Product Description

BLACK OUT is an outstanding debut thriller from a major new talent, featuring an original new detective, Sgt Frederick Troy, the son of a distinguished Russian emigre. Children playing on an East End bombsite during the Blitz find a severed arm. This is no ordinary murdur and Troy is soon on the trail of a german espionage network leading through a labyrinth of conspiracy and betrayal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #673264 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
John Lawton is a degenerating misanthrope who lives in a remote hilltop village in Derbyshire. He is not entirely sure why. He likes T.C. Boyle, Chuck Palahniuk and Cormac McCarthy - and considers the seminal text of our time to be Myron by Gore Vidal. He is keen on the cultivation of the onion and obscure varieties of potato. He hates tories, teachers and travel (in that order) - but loves to visit Arizona, Florence ... New York ...

Customer Reviews

Thoughtful and evocative
This is an excellent book. Maybe the plot is a bit contrived but you don't notice because it is so beautifully written and because it evokes wartime London so powerfully. I did not live through the war so I can't speak to its accuracy but I finished reading it with a vivid picture of London in 1944. I also understood quite a few subtleties and patterns of societies which I had not appreciated before. By the way, this is also a very good crime thriller -- I sat up until 3.30 one morning to finish it! It's the second John Lawton book I've read (I ran across Riptide in an airport bookshop) and both have been much more thought-provoking than the average paperback mystery. Highly recommended.

London Calling
This first book in the Troy series left me rather torn. On the one hand, it's a gripping page-turned stuffed with great characters and atmosphere, all set in London just prior to D-Day. On the other hand, the plot relies on so many coincidences and contrivances that one's suspension of disbelief is sorely tested. Like the Berlin detective Bernie Gunther in Phillip Kerr's excellent WWII trilogy (collected as Berlin Noir), Lawton's D.S. Troy is a wonderful character. Born in England to upper class Russian Jewish parents, he doesn't believe in Queen and country, but pursues a broader notion of justice. As a young Scotland Yard whiz-kid, he tries to unravel a series of murders and disappearances tied somehow to former German scientists and the American military.

The downside is-and I give nothing away by saying this-that too many central figures in the story are connected to Troy's personal life. One victim lives above his closest police friend, another is known to his uncle (who just happens to be a scientist working in military research), another central player is known to him from childhood, and another important character has a past history with Troy as well. Not to mention the climax, in which Troy's well connected brother plays a key role. It gets to be rather a lot to ignore, and the worst part is, there isn't really a need for all those connections to be there!

Fortunately, Lawton provides ample detail and atmosphere to keep everything enjoyable. His portrait of the tough conditions in wartime London, and the privileged place of the American military there is striking. Food rationing, bombing raids, dense fog, rubble-strewn streets, tough East End children, it's all highly evocative. Similarly, he provides a picture of England's simmering domestic political situation that will come as a surprise to many American readers. Every character springs to life under Lawton's pen, from Troy's keen subordinate, to his canny superior, to a hooker with a heart of gold, and bluff American officers. My own favorite is the cross-cursing Polish forensics expert.

Coincidences aside, the book is exceedingly well-written, and it's shame Lawton isn't better known in the US. A second Troy book, Old Flames, is set in 1956, a the third, A Little White Death, in 1963-neither of these had yet been published in US.

Dead body found in East End of London...
...but it's war time, so surely it's just another victim of the Blitz? Not so, and Sgt Troy proves it. Join the war time of London during WWII and feel the atmosphere. Lawton's description of London during WWII is so good it's hard to imagine he wasn't there.

This is not a "normal" book for the period - actual "normal" life went on. It would have been so easy to assume the dead body was a result of the bombing, but not so, and Sgt Troy knows it. When not looking after his pig and his personal life, Troy knows this and investigates. Yes, don't forget, normal life continued for Londoners during the Blitz.

If you want a book with a difference this is it! Lawton is excellent at producing the feel of London during the war, from the local pubs of the East End to the Underground. Roll on more!