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Second Violin (Inspector Troy, #6)

John Lawton

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Apr 10, 2019 Sam Reaves rated it really liked it

John Lawton's Inspector Troy series is confusing to keep track of, as the publication order is not the same as the chronological order of the stories, and some of the books had different titles in the U.S. and the U.K. I'm still trying to sort them all out, but the ones I've read have been terrific. They cover the career and personal life of a Scotland Yard detective from the late thirties to the early sixties, from the Blitz through the Profumo scandal. Nominally detective novels, they are lite ...more

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May 18, 2014 Nooilforpacifists rated it really liked it

Shelves: world-war-ii-thriller-espionage

Lawton has become a far better writer as compared with the first book he wrote, "Black Out". This novel, though written sixth, actually begins the series.

I wish I could give it more than four stars. But it has a fundamental flaw: Lawton can't make up his mind whether he's writing a sprawling multi-generational family series -- say Delderfield's "God Is An Englishman" -- or a murder mystery. In consequence, the first two thirds are the former--and reasonably interesting. Then the bulk of the narr ...more

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Jul 26, 2023 Scott Head rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really had a hard time slogging through this one. Very dense, wordy, attempts to be a bit more literary and toff than it ought to be. But it has some wonderful twists and good character building, and it cannot be read without hearing the British dialects, for it is written so. Enjoyable like Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," meaning it was a great tale but about 150 pages too long. ...more

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