Bluffing Mr. Churchill (Inspector Troy Thriller Book 4)

It is the spring of 1941. Hitler is preparing for Barbarrossa the secret offensive to conquer Russia - a huge three-pronged invasion by 4,000,000 troops to destroy the Soviet State. Reinhardt Heydrich is one of Hitler's closest advisors and head of the Reich Security Office. One of Heydrich's closest advisors is an Austrian officer named Stahl. Stahl knows everything but he's an American spy handled from Zurich by Calvin Cormack III. Cormack is a young West Pointer with great connections; father a prominent GOP Senator from New York. Stahl, known to the Americans as The Tim Man, is outed and flees to Britain where he goes to ground because he knows German Intelligence is out to kill him.. And now we are in London after the blitz. Blackouts. Rationing. Blocks and blocks of bombed and burned out homes and buildings. Cormack, suspecting Stahl has skipped to London, follows and joins with British Intelligence in an attempt to find him. (The British Intelligence Officers were too, too posh for my taste). Meantime a body turns up which attracts the attention of both British and American Intelligence - obviously someone from German Intelligence sent to England to find Stahl and kill him before he talks more. Also, meantime, Rudolph Hess, Hitler's oldest friend and supporter, flies to Britain and jumps, whereupon all the British Intelligence people who have been helping Cormack hunt for Stahl decamp to the Hess investigation and Cormack is left pretty much alone except that a veteran detective from Scotland Yard - Walter Stilton by name - is helping him. (An aside :bringing the Hess thing into this plot just complicated the book. Wasn't necessary.) However, the Hess thing brings up the story of the Cornack-Stilton team which is the best part of the book. Stilton is an old time London police officer who can go into a pub - and the reader goes with him into lots of them- and get more information in a minute than most men can in a day. You like him. And you like the Stilton family - all of them: Vera, Kitty (the oldest girl and a sergeant of police) the daughters and the two boys destined to go down with all hands on HMS Hood. You feel comfortable in their home and you love being there, even though it's quite a family adventure. Skipping over the details of all this Cormack-Stilton investigative team let's just say that Stilton is eventually assassinated by someone and Cormack who isn't the brightest bulb on the street is left to find out who did it and to find Stahl and to protect him. Enter Freddy Troy, a young Scotland yard bright-boy-Murder-investigator and apparently a story all to himself and some one well known to a lot of people who reviewed this book (this was my first experience with Mr. Toy). Together they - Cormack and Troy - do the right thing, but not before each of them has had several flings with Kitty Stilton, the most aggressive sexual predator a writer could invent. Red headed, green eyed, very tall, lovely, a policewoman to the nines there's no seduction for her. It's "Come on. What are you waiting for? Let's get to it!" A bit over the top for me. (The only thing I'll tell you about the ending is that, to my disappointment, she runs off with Cal to be married in the States.) Is the book good enough for a recommendation? Depends. Too many characters. Plot not well developed. Too long. Too "jumpy". And the author goes into way too much detail telling you where Cormack goes in London, street to street, to house to house. One needs a map of London to follow the action - a good big detailed map. Three stars and that's being generous.

John Lawton's highly enjoyable Frederick Troy series stands out for several reasons. Troy, the son of a powerful newspaper publisher, doesn't quite fit into the stereotypical English mold. As to be expected, he is literate and articulate, cultured and almost moral, but our Freddie is no James Bond or even Albert Campion. He is merely Freddie, caught between his Russian heritage and the English environment, his education and his own inclinations.'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, so not the alpha hero!], 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.Since Lawton's novels sometimes have different titles in Britain and the USA, and since they're not written in a strict chronological order, here are two lists that may help; no promises, but I think I got it right.Chronological Order (based on Troy's life): A Lily of the Field, Second Violin, Riptide (Bluffing Mr. Churchill), Black Out, Old Flames, Blue Rondo (Flesh Wounds), A Little White Death.Publishing Order: Black Out, Old Flames, A Little White Death, Bluffing Mr. Churchill, Flesh Wounds, Second Violin, A Lilly of the Field.

worth reading

I have a problem with the text of this volume by John Lawton. Apart from a change in title the text is identical to that of Lawton's "Riptide". Whether this is a print run problem that needs to be taken up with the publisher or some other error. However you should be careful about purchasing these books together.

very good condition

As ever well written and just about likely

If you haven't read John Lawton, you need to. Read all of them! Outstanding!