Bluffing Mr. Churchill (Inspector Troy Series)

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001. Advance Proof . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 6" x 9. 322 Pages. Light back cover. No other defects noted and the interior text pages are flawless. The new installment in the highly acclaimed Inspector Troy series, a riveting spy novel of murder and intrigue in World War II London. With his Inspector Troy series, John Lawton has been compared to top historical espionage writers such as John le Carré and Len Deighton. Now Lawton offers us one of the most entertaining thrillers in years. 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. He is carrying valuable cargo-the blueprint of the Führer's secret plan to invade Russia. 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, from the shelled-out blocks to the ubiquitous pubs to the underground counterfeiting shops; 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. Someone, it seems, wants the German dead. When his partner is suddenly murdered in the line of duty, 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-are Cormack and his spy being played by one of their own in the American embassy? Brilliantly re-creating London in the time of ration tickets and bread lines, Bluffing Mr. Churchill is a blistering page-turner peopled by characters to which we find ourselves magnetically drawn. The sense of London during the Blitz is strong and the story, with its mix of real history and believable invention, is fast-paced, twisting and tense.