by JohnLawton (Author)
The new 'Troy' from John Lawton is a gem. The backdrop is London in the late 1950s. The East End is ripe for redevelopment; the property sharks are buying up the bombsites and Victorian terraces; corruption is rife; Macmillan is PM of a shaky Tory government; Gaitskell expects to succeed as the first Labour PM for almost a decade to the delight of Troy's brothers, one an MP, the other a Fleet Street editor. Troy's last big case (told in Lawton's OLD FLAMES) had been to protect the Russian leaders, Bulganin and Khrushchev, on their first visit to Britain in 1956. Now a series of increasingly sadistic murders occurs on his old East End patch; a wartime girlfriend, who became a GI bride - since married to a Democratic Presidential candidate - reappears into his life. Nor is she the only woman to occupy his bed in the tiny house in Goodwin's Court, St Martin's Lane. When 'Ike', the retiring US President, makes a farewell visit to London, all Troy's worlds combine in a frightening cresendo of corruption and violence. The title, Blue Rondo, is taken from a Dave Brubeck record.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 343
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 14 Apr 2005
ISBN 10: 0297646796
ISBN 13: 9780297646792
Book Overview: The fifth of the much-praised 'Troy' novels 'Black Out' was W H Smith 'Fresh Talent' Columbia Pictures has reoptioned 'Troy' for major feature film series 'Lawton's trick - superbly executed - is to take the threads of history and weave them into his own tapestry.' The Times '[The Troy novels} add up to an enjoyably subversive portrait of mid-century Britain, its places visualised with photographic precision and events described with the authority of a historian.' Jessica Mann, The Spectator 'Uncommonly smart and engrossing... If you yearn for stylish, sophisticated, suspenseful fiction, you need look no further... [Lawton is] a world-class talent... There is the excellence of Lawton's writing... A fictional tour de force.' Patrick Anderson, Washington Post on Old Flames 'A splash of Greene, a twist of Deighton, a small measure of history - John Lawton has produced a thrilling cocktail Old Flames is the sequel to Black Out and every bit as good The cast of characters - both borrowed and invented - is as rich, rounded and eccentrically plausible as any in recent thriller fiction. Great stuff.' The Times