BLACK OUT AND THE BUTTERED SCONES OF OLDE ENGLAND

I have just finished reading John Lawton's Black Out earlier this morning, and I am still humming with the delightful thought that there are on my shelves three more Troy books to be read.

It is February 1944, and as the country waits for the opening of the Second Front a ragged stump of a human arm is found by boys playing on a bomb site in Stepney. When Polish pathologist Kolankiewicz identifies the body as that of a German, from a cufflink with a Munich hallmark, and informs Frederick Troy about another German found the previous year on Tower beach, with a bullet hole in his cheek, Troy realises he is on the trail of a serial killer. But a very unusual serial killer with some powerful connections.

'Forty-five automatic? There's a Colt forty-five automatic that's a standard issue American-forces weapon.'

'Yes-but the black market these days. I know a pub in Mill Hill where you could buy a Howitzer over the counter.' Kolanciewicz gestured at the cafe window. 'Most of your colonial cousins would sell you any thing from a pair of nylons to a half- track. You need a second-hand Flying Fortress? Try the Railwayman's Arms in Mill Hill.

And the money they get they spend monopolising the buttered scones of Olde England!'

If you thought you had read everything on the theme of the serial killer this superb police procedural gives it a new twist, and keeps you guessing the outcome until the very end.

On top of the excellent plot with a few surprises John Lawton gives the reader an evocation of wartime London second to none, and a group of unforgettable characters. The clever reliable Constable Jack Wildeve, Kolanciewicz the mad Polish pathologist, the solid Superintendent Stanley Onions, Troy's eccentric scientist uncle Nikolai, the tall elegant Lady Diana Brack, and the short bubbly blonde American WAC Tosca all feature in a wonderful ensemble cast along with the hero Frederick Troy.

Troy is the younger son of a millionaire Russian emigre newspaper owner, who has become a dedicated policeman abandoning the vacuous lifestyle of many of his class to be an ordinary 'copper'.
His family connections gained him a special dispensation from the Met's height restriction, but his shortness never hampers his 'success' with women, and I wondered if this was one reason why I liked the Troy series so much.

Black Out is a wonderful read with an original plot, evocative atmosphere, and great characters it represents crime fiction at its very best. And it is quite fun as well.

'Gorgeous,' he said, inhaling from the jar. 'Pity we've nothing to eat with it.'

'We have,' she said out of sight.

'Such as?'

'Such as.......me!'

He turned. She had taken of her blouse and was unhooking her brassiere, unleashing a bosom of such magnificence as to stagger the beholder.

She grasped the jar and upended it over her torso.

'OK, baby. I'm yours. Sauce me!'

EUROCRIME REVIEW: WASHINGTON SHADOW

My review of Aly Monroe's second book in her Peter Cotton series Washington Shadow has been posted on Euro Crime.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and not only because it featured an interestingly named patrolman. This was a infinitely superior book to Maze of Cadiz with much more happening, a lot of interesting characters, and an evocative atmosphere that reeked of diplomatic intrigue.

I shall be keeping an eye out for the next book in Aly Monroe's Peter Cotton series.

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: K IS FOR KRAJEWSKI

Is it my imagination or are these weekly challenges coming round quicker, and are they getting more difficult? I am posting a day earlier this week but it does seem as if it was only yesterday that I posted about John Lawton.

My contribution to this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme at Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise is K is for Krajewski. Marek Krajewski.

Marek Krajewski has written the Eberhard Mock series of books, featuring a very quirky detective and the German city of Breslau, which is now the Polish city of Wroclau. Marek is a lecturer in Classical Studies at the university, and the books are a homage to the city and its turbulent history.

Unfortunately so far only two of the Eberhard Mock have been translated into English by Danusia Stok. Click below for my reviews.

Death in Breslau

End of the World in Breslau

In a previous post I described Eberhard Mock, as an alcoholic, depressive, brutal wife-beating policeman, who is interested in the classics, astrology, chess and prostitutes, and who administers harsh justice without recourse to the legal system.

You could smell the beer, bratwurst, sex and blood in these books and Mock, the hero/anti-hero is so eccentric and so horrible that I do hope Quercus intend to publish the rest of the series.

You can read my interview with Marek Krajewski here part one and part two.

And a post about two of 2009's great crime fiction characters, Lisbeth Salander and Eberhard Mock.

ROSES ROSES: BILL JAMES: CRIME FICTION

I could not find a book with a Christmas title for the meme at Mysteries in Paradise but the superb Bill James novel Roses Roses is set around Christmas, so I hope that counts.

Megan, the wife of Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, is murdered in a station car park on her return from a shopping trip to London. Colin Harpur and Desmond Isles investigate the case by their own very different methods, while all the characters in the story are brilliantly unsavoury. The world of the police that Bill James depicts in the quirky Harpur and Isles series is probably more accurate than most people in the job would want to admit.

Isles invites his subordinate Garland to Christmas dinner.

'Francis do you want to attend, with companion of course, as long as he-she washes under the arms? You still hetero? I pry only so we can alternate gender placings at the table, on which Sarah's fussy.

I would have asked earlier but had to mull over at length whether I really wanted a thin-lipped arrogant prat like you present on such a goodly occasion. But obviously Harpur will be there, so why not another who's had my wife?

Christmas is hardly a time for mean spirits, surely.'

'Thanks so much , sir' Garland replied. 'It's very kind but i always go to my mother's.'

'How sweet,' Isles said.

BLACKOUT AND KITTYHAWK

I think that John Lawton's Troy series are brilliantly written books and am enjoying reading Blackout, the third book in the series set in 1944.

But I have noticed an error! I wondered if this was deliberate as surely someone as clever as John Lawton would not make such a simple mistake, or was it the editor?

Troy realised how odd this must be to a man of Onion's age. He had been born into another world . He was of an age with the novels of H.G.Wells and Jules Verne. He had been seven when two bicycle manufacturers took their dream down to Kittyhawk, South Carolina, and made it fly.

But I am being pedantic there is too much wit, wisdom and suspense in this novel to let such a simple geographical error spoil my enjoyment. Although Tarheels might be very annoyed.

'God, all that paperwork. You wouldn't think a German would be so hard to find. There's never one around when you want one.'

'If he was here in 1940, then he would almost certainly have been rounded up in that wave of detentions after the fall of Norway. He may even have been interned. That means fingerprints.'

'Well, he's hardly likely to have arrived here since, is he?'

'It's that possibility that worries me,' said Troy.

ABOUT BOOKS

Last December Barbara of Scandinavian Crime Fiction was kind enough to give me an award for 'critical perspicacity'.

The definition of perspicacious is 'having a ready insight into and understanding of things'.

I wasn't sure I qualified then and a year later I am even less sure, but it did give me an opportunity to post about five vital ingredients and one pleasurable extra I would like to find in a crime fiction book.

1. A decent plot, and some interesting sub plots.

2. Entertainment and some humour amongst the horror of the crimes.

3. Memorable characters that I wanted to follow in future books.

4. To be educated and learn something.

5. To be made to think about society, and the world's problems.

6. Photographs of attractive female authors.

I would try in any review to point out whether or not the book in question meets those exacting standards. But there is also that quality of writing that makes a book a good read and draws the reader easily into the world the author has created. Some writers just have that ability, and some writers learn it over a period of time.

What makes a book a 'page turner' and therefore an enjoyable read, and what on the other hand makes a book seem forced, staged and unnatural and makes reading it hard work?

I have just started reading Black Out by John Lawton and the quality of the writing, the convincing dialogue and the evocative portrait of wartime London he creates are quite brilliant.

How should a book reviewer go about the task of reviewing a book:

A] Firstly read the book, because some reviewers apparently avoid this basic task, and just skim the book.

B] Give a brief plot summary without giving away to much to the reader.

I have read reviews [not by any of our gang on Friend Feed] that make it hardly worth while bothering to read the book. I have even read book covers and blurbs that tell you so much about the plot that reading the book is a bit of an anti-climax.

C] Say whether you liked reading the book or not.

Some people only review books they like, but I want to read critical reviews especially written by people whose opinions I value. A critical review is a public service to other readers and perhaps even to the book's author, who might take the criticism to heart and write a much better book next time round.

D] Give the reasons why you like, or dislike the book?

I like X's books because the publisher sends me free books, or I met X at Crime Fest and he or she treated me a steak dinner with three bottles of wine. That is at least an honest approach and possibly a bit of wishful thinking.

But I think that pointing out that the book has an inspirational character, such as Mr Geung in Colin Cotterill's books, or the wonderful humour in the books might be more convincing reasons for a potential reader.

Or for instance I dislike book Y because by inferring that the Gestapo are just like a normal police force, but with smarter leather coats, the author has created entirely the wrong atmosphere for a serious book.

E] I also like to include a quote from the book in order to give the reader a taste of the type of humour or style of narrative, but that can be tricky if the review is negative owing to copyright restrictions.

D] Give some information about the author especially if they are interesting, or look like Liza Marklund.

With struggling newspapers abandoning book reviews or relying on the five line synopsis, the blogosphere is filling the gap and providing people with the information and opinions they need to decide what to read.

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: J IS FOR JOHN LAWTON

Here is my contribution to this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme at Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise.

This meme is like a game of chess as you will have to think three or four moves [or letters] ahead, as it gets a bit tricky over the next few weeks.

My J is for John. John Lawton is author of the Troy novels, a series that he calls 'a social history of my time', and of mine too.

The series in chronological order:

Second Violin

Riptide [Bluffing Mr Churchill in the USA]

Blackout

Old Flames

Blue Rondo [Flesh Wounds in the USA]

A Little White Death

I was encouraged to read John Lawton by Crimeficreader, whose excellent essay on the Troy series you can read here.

This was written some time before John Lawton went back in time to write Second Violin as a superb prequel.

My review of Second Violin and here.

Crimeficreader's review of Second Violin

My review of Riptide

I have only read the first two, Second Violin and Riptide, both were so good I decided to postpone reading the rest of the series, saving them to be enjoyed at a later date.

John Lawton is not a high profile author, and he seems to actively avoid publicity. Perhaps that is the reason why his work is not better known, because the books are definitely of the highest quality. He blends real life characters into a fictional story making it both credible, and at the same time capturing the atmosphere of wartime London. He also has the ability, which seems to escape some authors, to portray cockney characters without producing dialogue that sounds twee.

He grabs the reader and takes them with him on a roller coaster journey especially in Second Violin with its astonishingly brilliant descriptions of Kristallnacht, and the internment of aliens on the Isle of Man.

The novels which tell the story of Frederick and Rod Troy, sons of Russian emigre Alexi Troy, and a multitude of other interesting characters are full of humour, truthfulness, and have a refreshing lack of sentimentality. They are a little bit different from the average crime fiction novel, if there is such a thing, and are well worth reading if you want to be educated and even amused by the behaviour of human beings under incredible stress.

The last book in the series A Little White Death is set in 1963 at the time of the Christine Keeler /John Profumo scandal and on the back cover is the blurb, 'A Harley Street physician blows his brains out.'

My father had a small hardware shop in Chelsea during the 'swinging sixties', and that Harley Street physician was a good customer, so I feel a kind of connection to the Troy series.