Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as crack' (Daily Telegraph), the Inspector Troy series is perfect for fans of Le Carré, Philip Kerr and Alan Furst.

Vienna, 1934. Ten-year-old cello prodigy Meret Voytek becomes a pupil of concert pianist Viktor Rosen, a Jew in exile from Germany.

The Isle of Man, 1940. An interned Hungarian physicist is recruited for the Manhattan Project in Los Alomos, building the atom bomb for the Americans.

Auschwitz, 1944. Meret is imprisoned but is saved from certain death to play the cello in the camp orchestra. She is playing for her life.

London, 1948. Viktor Rosen wants to relinquish his Communist Party membership after thirty years. His comrade and friend reminds him that he committed for life...

These seemingly unconnected strands all collide forcefully with a brazen murder on a London Underground platform, revealing an intricate web of secrecy and deception which Detective Frederick Troy must untangle.

Length: 401 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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John Lawton

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Book Description

The seventh book in John Lawton's Inspector Troy series, selected by Time magazine as one of 'Six Detective Series to Savour' alongside Michael Connelly and Donna Leon. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

John Lawton is the director of over forty television programs, author of a dozen screenplays, several children's books and seven Inspector Troy novels. Named by the Daily Telegraph as one of 'Fifty Crime Writers to Read Before You Die' and selected by Time magazine as one of 'Six Detective Series to Savour', Lawton's work has earned him comparisons to John le Carre and Alan Furst. Lawton lives in a remote hilltop village in Derbyshire, England. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Review

"An unbearably tense account of two musicians whose lives and careers are shattered in the aftermath of the Anschluss . . . Technically dazzling. Lawton keeps his historical perspective on the war while introducing new characters and adding layers of political subtext to the plot."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

"Lawton has always pushed the boundaries of the series crime novel, edging ever closer to broad-canvas historical fiction, but this time he has leaped the fence altogether. Like Dennis Lehane in The Given Day, Lawton introduces multiple characters and stories in a sweeping tale that comes together at a particular historical moment, but unlike Lehane, he does all that without abandoning his series hero or the continuity established in the previous volumes . . . A truly multitextured tale."--Booklist (Starred Review)

"Another complex and compellingly readable historic thriller from Lawton, full of profound questions and memorable characters."--Kirkus Reviews

"If you love mystery and history, run out and pick up a book by Lawton, author of the superb Inspector Troy novels."--Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times

"If the previous six installments in John Lawton's Inspector Troy series haven't made the point adequately, the seventh, A Lily of the Field, makes it again, and solidly: Lawton's thrillers provide a vivid, moving and wonderfully absorbing way to experience life in London and on the Continent before, during and after World War II."--Gerald Bartell, The Washington Post

"John Lawton finds himself in the same boat as the late Patrick O'Brian--a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as crack but overlooked by too many readers for too long. Like O'Brian, he inhabits his periods' 20th-century tipping points witnessed by the rich and richly ambivalent sleuth Troy--with an ownership that leaves most history-bothering authors looking like day-trippers."--Daily Telegraph

"Lawton writes with authority. His characters convince, and so does their world. Admirable, ambitious and haunting, this is the sort of thriller that defies categorisation. I look forward with enthusiasm to the next one."--Spectator

"John Lawton's books contain such a wealth of period detail, character description and background information that they are lifted out of any category. Every word is enriched by the author's sophistication and irreverent intelligence, by his meticulous research and his wit."--Literary Review

"Lawton's Troy books are less detective stories or intelligence thrillers than novels which include both murders and spies--novels as much about how people and societies grow and change as about the complex messes that Troy finds himself tidying up for his adopted country."--Independent

"Lawton handles the chronology with exemplary ease and intelligence."--Guardian
--This text refers to the paperback edition.

File size : 1187 KB
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 401 pages
Language: : English
ASIN : B0055S9BW0
Publisher : Grove Press UK; Main edition (1 May 2011)
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: 87,885 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- 429 in Political Fiction (Books)

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Nola

Highly recommended

Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2016

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One of my favourites in the Inspector Troy series, this book has everything. Lawton has the wonderful gift of being able to take the reader into the heart of whatever time and place that he has focused on, so be warned, the first quarter of this book deals with anti-Semitic Vienna and Auschwitz in ways that are both scarifying and unforgettable. The cellist Meret, its eponymous heroine (the lily of the field), is the principal character of this long section, and Lawton finely judged writing ensures that her tragic life (and that of another character whom we know from earlier books), stays with the reader long after the lend of the book. A literary tour de force in the guise of an enigmatic thriller, this atmospheric and intriguing book is highly recommended.

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Defa45

Beautiful meld of fact and fiction

Reviewed in Australia on 16 November 2020

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I really enjoy the way Lawton melds fact and fiction, even if the fact is tweaked a little. The post war life in the UK doesn’t sound too easy if you weren’t a member of the privileged classes

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Kangakid

First reading

Reviewed in Australia on 29 October 2016

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John Lawton pays his reader the ultimate compliment in assuming a level of intelligence. The plot is elegant, the characters beautifully drawn with levels of complexity challenging. There is no stereotyping here with each main character imbued with his or her positive as well as negative attributes. The dialogue is witty and reinforces the subtle characterisation. Having only recently discovered Lawton - and Troy - I look forward to deepening my insights.

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wazbud

An early Inspector Troy

Reviewed in Australia on 25 July 2015

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Tightly written with many twists and turns. The device of using musical variations as a code is novel to me. I always enjoy the juxtaposition of a life of culture and privilege against the low life of crime, spies & murder. Enjoyed it immensely.

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Joseph Lonergan

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 21 December 2016

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Great plot, background and characterisation . An entralling story told with passion and intelligence.

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Kate Hopkins

One Half Good, One Half Awful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2019

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The first half of this novel is, on the whole, rather splendid. We are in Austria, shortly before the 1938 Anschluss. Cello and piano prodigy Meret Voytek begins lessons with concert pianist (and keen cellist) Viktor Rosen, and falls wildly in love. Meanwhile Meret's scientist cousin Karel Szabo, worried about the political situation, decides to emigrate to Britain. Lawton then takes us through the troubled times in Vienna from just before the Anschluss to 1945, with additional chapters detailing Szabo's adventures in internment camps and, as a brilliant physicist, working on Robert Oppenheimer's team developing the first nuclear bombs at Los Alamos. We learn how Viktor fled to London as a refugee, and how Meret decided to stay behind with her family in Austria, and nearly survived the war, only - despite her not being Jewish - to be rounded up and sent to Auschwitz in 1944 due to a misunderstanding. The novel follows Meret through her time in Auschwitz where she is forced to play her cello to save her life, and her escape afterwards, when she is saved by the Russians. But liberty at Russian hands comes at a price...

So far, so engrossing. There's the odd howler - the Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven is for violin and piano, not cello and piano, and I doubt a virtuoso pianist would be equally happy teaching cello to concert performing standard, even if he was a fine cellist too. The affair between Karol Szabo and the strange Zette Brugge (can't remember if the name is right?) felt rather peremptory, and I think we could have done with more insight into Viktor and Karol's politics. Also, I believe very few women of good family learnt trombone in the 1930s. But leaving these quibbles aside, it's a rather thrilling read that evokes the period and its different factions well, and with some stunning descriptions. The relationship between Meret and Viktor is also potentially fascinating.

And then we get to Part II and the narrative all goes to pot. The action shifts to London, and most of it is told from the point of view of Lawton's recurring character Inspector Frederick Troy. Troy, a bit like Elizabeth Speller's Lawrence Bartram, is a profoundly boring figure - an aristocrat blessed with virtuoso skill on the piano (classical and jazz), he should be interesting, but he comes across as dull and wooden. And, far more than Bartram, he takes the whole plot with him, as the story collapses into a soulless ramble, with innumerable mentions of cars (how many times do we need to know Troy's mother owns a Lagonda), trips to pubs and a lot of waffling chat between the police officers. There's a weird subplot about a female doctor called Anna who's worried about the NHS (its creation, which one can't help feeling is somewhat selfish) and might be having an affair with Troy, and her one-legged war-hero husband who spends each day drinking himself silly. There are a lot of characters with excruciatingly conveyed 'funny accents' (Troy's Russian mother and rather a lot of Cockneys, while Meret speaks in a broken English that fluctuates between near incoherence and almost native proficiency). It takes ages from the crime committed - a man pushed under a train - to get back to Meret and co and by that time my interest was flagging mightily.

Even when we get back - sort of - to Meret, Viktor and the others the story never regains its former promise. Troy and Meret appear to leap into a close relationship from virtually nothing, while Viktor barely features, and Karol Szabo only turns up again at the end. The spy dimension (SPOILER ALERT) is ridiculous - if someone was able to communicate messages by inserting wrong notes into a piece they performed in a concert, wouldn't audiences have started to complain about their innacuracy as a performer?! (I'm not sure you could just change the Debussy Cello Sonata with no one noticing, incidentally.) What happens to Meret feels increasingly ridiculous, and Karol's motivation remains extremely vague. And as for the scene where Troy is attacked by three or four nasty Czech crooks and manages to kill at least two of them at a blow - this was verging perilously close to farce.

When I started this book, I thought I'd found a new Le Carre. I closed it, I'm afraid, with a determination to read no more in the Inspector Troy series.

Mr. A. G. Mowle

I have now read all of Troy's books.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2020

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I was so lucky to have come across John Lawton, how did I not know about him, is just a happy mystery now. I have now read all 8 of the Troy books, about 900 pages each, a good substantial read. I felt very sad coming to the end of the 8th. Troy book. Had about 8 weeks of sheer reading luxury. I read in bed, and looked forward to each book every night. I am 89 and really enjoy my luxuries, and miss them too. Best espionage books I have read.

Podraigh O'MacFlabberty

Nobody's lilywhite here

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 May 2014

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A worthy member of the Troy canon, although perhaps not one to start with: much of Troy's backstory is taken as read, and indeed his shenanigans and foibles are less to the fore than usual.

The main interest of the novel, for me, lies in its clever interplay between fact and (historical) fiction, as in A Little White Death (a reading of the Profumo affair). Here Troy finds himself investigating a murder and the events in its wake which have to do with Soviet spies in England in the early 1950s. Yes, of course: Guy Burgess does make a cameo appearance.

Lawton as usual exploits his skill in the use of wry irony, as characters and their circumstances now well known are revealed in the novel not through the unfolding of events, but through Troy's super-sensitive reading of the situation.

Another special pleasure is Lawton's undoubted mastery of writing about music.

Happily, if rather surprisingly for Troy fans, our hero manages to contain his sometimes egregious sexual urges in this one.

One person found this helpful

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 November 2014

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The Troy series is outstanding and, whilst maybe not essential, I think it is worth reading it in chronological sequence, rather than publication sequence; the chronological sequence is: Second Violin; Riptide; Black Out; A Lily Of The Field; Old Flames; Blue Rondo; A little White Death.
I think it is interesting that the books were published (and, presumably, written) out of chronological sequence and wonder if this was done to allow the author to avoid the continuity gaffs which occur in many book series – knowing where or how he wanted key characters to end up, he could subsequently create a back story to match – the only continuity issue I noticed was about Troy’s piano at Goodwin’s Court.
There is a murder whodunit in each book but the series is about much, much more than that: the changes in society and attitudes from the 1930s through to the 1960s; national and international politics, from pre Second World War to the Cold War and Suez; spies and the Security Services; Special Branch; the hypocrisy, vices and double standards of the establishment; the internment of enemy aliens.
There are some superb characters, including Alexei Troy, Uncle Nikolai, Tosca, Stanley Onions, Kitty Stilton, Kolankiewicz and, especially, Troy himself.
Troy is not a sympathetic character; he is a sociopath and immoral, amoral or of a very different morality; he does not have difficulty with indulging in incest, adultery, murder or blackmail; he believes that the end justifies the means, that the law does not apply to him and that lying is always a better option than telling the truth – makes for a fascinating read.

M. Stevens

Wonderful Tale of The Wars....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2011

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There is a quote on the front of this book citing John Lawton as being one of the "hidden treasures" of spy writing. I can only agree. His Inspector Troy series (of which this forms part) are wonderful examples of period writing in the vein of the (also wonderful) Philip Kerr and indeed the master Le Carre.

Whereas other novels have been published out of chronological sequence, this one fits in nicely, with the first part of the book starting before the war (and almost following the last published instalment Second Violin ) and concluding some years after the war.

The first part of the book builds the story, with the rounding up of various groups into concentration camps accross Europe - in this part there is very little mention of our hero, Mr. Troy, and I must admit to wondering how the story would evolve into a "typical" Troy novel. However, this first part is merely scene setting, and wonderful character building, as what follows in the second part draws not only on the effects of the Second World War, but also the sense of foreboding with the commencement of the up and coming Cold War, and the clashes which took place between the East and West.

A wonderfully told and perfectly balanced novel, which moves at a good pace, is difficult to put down, and could be read as a stand alone book (if you have no expereince of the Troy novels) or as a perfect compliment to the series; as a number of the characters who appear in earlier published novels are explored further (particularly one of Troys lovers, Larrissa Tosca).

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