, five with the Murder Squad at Scotland Yard and has a grudge against England. "He's homeless in the heart." Rod is his eight years older brother and flying for the RAF. Masha and Sasha are his older twin sisters. Their husbands are Hugh who captains a minesweeper and Lawrence who has a staff job at the War Office. Sir Alexei Troy had been his father who had run a newspaper. Maria Mikhailovna is his very practical mother. Uncle Nikolai Rodyonovich is passionately pro-British with a preference for his soapbox on Speaker's Corner. He's also Professor Troitsky, the leader of the Applied Physics department at Imperial College. (Troy's family are all Russian immigrants with Troy the only one born in England.) I think Troy's grandfather, Rodyon Rodyonovich, was part of Troy's dream. Ruby the Whore plies her trade near Troy's front door.
Scotland Yard
Ladislaw Kolankiewicz is the senior pathologist at Hendon; Anna Pakenham is his stenographer. (Anna's husband, Angus, is in Colditz.) Constable Jack Wildeve is as uppercrust as Troy and are both bright young men. Superintendent Stan Onions is their squad commander. Sergeant Flint is in charge of records, and there doesn't seem to be much security on those. Constables Gutteridge and Thomson aren't much use. Detective Inspector Tom Henrey gets shown up. Ex-Regimental Sergeant Major Peacock is in charge of the guns and gun range.
Leman Street Station in Stepney
Sergeant George Bonham was Troy's first supervisor. He and his beloved wife, Ethel, (who died in an air raid) took Troy in.
Terence "Tub" Flanagan brought in the arm. Patsy Flanagan is his mother. Shrimp Robertson found the rest. Michael McGee is another neighbor worried about Peter Wolinski, a Polish immigrant. Seems he, Gregor von Ranke, and Bertoldt Brand were colleagues and Communists. Sydney Edelmann leads a Communist group. H.G. Wells is still alive. Alf is the landlord of the Merchant.
City of London Police
Former Inspector Malnick is a braggart who slid suspiciously easy into a military slot.
MI5
Squadron Leader Neville Pym is their liaison with the Metropolitan Police. He's also an ex-schoolmate of Troy's. Charlie had been Troy's closest friend at school, and Pym's lover. Muriel Edge is an F4 section head. Her boss is Roger Hollis who is a divisional director, and he answers to Sir David Petrie.
Special Branch
Detective Sergeant Melvyn Miller has been tailing a suspect for months. Charlie Walsh had been his chief inspector.
Lady Diana Brack is a thorn in her father's (the nasty Marquess of Fermanagh) backside with her constant questions and hatred for the social rounds required of a lady. She lives on Tite Street. Her brothers, George and Johnny, toed the line and are drunks and lounge lizards. Mr. Pumphret is Fermanagh's lawyer. There's an old gent with his prize pig at the allotment.
Driberg is a reporter Troy's dad had tried to entice over. Sir William Beveridge speaks of a new idea, a Welfare State. Winston Churchill is prime minister. Sidney Webb is a social planner. Herbert, a.k.a., Danny the Deserter, is in the black market.
The Americans
Colonel "Zelly" Zelig is supposedly Pym's opposite number. Sergeant Lara Tosca is Zelig's secretary and lives on Orange Street. Major James Wayne is with OSS. David Bruce is the OSS station head in London. Wild Bill Donovan runs OSS in Washington. General Ike Eisenhower is in command of the army. Lou is one of the guards at Norfolk House. Colonel John Baumgarner is with CIA after the war and running the airlift in Germany.
Corporal Duvitski was an American soldier. Bernard Leahy is the axe man. Sir Willoughby Wright is the prosecutor in the Leahy case. Alfred "The Spider" Maxwell Golding is the man Malnick fingers.
Germany
Franz Todt was Hitler's resource manager, a job taken over by Albert Speer. Inspector Deiter Frank is at the Uhlandstrasse Police Station and does some profiling. Cosima is his loved wife. Lance Bombardier Clark, a.k.a., Swifty, will drive Troy around Berlin. Marius von Asche is the pilot of LH133. Major Toskevich is with the NKVD.
The Cover and Title
The top of the cover is a background of foggy gray with a perspective shot of Big Ben surrounded by the silhouettes of three airplanes. The bottom is a solid black showcasing the bright yellow of the author's name. Separating the two is the black title surrounded in a white glow.
The title is what London and Troy endure in their own ways: a Black Out.
My Take
I enjoyed Black Out, although I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series. Then again, the way the story ended makes me wonder what Troy did. And I do want an answer to Major Toskevich's obscure statement. Inquiring minds want to know!
Lawton's technical writing is amazing — I only remember a few blips that bugged me. As for creating a pull…no. Sure I wanted to know if and when Troy got the bad guy, but I didn't feel invested in him.
Nor did those obscure clues help. I felt as though Troy was getting a lot more information than I was. I sure don't see why MI5 needs Troy to do the investigating. Why was Tosca so quickly accommodating? How could (and why) he be so stupid about Diana? What about her perfume?? How did Troy make that connection between the victims?
Lawton did pull me in with the setting. I was there. I felt the London of 1944 with its manners, culture, clothing, attitudes (!), the lack, and the rationing. I suspect how casually the police treated evidence and bodies — they stuck the arm out the window to keep it cold! — would drive today's cops wild. That bit about Heath Row being built. That new term, air port? What's wrong with aerodrome? Yep, it definitely felt real.
I did enjoy the outraged wife selling off her straying husband's toys, lol.
Onions says that Troy is one of his bright boys, but I sure wouldn't want to hang around him too much. He gets blown up, beat up, shot up, lost half a kidney, and more, multiple times.
The Story
A neatly dismembered corpse leads DS Troy into a world of stateless refugees, military intelligence, and corruption all the way to the top of Allied High Command.
The Characters
Detective Sergeant Frederick Troy has been a cop for the past years, five with the Murder Squad at Scotland Yard and has a grudge against England. "He's homeless in the heart." Rod is his eight years older brother and flying for the RAF. Masha and Sasha are his older twin sisters. Their husbands are Hugh who captains a minesweeper and Lawrence who has a staff job at the War Office. Sir Alexei Troy had been his father who had run a newspaper. Maria Mikhailovna is his very practical mother. Uncle Nikolai Rodyonovich is passionately pro-British with a preference for his soapbox on Speaker's Corner. He's also Professor Troitsky, the leader of the Applied Physics department at Imperial College. (Troy's family are all Russian immigrants with Troy the only one born in England.) I think Troy's grandfather, Rodyon Rodyonovich, was part of Troy's dream. Ruby the Whore plies her trade near Troy's front door.
Scotland Yard
Ladislaw Kolankiewicz is the senior pathologist at Hendon; Anna Pakenham is his stenographer. (Anna's husband, Angus, is in Colditz.) Constable Jack Wildeve is as uppercrust as Troy and are both bright young men. Superintendent Stan Onions is their squad commander. Sergeant Flint is in charge of records, and there doesn't seem to be much security on those. Constables Gutteridge and Thomson aren't much use. Detective Inspector Tom Henrey gets shown up. Ex-Regimental Sergeant Major Peacock is in charge of the guns and gun range.
Leman Street Station in Stepney
Sergeant George Bonham was Troy's first supervisor. He and his beloved wife, Ethel, (who died in an air raid) took Troy in.
Terence "Tub" Flanagan brought in the arm. Patsy Flanagan is his mother. Shrimp Robertson found the rest. Michael McGee is another neighbor worried about Peter Wolinski, a Polish immigrant. Seems he, Gregor von Ranke, and Bertoldt Brand were colleagues and Communists. Sydney Edelmann leads a Communist group. H.G. Wells is still alive. Alf is the landlord of the Merchant.
City of London Police
Former Inspector Malnick is a braggart who slid suspiciously easy into a military slot.
MI5
Squadron Leader Neville Pym is their liaison with the Metropolitan Police. He's also an ex-schoolmate of Troy's. Charlie had been Troy's closest friend at school, and Pym's lover. Muriel Edge is an F4 section head. Her boss is Roger Hollis who is a divisional director, and he answers to Sir David Petrie.
Special Branch
Detective Sergeant Melvyn Miller has been tailing a suspect for months. Charlie Walsh had been his chief inspector.
Lady Diana Brack is a thorn in her father's (the nasty Marquess of Fermanagh) backside with her constant questions and hatred for the social rounds required of a lady. She lives on Tite Street. Her brothers, George and Johnny, toed the line and are drunks and lounge lizards. Mr. Pumphret is Fermanagh's lawyer. There's an old gent with his prize pig at the allotment.
Driberg is a reporter Troy's dad had tried to entice over. Sir William Beveridge speaks of a new idea, a Welfare State. Winston Churchill is prime minister. Sidney Webb is a social planner. Herbert, a.k.a., Danny the Deserter, is in the black market.
The Americans
Colonel "Zelly" Zelig is supposedly Pym's opposite number. Sergeant Lara Tosca is Zelig's secretary and lives on Orange Street. Major James Wayne is with OSS. David Bruce is the OSS station head in London. Wild Bill Donovan runs OSS in Washington. General Ike Eisenhower is in command of the army. Lou is one of the guards at Norfolk House. Colonel John Baumgarner is with CIA after the war and running the airlift in Germany.
Corporal Duvitski was an American soldier. Bernard Leahy is the axe man. Sir Willoughby Wright is the prosecutor in the Leahy case. Alfred "The Spider" Maxwell Golding is the man Malnick fingers.
Germany
Franz Todt was Hitler's resource manager, a job taken over by Albert Speer. Inspector Deiter Frank is at the Uhlandstrasse Police Station and does some profiling. Cosima is his loved wife. Lance Bombardier Clark, a.k.a., Swifty, will drive Troy around Berlin. Marius von Asche is the pilot of LH133. Major Toskevich is with the NKVD.
The Cover and Title
The top of the cover is a background of foggy gray with a perspective shot of Big Ben surrounded by the silhouettes of three airplanes. The bottom is a solid black showcasing the bright yellow of the author's name. Separating the two is the black title surrounded in a white glow.
The title is what London and Troy endure in their own ways: a Black Out.
February 1, 2013
Author John Lawton is a new discovery for me, and I am delighted that I stumbled upon his book! Black Out, featuring protagonist Inspector Freddie Troy, is historical fiction, but even better, it is a murder mystery thriller set in WWII London. Inspector Troy is a perfect mix of Sherlock Holmesian analysis and the intuitive sleuthing of the John Le Carre' Cold War spies, with British humor and upper class sensibilities mixed in.
Frederick Troy is the youngest son of Russian parents living in England, but his older brother and sisters emigrated with the parents shortly after the death of Trotsky in Russia. His dad has been successful in journalism and the family is very comfortable.
Troy is young, single, and his single minded pursuit of truth and justice can be diverted from time to time by attention from beautiful women, who may or may not be the enemy. The mystery begins with the accidental discovery of a body part by a group of kids. A stray dog brings an arm to one of the boys in a park, laying it trustingly at his feet. When Troy is brought in, he deduces a great deal about the victim just from the details he observes...the clothing fabric, lack of callouses, but at the same time, tiny burn marks on the hand and arm. The arm must belong to a resident alien, quite likely a German who worked with chemicals.
Before long Troy has linked the arm victim (Herr Cufflink, they call him), to another murder victim (Herr Trousers), who had been killed a couple of months earlier. Before long Troy is convinced that he is in pursuit of a serial killer of German men, and it looks like the victims may have been munitions workers, perhaps getting close to some discoveries that could lead to even bigger and more deadly weapons.
The clues lead to suspects among a loose knit group of communists, but more curiously, to both English and American forces who may fancy themselves above the law. Lots of bombings and flyovers, lots of references to ration cards and depleted supplies, and lots of surveillance. The mystery of who has been killed is gradually revealed, but the why takes a little longer. The wait is worth it, and the good news is that there are 6 or 7 more Inspector Troy mysteries waiting in the wings when you finish Black Out. Remember the name John Lawton...you will not be disappointed!
Frederick Troy is the youngest son of Russian parents living in England, but his older brother and sisters emigrated with the parents shortly after the death of Trotsky in Russia. His dad has been successful in journalism and the family is very comfortable.
Troy is young, single, and his single minded pursuit of truth and justice can be diverted from time to time by attention from beautiful women, who may or may not be the enemy. The mystery begins with the accidental discovery of a body part by a group of kids. A stray dog brings an arm to one of the boys in a park, laying it trustingly at his feet. When Troy is brought in, he deduces a great deal about the victim just from the details he observes...the clothing fabric, lack of callouses, but at the same time, tiny burn marks on the hand and arm. The arm must belong to a resident alien, quite likely a German who worked with chemicals.
Before long Troy has linked the arm victim (Herr Cufflink, they call him), to another murder victim (Herr Trousers), who had been killed a couple of months earlier. Before long Troy is convinced that he is in pursuit of a serial killer of German men, and it looks like the victims may have been munitions workers, perhaps getting close to some discoveries that could lead to even bigger and more deadly weapons.
The clues lead to suspects among a loose knit group of communists, but more curiously, to both English and American forces who may fancy themselves above the law. Lots of bombings and flyovers, lots of references to ration cards and depleted supplies, and lots of surveillance. The mystery of who has been killed is gradually revealed, but the why takes a little longer. The wait is worth it, and the good news is that there are 6 or 7 more Inspector Troy mysteries waiting in the wings when you finish Black Out. Remember the name John Lawton...you will not be disappointed!
April 10, 2017
My first Lawton novel - turns out it was his first, also. Whatever, I enjoyed the book immensely. It met three of my criteria for reading it in the first place. One, it takes place during WW II. Two, it's a spy story. Three, it has a number of twists and turns, keeping me guessing.
Frederick Troy is a Sergeant Inspector in London just prior to D-Day. People believe the war is winding down even though the invasion of France is looming. Troy is called to investigate a strange mystery in which a man's arm is discovered separate from the rest of the body. While the scene itself is interesting enough, we begin to meet the dozens of fascinating characters, Lawton will weave into the story. There are so many of them I won't list them here. Their categories are relevant to the plot. First, there's the Scotland Yard Group, second, the American O.S.S. bunch, third, the emigres from all over Europe, particularly Russia. This group includes Troy's family whose parents left Russia and ended up in England via Austria. Lastly, there are folks from the English aristocracy, Germans and other assorted miscellaneous characters. Somehow, Lawton is able to keep them all sorted out for the reader.
The plot is complicated. The only constant is Troy's pursuit of answers, often against orders and just as often putting him in extreme danger. His pursuit of justice during the war and into peacetime defines his character but makes him difficult for others to understand. His boss, Superintendent Onion has labeled him the best intuitive detective around. He is extremely bright and a little bit arrogant but also intelligent and vulnerable.
The plot provides many surprises as Troy works his cases. They eventually make sense but not always at the time Lawton introduces them. The ending is satisfying even though it leaves the reader having to come to his or her own conclusion as to what is the final outcome.
I so enjoyed this book, that I plan to read more of Lawton's work.
Frederick Troy is a Sergeant Inspector in London just prior to D-Day. People believe the war is winding down even though the invasion of France is looming. Troy is called to investigate a strange mystery in which a man's arm is discovered separate from the rest of the body. While the scene itself is interesting enough, we begin to meet the dozens of fascinating characters, Lawton will weave into the story. There are so many of them I won't list them here. Their categories are relevant to the plot. First, there's the Scotland Yard Group, second, the American O.S.S. bunch, third, the emigres from all over Europe, particularly Russia. This group includes Troy's family whose parents left Russia and ended up in England via Austria. Lastly, there are folks from the English aristocracy, Germans and other assorted miscellaneous characters. Somehow, Lawton is able to keep them all sorted out for the reader.
The plot is complicated. The only constant is Troy's pursuit of answers, often against orders and just as often putting him in extreme danger. His pursuit of justice during the war and into peacetime defines his character but makes him difficult for others to understand. His boss, Superintendent Onion has labeled him the best intuitive detective around. He is extremely bright and a little bit arrogant but also intelligent and vulnerable.
The plot provides many surprises as Troy works his cases. They eventually make sense but not always at the time Lawton introduces them. The ending is satisfying even though it leaves the reader having to come to his or her own conclusion as to what is the final outcome.
I so enjoyed this book, that I plan to read more of Lawton's work.
December 6, 2012
I started this book in a happily anticipatory state, looking forward to a good read about life and crime in wartime London. As I progressed I became more and more disappointed. The characters, so interesting at first, did not develop past first impressions; in fact they became flatter as they committed increasingly improbable actions without adequate explanation.
Some of the novel's key plot points were simply not credible. The protagonist, Scotland Yard Inspector Troy, is a member of England's monied class and the product of an expensive education, chums with important members of the aristocracy and perhaps even a few royals. Yet we must believe he has abandoned it all to become a policeman. He does not realize the person who badly beats him in a dark alley is the high society woman he's sleeping with until, during a second fight, she shoots him with a pistol. That the American woman Troy is also sleeping with, a sergeant assigned to the London office of the OSS, is more than a mere secretary is clear enough to the reader if not to Troy; still it seems wrenchingly contrived when when she conveniently turns out to be a major in the Soviet spy service.
Wartime London is casually described with less detail than I expected. The sex, while described in more detail, seems joyless. The principle villains, the aforesaid woman and an American OSS agent, are uninteresting characters about whom we really learn very little, mere foils throughout. We never find out why the British society woman takes up the role of the OSS agent's hit man. We never learn why the German and Polish emigres were murdered or what they were up to that drew the attention of the OSS. We never learn why the Soviets are involved.
Improbable plot points, flat characters, too many unanswered questions ... overall a disappointing read. I was hoping for another Alan Furst WWII espionage novel. I suspect that's what the author was aiming toward. He fell short.
Some of the novel's key plot points were simply not credible. The protagonist, Scotland Yard Inspector Troy, is a member of England's monied class and the product of an expensive education, chums with important members of the aristocracy and perhaps even a few royals. Yet we must believe he has abandoned it all to become a policeman. He does not realize the person who badly beats him in a dark alley is the high society woman he's sleeping with until, during a second fight, she shoots him with a pistol. That the American woman Troy is also sleeping with, a sergeant assigned to the London office of the OSS, is more than a mere secretary is clear enough to the reader if not to Troy; still it seems wrenchingly contrived when when she conveniently turns out to be a major in the Soviet spy service.
Wartime London is casually described with less detail than I expected. The sex, while described in more detail, seems joyless. The principle villains, the aforesaid woman and an American OSS agent, are uninteresting characters about whom we really learn very little, mere foils throughout. We never find out why the British society woman takes up the role of the OSS agent's hit man. We never learn why the German and Polish emigres were murdered or what they were up to that drew the attention of the OSS. We never learn why the Soviets are involved.
Improbable plot points, flat characters, too many unanswered questions ... overall a disappointing read. I was hoping for another Alan Furst WWII espionage novel. I suspect that's what the author was aiming toward. He fell short.
August 14, 2015
If Goodreads allowed nuance in their ratings, I'd give this a 3.75. It starts out strong and carries the reader along, but some of the twists and turns begin to seem implausible, while some of the solutions simply don't tie up cleanly enough to satisfy.
It's 1944 and Frederick Troy is a young, up-and-comer Scotland Yard detective. He's recognized as a gifted natural, but he's also known to be a bit of a maverick. For the reader, that's what makes him so interesting. He's also the UK-born scion of a Russian immigrant family who transformed themselves into posh, plummy, decorated landed-gentry in just one generation. Frederick, their youngest, didn't quite turn out the way they'd expected, choosing a profession they feel is beneath his/their status.
But Troy loves what he does. Over the course of this novel, as he tries to solve the mystery of why a group of German scientists who defected to the Allies are turning up dead in bombed out London and its environs, he also gets to rub shoulders with Briton's MI5 and MI6 as well as agents of the OSS (which after WWII evolved into the US's CIA)and some seriously upper crust characters.
It's 1944 and Frederick Troy is a young, up-and-comer Scotland Yard detective. He's recognized as a gifted natural, but he's also known to be a bit of a maverick. For the reader, that's what makes him so interesting. He's also the UK-born scion of a Russian immigrant family who transformed themselves into posh, plummy, decorated landed-gentry in just one generation. Frederick, their youngest, didn't quite turn out the way they'd expected, choosing a profession they feel is beneath his/their status.
But Troy loves what he does. Over the course of this novel, as he tries to solve the mystery of why a group of German scientists who defected to the Allies are turning up dead in bombed out London and its environs, he also gets to rub shoulders with Briton's MI5 and MI6 as well as agents of the OSS (which after WWII evolved into the US's CIA)and some seriously upper crust characters.
June 21, 2009
This is a combination thriller/whodunit. I give it a high rating, but with these cautions:
You must be willing to suspend your belief and set aside some or all of what you already "know" about London during WWII.
You may never be able to make a strong identification with Police Sergeant Frederick Troy.
You must not mind that Troy has more lives than a Manx Cat.
You have to have a tolerance for a high ratio of British style vs. substance.
You will not be able to figure this one out or follow some of the plot twists.
You will be surprised at the ending and where the author chooses to end the book.
You must be willing to suspend your belief and set aside some or all of what you already "know" about London during WWII.
You may never be able to make a strong identification with Police Sergeant Frederick Troy.
You must not mind that Troy has more lives than a Manx Cat.
You have to have a tolerance for a high ratio of British style vs. substance.
You will not be able to figure this one out or follow some of the plot twists.
You will be surprised at the ending and where the author chooses to end the book.
September 20, 2019
I'd have rated this one a solid five stars if it were not for the very last portion of the story. There the plot strained my believability; up until then, this is a solid, well-written and intricately woven police procedural taking place in London near and after D-Day.
January 7, 2019
Very well-written, no problems there. The kind of book that, when you notice the writing, you realize how good it is.
Inspector Troy, an upper-crust, native born Englishman, (though into a family of wealthy (titled) Russian exiles), is working for the London police, or Scotland Yard, at the end of WW2. It isn't explained until much later why he's doing this, as most men his age have been conscripted to fight the war. However, he's fairly satisfied with his job, has a lot of 'back story' behind him which is fit into the book here and there. (No infodumps here!)
The story starts with the discovery of a severed arm, found by a dog, in a burned out building where a group of young children are playing. Troy is put on the case and offers the group a reward to anyone who finds more 'body parts,' or similar. The chase is on; the story proceeds and it only gets dirtier and grittier and more confusingly-complex from there.
Turns out that someone - An assassin? A German among us? A spy? An American? One of ours, one of theirs, one of someone else's? - is killing off young 'boffins,' or experts in science who are being smuggled into England (from Europe) for their own protection. (Some protection if the moment you get here, you're a target for murder!) There are women - two of which Troy promptly falls into bed with like an early version of James Bond - and English types galore. Those with odd dialects, those with posh veneers, the poor and the rich and the good old coppers in between. It's sort of a field day as Troy marches through them, ever on the hunt of whoever's killing these young scientists.
It's also one of the books which never seems to end. Three or four times when I thought: this is it, so...
So not. It's rather like one of those horror movies, in which you think the monster is dead, but it keeps popping up in odd places. (Think the movie series, 'Alien.') When it finally did end, I looked for more pages, thinking, is this it?
But it's a fine mystery/thriller set in London, circa 1944 or so, and one that doesn't sit still for very long. There's something going on on almost every page.
Three stars.
Inspector Troy, an upper-crust, native born Englishman, (though into a family of wealthy (titled) Russian exiles), is working for the London police, or Scotland Yard, at the end of WW2. It isn't explained until much later why he's doing this, as most men his age have been conscripted to fight the war. However, he's fairly satisfied with his job, has a lot of 'back story' behind him which is fit into the book here and there. (No infodumps here!)
The story starts with the discovery of a severed arm, found by a dog, in a burned out building where a group of young children are playing. Troy is put on the case and offers the group a reward to anyone who finds more 'body parts,' or similar. The chase is on; the story proceeds and it only gets dirtier and grittier and more confusingly-complex from there.
Turns out that someone - An assassin? A German among us? A spy? An American? One of ours, one of theirs, one of someone else's? - is killing off young 'boffins,' or experts in science who are being smuggled into England (from Europe) for their own protection. (Some protection if the moment you get here, you're a target for murder!) There are women - two of which Troy promptly falls into bed with like an early version of James Bond - and English types galore. Those with odd dialects, those with posh veneers, the poor and the rich and the good old coppers in between. It's sort of a field day as Troy marches through them, ever on the hunt of whoever's killing these young scientists.
It's also one of the books which never seems to end. Three or four times when I thought: this is it, so...
So not. It's rather like one of those horror movies, in which you think the monster is dead, but it keeps popping up in odd places. (Think the movie series, 'Alien.') When it finally did end, I looked for more pages, thinking, is this it?
But it's a fine mystery/thriller set in London, circa 1944 or so, and one that doesn't sit still for very long. There's something going on on almost every page.
Three stars.
December 13, 2017
I just finished "Black Out" and found it to be a very enjoyable historical thriller. In February 1944, Detective Sergeant Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard comes into possession of a severed arm, determines it is not the result of a German bombing raid, and begins a homicide investigation. This investigation will take Troy out of the comfortable milieu of urban crime and set him on a path that includes stateless refugees, mysterious women, and a suspect who may have protection at the highest levels of the Allied High Command. John Lawton's writing puts me in mind of such authors as Alan Furst and Philip Kerr, especially with his ability to create a concrete sense of time and place. If historical thrillers are your cup of tea, I highly recommend "Black Out."
June 25, 2019
Nearly gave up on this one as the first few chapters were very, very slow and plodding then it suddenly took off at a furious pace and became a far more interesting read. Sergeant Troy has the makings of a good character but his sexual escapades in the second half seemed so at odds with the initial portrayal of Troy that I wondered if his publisher had told the author to 'spice it up a bit'. For someone who was bombed, stabbed, beaten up and shot he seemed to have a remarkable libido, managing to seduce yet another woman whilst black and blue, concussed, blinded and with stitches in various parts of his anatomy. It’s a good mystery though, if one can suspend disbelief in Troy's seemingly irresistible power over women. I will read another in the series, hopefully the author will have toned things down a little.
May 23, 2022
I listened to this for almost a month. I had high hopes for this novel and it just fell flat for me. I love historical novels dealing with WWII and detectives (of all nationalities) and this one started off strong and continued to go downhill for me. I absolutely hated the last 1/3 of the novel and the ending turned me off of this author for a little while at least. The narration was good and i did enjoy that part at least.
October 10, 2017
Thought this was good. First of the series I have read. It is set in London 1944 and follows a Scotland Yard detective Freddie Troy, in a case involving a number of murders, or possible murders; American Special Operatives; . Troy's boss Onions was a great character and the London of 1944 was well described. Looking forward to reading more by this author.
March 31, 2021
It's more than 20 years since I first read this - the 1st in the Inspector Troy series - and it was almost as good as I remembered, although they plot is somewhat laboured in places. A combination of crime thriller and spy story set in 1944. Troy is the "avenging demon" as one character describes him while his boss calls him as the most intuitive detective he's ever known. The story opens with a bunch of schoolboys finding a severed arm on a bomb site and continues with Troy hunting down an American OSS agent who he believes is a vicious killer. But there are shocks in store as he battles to overcome his own boss at Scotland Yard, Special Branch, British military intelligence and Allied High Command. Lawton is especially good at creating marvellous characters who populate this story of murder and espionage. This isn't a John le Carré type tale - Lawton's in a league of his own (He was one of only half a dozen living English writers to be named in the London Daily Telegraph‘s `50 Crime Writers to Read before You Die.’) and I look forward to rereading more in this series.
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