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Scotland Yard's Sergeant Troy returns in a WWII thriller praised as an absorbing blend of espionage and detection" (The Denver Post). It is 1941. Wolfgang Stahl, an American spy operating undercover as an SS officer, has just fled Germany with Hitler's henchmen on his trail. Stahl's man in the American embassy, the shy and sheltered Calvin M. Cormack, is teamed with a boisterous MI5 officer, Walter Stilton, to find the spy and bring him to safety. Their investigation takes them across war-torn London, and in Cormack's case, into the arms of Kitty, his partner's rambunctious daughter. As Cormack and Stilton close in on Stahl, bodies begin turning up--and the duo realize they may not be the only ones in pursuit of the spy. When his partner is suddenly murdered, Cormack must turn to the ingenious devices of his lover Kitty's old flame--Sergeant Troy of Scotland Yard. Together, they investigate the trail of murders and come to a horrifying realization: Cormack and his spy are being played by one of their own in the American embassy. "The blend of Lawton's fictional creations with real characters like Churchill . . . produces a rich and juicy montage that throbs with life." --Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune … (more)
User reviews
Lawton creates great characters. Not just the principle characters, but all sorts of minor
That saga begins just prior to the outbreak of World War II, with Second Violin, and I recommend beginning with that book. (The books in the Inspector Troy series were not written and published in the chronological order of the stories, so don't set out to read them by the order of publication dates.
Lawton is a master of weaving actual historical characters into the fabric of his tale, always in a believable way. He also does a wonderful job of showing us what was like to live in London during "the Blitz," or flee from a mob of Brownshirts in pre-War Germany.
I intend to read the whole series, with relish, and am trying to space them out so the available material won't be exhausted to soon. My highest of recommendations.
'Bluffing Mr. Churchill' (or `Riptide' in Britain) is set in a wartime London. And Frederick Troy is for most of the novel a minor character. (Lawton, it appears enjoys tweaking the 'rules' of series writing: his Troy novels aren't chronological, Troy we're told at one point resembles James Mason [shudder!], sympathetic characters sometimes fall afoul of the villains, and Troy doesn't always make the best decisions.) And here, the majority of the novel is devoted to other characters.
Briefly, 'Bluffing Mr. Churchill' is the story of Captain Cal Cormack, a bespectacled and seemingly ingenious American soldier and his partner, Chief Inspector Stilton, possibly the most delightful copper the reader will ever encounter. The pair is trying to beat Nazi assassins to Wolfgang Stahl, an American-run German agent who is somewhere in London.
Lawton's 1941 London comes alive. The devastation of the air raids, the pervading grief at the loss of life among both civilians and the military, the disruption of the social order and the undermining of the certainty that life as it has been will continue are carefully juggled with the English ability to find honor and courage and humor in the worst of situations. Lawton's novel is in many ways an entertaining social history rendered with sympathy and humor.
Five Stars. The bottom line: `Bluffing Mr. Churchill' is indeed a well written mystery set in World War II London and should have great appeal for those who enjoy period mysteries, but it is so much more. It is also a striking portrait of London and its people.