Book Description
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a nineteenthcentury French novelist and playwright. His work of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, is a broad, often satirical panorama of French society, particularly the petite bourgeoisie, in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815-namely the period of the Restoration (1815-1830) and the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Along with Gustave Flaubert, whose work he influenced, Balzac is generally regarded as a founding father of realism in European literature.Download Description
One has little doubt in deciding that, of the two spurs which goaded Balzac's labours, his desire for wealth acted more persistently and energetically than his desire for glory. In his conversations, in his correspondence, money was the eternal theme; in his novels it is almost always the hinge on which the interest, whether of character, plot, or passion, depends. Money was his obsession, day and night; and, in his dormant visions, it must have loomed largely. ... Read more

Book Description
With his Frederick Troy series, John Lawton has been compared to such top historical espionage writers as John le Carré and Len Deighton. Now, in this prequel to Black Out, Lawton transports readers to 1941 London during the German Blitz, brilliantly re-creating the era of ration tickets, air raids, and bomb shelters.

Wolfgang Stahl, an American spy operating undercover as an SS officer, has fled Germany with Hitler’s secret blueprints for the invasion of Russia. As American, British, and German operatives race through war-torn London in search of the spy, bodies begin to pile up and the question arises: Are Stahl and his American contact being played by one of their own? In this game of spy vs. spy, only Sergeant Troy of Scotland Yard will be shrewd enough to uncover the truth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Atmospheric thriller set in the London of 1941
This is my first read of the "Inspector Troy" series which I gather has many fans.

The time is 1941. An Austrian close to SS factotum Reinhard Heydrich is a spy for the Americans and about to be uncovered. Hurriedly, he fakes his death in an air raid and runs. To where, we don't yet know.

Calvin Cormack, a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Zurich is told to go to London. In London, Cormack, the son of a Congressman who is against American involvement in Europe, is teamed with Walter Stilton, a seemingly plodding Special Branch Inspector.

Stahl, the fugitive Austrian, is in England: so Cormack believes.

The search by Stilton and Cormack begins and the bodies start dropping soon enough. Cormack is drawn into the family life of Stilton and Lawton weaves a plot that beautifully brings in English life, American politics and the family of Freddie Troy. Troy is a homicide detective for Scotland Yard.

Lawton does a nice job of sketching out his characters. Interestingly, Troy plays an almost secondary role, although he is the ultimate hero of the book. The novel does move along nicely, but it is so laden with detail that it does seem to slow down from time to time.

Overall, Lawton does a wonderful job of creating the atmosphere of 1941 London. The characters are all believable, the story more complex on a personal level than most mysteries and the plot doesn't have any disturbing jumps. Overall, a very entertaining read.

Jerry

Good on atmosphere, but the characters & plot didn't grab me
I haven't read any of the other Inspector Troy novels; I picked up this one because the jacket's reviews were attractive.I realize now that the review excerpts focused on what I liked about the book (its terrific recreation of a time & place) and were silent on what didn't grab me (the characters & plot).

It's almost worth reading just for the "feel."This is what it must've been like to sit around the kitchen table of a middle-class London policeman in Spring of 1941.

But while the novel is literate and well-written, there's something distancing about it.I found Troy the less interesting and less sharply delineated of the two major characters (Troy and an American soldier, Cal Cormack), and Lawton spends much more time on Cormack.The spy / murder-mystery plot plays out without much momentum; better are the glimpses of the internal politics of the police force and diplomatic services.

I expect I'd like Bluffing Mr. Churchill much more if I already had some investment in the continuing characters.I doubt I'll hunt out the other books in the series.

Lawton Is Now on My "A" List
I began this series out of sequence with "Old Flames", a very clever 1950s spy thriller.This novel picks up Inspector Troy's career at an earlier stage, during WW II, but before the action of "Black Out".Though Troy doesn't get center stage, this is still an excellent story, with its fascinating picture of early 1940s London and the last few months before its two biggest players, the US and USSR, entered the war.

Recommended, in spite of a couple of others here thinking that a prior UK publication is grounds to knock a perfectly good novel.

Vastly inferior to the earlier Inspector Troy books
I liked Black Out and Old Flames, but this book just isn't worth the money.John Lawton ought to give me a free coupon to his next book--it HAS to be better.

Poor plot, very little time with Inspector Troy, and everybody and every situation is one-dimensional.

Re-read the earlier books and wait for your library to order this one.

DUPLICATION
WARNING TO LAWTON FANS.THIS BOOK IS IDENTICAL TO "RIPTIDE." ... Read more

Amazon.com
Just out in paperback, this terrific thriller by a British filmmaker begins in WWII London, where a well-connected young police officer named Frederick Troy tries to find out why scientists working on a secret project are disappearing and dying. Their fate has something to do with one of the nastier villains in recent fiction, a rogue American OSS agent, but it isn't until the war is over that Troy discovers the truth in ruined Berlin.Book Description
The Blitz, London 1944 - as the Luftwaffe make their last desperate assault on the city, Londoners take to the shelters once again and the signal for D-Day is eagerly awaited.

In the East End children lead police to a charred, dismembered corpse buried in a bombsite. The victim is German and it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder. For Russian emigre Detective-Sergeant Troy it is the start of a manhunt which will lead him into a world of stateless refugees, military intelligence and corruption in high places. A manhunt in which Troy is both the hunter and the hunted. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Great beginning of a fine mystery series
I recently reread John Lawton's mystery novel, "Black Out," with the same enjoyment experienced some years back on the first time around.The book's protagonist, police sergeant Freddy Troy, is a continuously interesting creation who comes from a well-described privileged British background.More interesting to me, was the care that the author takes to describe the environment of war-time London with all of its grit and stress.The book's storyline has been criticized by some reviewers as too dependent on coincidences in Troy's family/personal life and his work as a detective sergeant, but I don't think that the device is overdone.One of author Lawton's purposes in this book, and others that follow in the series, is social critique which is often focused on the irresponsbile or uncivil behavior of British upper and middle-classes.
In any event, what the reader gets in "Black Out" is a first-rate detective/spy story set in a wholly believable WWII context with well-drawn characters and plenty of action.The books in the Freddy Troy series that follow "Black Out" are worthy of any mystery lover's attention.

A Tale of World War Two
This book is actually in two parts; the first takes place in London just before D-Day, and then in 1948 Berlin during the airlift.The first part which takes up 80% of the book is almost a prelude to the second part (which explains a lot of why things happened in the first part).

During the first part, Frederick (Freddie) Troy the second son of a Russian ex-pat and English Baronet, is a sargeant in the Metropolitan Police Murder Squad.During early 1944 he manages to get cut with a ax, beat up, blinded, concussed, shot and bombed twice.(His brother who is in the airforce and is decorated multiple times, never gets a scratch.)

He also ends up having affairs with two diametrically opposed woman; a posh six foot tall member of the english aristocracy, and a five foot italian-american sargeant in the OSS.Along with his partner/assistant Constable (PC) Wildeve, he also manages to solve a couple of murders and bring one murderer to justice, while another gets away.

The second part that takes place mostly in Berlin, has too many spoilersto mention, but involves all of the loose ends from the first part. It's a very enjoyable story, as long as you can overlook some of the coincidences.

An ExcellentRead
The novel is set in London at the end of the Second World War. Unlike many of the novels in the mystery genre, Lawton takes great pains to carefully develop the setting of his story as well as the characters that make up this wonderful tapestry of a novel. He carefully lays the story out for the reader and shows richness in his ability to tell a story. I learned to adjust to the spellings that are part of the Englsh, rather than the American Language as well as some the humor that is wry. The action moves along well and this is a truly enjoyable read.

Really Terrible Stuff
Lawton's debut novel is a dud.The writing style is stilted, dry, and forced.The characters are two-dimensional, and the plot is boring and tainted with anti-American sentiment.Many times during my reading of this book, I almost put it down--but because I didn't have another book on hand, I kept forcing myself on.

Our hero, Sgt Troy, sleeps with two female characters (essentially the only women in the book) while doing precious little detective work.He somehow manages to solve the entire case while getting bombed and shot a few times.I couldn't bring myself to finish it.This is such a poor effort!

Great thriller
I originally bought this book for my dad - he served as a GI in
London from 1943-46 and is a real history buff. He was crazy about
it, said it's the most convincing depiction of the place and the time
he's ever read. So I pointed out the 'big mistake' over the WAC, and
he said it was dumb but minor, after all Lawton had the clothes, the
music, the food all right - even had the name of the head waiter at a
London night club right, and that was amazing - how does anyone dig
up stuff like that? So, atmospheric? sure, detailed? sure, but it's
also a classy thriller, a plot that just rips along.So I read it
too, and more than that I read the two sequels and the good news is
they get better and better. This guy is good. They don't come much
better.
B Clark, Carthage. ... Read more

Book Description
Old Flames is a riveting spy novel sparked by historical events, with a twisting, turning plot that The Sunday Times (London) declares "a strange, thoughtful, quiet, intelligent spellbinder of a book, penetrating the very heart of betrayal." It is April 1956 at the height of the Cold War: Khrushchev and Bulganin, leaders of the Soviet Union, are in Britain on an official visit. Chief Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard, son of a distinguished Russian emigre, is assigned to be Khrushchev's bodyguard and to spy on him. Soon after, a Royal Navy diver is found dead and mutilated beyond recognition in Portsmouth Harbor. What was he doing under the hull of Khrushchev's ship, and who sent him there? Is the corpse that of Arnold Cockerell, a furniture salesman with a mysterious source of income and a bizarre fetish for scuba gear, or did Cockerell fake his own death to escape an unknown nemesis? To find the answers, Inspector Troy must venture into the heart of the M16. He encounters the trifling bureaucrats of Scotland Yard, fellow officers who may be sleeping with the enemy, and seductive identical twins. Meanwhile cold-blooded killings have started to follow him wherever he goes. Is it possible that the executioner is a fellow policeman-or, worse still, an old friend? In a world where secret codes lead to hidden Swiss bank accounts and an entire nation struggles to makes sense of itself in the wake of war, can anyone be trusted? Brilliantly evoking the atmosphere of the Cold War and London in the 1950s, Old Flames is a thrilling adventure of intrigue and suspense. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

First Rate Historical Thriller
I like books that have a sense of time and place. "Old Flames" has both in plenty. The book takes place at a time when the world was still fascinated by happenings in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev visits the UK and a supposed undercover operation sets murder in motion. Inspector Troy spends a night out on a pub crawl with the Soviet Leader, while a former "flame" reappears - Larissa Tosca. Troy navigates the demands of family and politics in a novel steeped in atmosphere. The cold war is just beginning; the British Empire is in its wanning last days, and the Soviet Union is a power to be reckoned with. Troy is a character utterly unimpressed by position and power, and he solves crimes no matter who may get "dirtied" along the way. Troy is also fairly a-moral and completely a-political, which makes him the perfect character to be in the midst of a political thriller.

I like John Lawton quite a lot. The Inspector Troy series is hard to follow (heck, Troy himself changes jobs many times inthe course of the series). The books extend from WW II to the early 1960', but the novels were not published in order. To make matters worse, his books are published under different titles in the UK and the US. Arrrrgh. Nonetheless, Troy is a unique and enjoyable character - well worth the effort of sorting the books and publication dates out. The novels are all set in London, ranging from t he 1940's to the 1960's. There is a significant amount of historical material - and quite a bit of historical license as well. These are, after all , novels. I highly recommend this book, and all of the other Inspector Troy books.

Blow too hard on embers and you get cinders in your eyes, not flames
This would have been a great book had Lawton removed about 100 pages and stuck to the main story more.Having said that, the story itself is a good one and says alot about England in the middle 1950s, dealing with the loss of Empire and the destruction to their infrastructure in WWII.

Frederick Troy, who we met during WWII in "Black Out" is now an inspector and head of the 'Murder Squad' at Scotland Yard.His brother Roy, is a Labour MP, and shadow Foreign Minister.When a need for a russian speaker to 'assist' Special Branch in listening in on Kruschev during a 1956 visit, comes about, Troy is convinced to help out.Here is where a lot of the story could have been cut.

When the Russians claim that they were under surveillance by a frogman, his body doesn't turn up for five months.When Troy is asked by his 'widow' to prove the body isn't that of her husband, a series of events begin to enfold that will lead Troy to revelations he wished he never had to uncover.To say more would give away the best part of the story, which is well developed and presented in a believable manner.

Lawton, also has the distracting habit of putting ideas into the mouths of this characters that would be prescient if the book was written in 1956, but since it was written in 1995, the only ones who would be amazed are the other characters in the book (so why do it?).Lastly I find Lawton's treatment of heterosexual sex, and especially his ideas as to how woman look at sex to be a cross between Nabokov and a twelve year old.When reading some of his scenes, I have come to wonder if the man has ever had sex with a woman, or to that matter anyone other than himself. Just MHO.

A Powerful Slow-Burner
I came late to this book. I'd read the one that came first (Black Out) and the one that comes after (White Death). This is the best of the three. But if you're reading it for the thrills you're wasting your time. Reading Lawton for thrills or worse for the 'whodunnit' is like reading Kurt Vonnegut and complaining that his sci-fi is nothing like Star Wars.Who dun it isn't even on the map. These books are the most sophisticated literary historicals to come out of England in 25 years. His dialogue fizzles, his metaphors meander, his characters bring history roaring to life.Old Flames takes as its plot the events of 1956 - when Britain invaded Egypt - a low tide in the Special Relationship between Britain and Uncle Sam. This is 2004. What, in letters 8 miles high, could be more topical?

slow start but a sprint at the end
i read a few espionage novels each year, in amidst many mystery/police procedural novels. this is the best in the past few years. i liked a recently read alan furst novel, but i'd have to say this one was more satisfying. furst is good. lawton is very good. i didn't know the history, so the author's liberty with it didn't bother me. but i enjoyed the history and the author explains at the end that while he takes some liberties, he's not distorted events.

more cerebral than deighton; akin to le carre.

not worth reading
I heard a wonderful radio interview with the author and couldn't wait to read Old Flames.Unfortunately it was trite & predictable.I kept thinking it would get better but with only 55 pages to go I stopped reading it because I realized I didn't care who did it or anything else. ... Read more