From Publishers Weekly
In this stimulating prequel to Lawton's acclaimed Inspector Troy series (Black Out; Old Flames; etc.), London is in the middle of the blitz and 25-year-old Freddie Troy is a Scotland Yard sergeant, chafing at the limits of his post. As the novel begins, he is relegated to the background, the focus instead on a gawky American named Calvin Cormack, who has come to London to help find and debrief Wolfgang Stahl, a top aide to Hitler's SS chief, Heydrich, and a spy for the Americans who has been forced to flee Germany for England to avoid capture, carrying with him plans for the imminent German invasion of Russia. The seriously spooked Stahl disappears into the vast underground system of bombed-out London, accessible only to Walter Stilton, a wonderfully bluff old copper. Calvin (whose father is a U.S. senator working with Charles Lindbergh and the America First group to keep the U.S. out of the war) is quickly absorbed into the large Stilton family, winning the affections of oldest daughter Kitty, also a police officer. Kitty, as it happens, was previously involved with Freddie Troy (and hasn't given him up entirely); Freddie's ties to the family and Calvin become more complicated when tragedy strikes and Freddie is drawn into the search for Stahl. Lawton meshes comedy and suspense with skill and energy, and seamlessly mixes fictional creations with real characters like H.G. Wells, newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook, Winston Churchill and distant cousin Robert Churchill (a talented gunsmith who plays a key role here), producing a distinctive, vigorous novel of wartime suspense.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
In the third escapade of aristocrat copper Freddie Troy to reach U.S. shores, it is spring 1941, and while Britain hunkers down under sporadic bombing and the daily privations of war, America and Russia look idly on with ill-fated apathy. High-ranking spy Wolfgang Stahl flees Berlin, and his American contact, Captain Cal Cormack, teams up in a transatlantic odd couple with hardy Chief Inspector Stilton, following the desultory trail of the turncoat Nazi and sundry other German spies and assassins dodging about the ruined hulks and malodorous bomb shelters of London. On the gangly frame of these Buchanesque exploits hang intriguing snippets of history, a bit of social comedy, and a teeming cast of odd birds, such as Winston Churchill's ballistics-whiz brother Bob and randy Kitty, "either naked or getting naked." Troy of the Murder Squad is attacked with a potato peeler whilst playing his rather incidental role. The suspense is fairly slack, and moments of gravity tend to ring hollow amid all the chipper stoicism, but no matter: there's a war on, mate! Or, as Stilton's oft-employed Dickensian tagline puts it, "Wot Larx!" David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


The Washinton Post Book World
If you haven’t discovered Lawton, this is the ideal starting point.


The Chicago Tribune
A rich and juicy montage that throbs with life.


The Seattle Times
[A] superior espionage tale.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"It is April 1941. Since the Fall of France and the heroic evacuation of Dunkirk, Britain has stood alone against Nazi Germany. Hitler has not yet broken his nonaggression pact with Russia but could do so at any moment, and America is struggling to stay neutral in the face of Britain's plight. With his cover as an SS officer blown, American spy Wolfgang Stahl has just fled Germany for parts unknown. Stahl's liaison at the U.S. State Department, Calvin Cormack, must find his man before the Germans out him as an American operative. Is Stahl already dead, as the SS would have his protectors believe, or is he still alive and well, carrying intelligence that could change the course of history?" To find out, the sheltered, patrician Cormack is teamed with an unlikely partner: Special Branch officer Walter Stilton. Stilton is a hardnosed cop and a meat-and-potatoes man whose family is his first love - and whose vivacious daughter Kitty proves to be more than Cormack can handle. But when thing go horribly awry and Cal is ditched by M16 and disowned by his embassy, Cormack's last hope is Kitty's old flame, Chief Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

This novel is above all else Lawton's tribute to the courage of his countrymen when they stood alone against Hitler. Yet it is not a mawkish tribute, for Lawton is aware that love, wine and laughter were never sweeter than when the bombs were falling and the next dawn was always a gamble. — Patrick Anderson

Publishers Weekly

In this stimulating prequel to Lawton's acclaimed Inspector Troy series (Black Out; Old Flames; etc.), London is in the middle of the blitz and 25-year-old Freddie Troy is a Scotland Yard sergeant, chafing at the limits of his post. As the novel begins, he is relegated to the background, the focus instead on a gawky American named Calvin Cormack, who has come to London to help find and debrief Wolfgang Stahl, a top aide to Hitler's SS chief, Heydrich, and a spy for the Americans who has been forced to flee Germany for England to avoid capture, carrying with him plans for the imminent German invasion of Russia. The seriously spooked Stahl disappears into the vast underground system of bombed-out London, accessible only to Walter Stilton, a wonderfully bluff old copper. Calvin (whose father is a U.S. senator working with Charles Lindbergh and the America First group to keep the U.S. out of the war) is quickly absorbed into the large Stilton family, winning the affections of oldest daughter Kitty, also a police officer. Kitty, as it happens, was previously involved with Freddie Troy (and hasn't given him up entirely); Freddie's ties to the family and Calvin become more complicated when tragedy strikes and Freddie is drawn into the search for Stahl. Lawton meshes comedy and suspense with skill and energy, and seamlessly mixes fictional creations with real characters like H.G. Wells, newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook, Winston Churchill and distant cousin Robert Churchill (a talented gunsmith who plays a key role here), producing a distinctive, vigorous novel of wartime suspense. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

An American spy working undercover as an SS officer in Nazi Germany, Wolfgang Stahl is unmasked and escapes to England, bringing with him Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union. In their search to find and protect him, British intelligence officer Walter Stilton and Calvin Cormack of the American embassy race across Blitz-torn London. Lawton's third series entry features a fast and twisted plot (is there a double agent in the embassy?), and it takes Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard to unravel the truth. Nevertheless, Lawton retreads all-too-familiar ground with all-too-familiar props: the swastika on the cover and locales in wartime London, Germany, and Western Europe. Writers from Eric Ambler to John le Carr have told this story, and this version does not add anything new to the mix. For larger collections only.-Fred Gervat, formerly with Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews