A Little White Death: An Inspector Troy Thriller

Another winner from John Lawton. His books are issued in wrong order, or he wrote them set in different times, I am not sure . Anyway, these richly textured, multy-layered novels are feast for the soul. Nothing is simple ahd easily guessed in his books. People wear masks, there are secrets and deceit on every step. Commander Freddie Troy tries to find the truth in this mess. England in 1960's is a turbulent place, everything is changing. There isn't much difference between good and bad guys, or they switch roles on regular basis. Stunning book by this reclusive author. No wonder he avoids limelight if his view of the world is his work.

Perhaps Lawton is an aquired taste - his books are long on atmosphere and the minutia of life in post war Britain but if you lived through these trying times you would know how well he portrays what was left of the class system, the "old boy" network and the idiocy of British politics. Once you have the taste of his books they become as addictive as chocolate and almost as much fun. Detective Troy is both severely human and astonishingly clever and Lawton paints him in glorious technicolor. He's a rogue, a magnet for beautiful women and not beyond bending the law almost to breaking point. Readers should start with "Bluffing Mr. Churchill" and finish with "A Little White Death" and they, as I, will be totally in thrall. Please Mr. Lawton if you are reading this, give us an encore!

I like everything Lawton writes in this series. They are quick reads that hold your interest through the characters. the plots and the superb settings of London in the last century. I am always anxious to read the next one to see where Troy goes.

This is the third, and from the look of it the last, in the Troy series. It's also the longest. The plot does take a while to get going, but that's becuse Lawton is at work upon a vast canvas - post-war British history, the evolution and generation of a culture. And he does it very, very well. He lifts the book out of the genre altogether to create 'Something Else' - a new genrre, if you like. To be moaning about kinky sex is to miss the point, that it's a book about morality and the last thing the sex is is superficial. There's not alot of it, but it is central to the ideas Lawton is dealing with... the moral crisis in a nation that creates its breaking point. Usually he garners comparisons to Le Carre or Deighton ... this is more Waugh or even Gore Vidal. This is a writer out of the top drawer. Not to be missed.

This is the third book in John Lawton's series and you should read it ONLY after "Black Out" and "Old Flames". First of all, it deals a lot with the events and characters of the those novels, and second...it is not as intriguing as those two books. I liked it, but that's because I am fond of the characters, especially Troy himself. Starting the book, I expected to find a web of intrigue, but the events mentioned on the back cover happened only after several hundred pages! Until then we had Troy's reflections on life, death, etc. What we have here is a good, clever novel about the 60's, just don't expect it to be a thriller it isn't.