Customer Reviews

Second Violin (Inspector Troy Thriller #6)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I received a pre-publication copy of this book amongst six. Being in the US, I had never seen Lawton's work, so I picked it, and was immediately sucked into the time and place. Lawton's characters are human, well-developed and fascinating; his descriptions of setting and events at the time superb. Having a real affection for the UK, I was immediately drawn into the dialogs, at times with dictionary in hand. Be assured, I will read the rest - if I can find them here!

Second Violin is the sixth book in John Lawton's Inspector Troy series (see for example, Bluffing Mr. Churchill (Frederick Troy Novels)). The events in this book occur chronologically earlier than the previous books in the series. (For that reason, I read this book first, which may or may not be the best way to enjoy this book). The story begins in Austria with Hitler's Anschluss in 1938 and ends with the Battle of Britain in the autumn of 1940.

Frederick Troy is a sergeant in Scotland Yard's elite murder squad and Second Violin tells the reader how got there. Troy is the son of newspaper lord and Russian émigré Alexei Troy. He could have done anything (or nothing at all, for that matter), but he chose to become a beat cop. The denizens of Stepney Green, his patrol beat, see him as a toff out slumming.

Frederick Troy's brother, Roderick, is a foreign correspondent for their father's paper. He witnesses the horrible events of Kristallnacht in Austria before being put on a plane and sent packing by the Nazis. While brother Frederick is assigned police duty rounding up aliens for internment, Rod he finds himself more directly involved in the camps than anyone imagined possible. Freddie manages to take on a murder investigation when three rabbis turn up dead.

In perhaps the book's strongest element, Lawton examines the brutal treatment of Jews in Austria through one Josef Hummel, tailor, and the subsequent rounding up and internment of aliens, including not only Hummel, but also long-time London residents who turn out to have been born in a foreign country.

While I recommend reading this book and intend to read other books in the series, I cannot give Second Violin five full stars. Lawton jams too many disparate story lines and a few stand alone bits (like Sigmund Freud) that leave the reader feeling a bit disjointed. (I should also add that it may be that some of the things that seem like loose ends, but may not be so untidy if one has read the previous books in the series). I also found that reading this book made a nice companion for the most excellent Foyle's War: Set 1 (The German Woman / The White Feather / A Lesson In Murder / Eagle Day) TV series.

If you're looking for an engrossing account of a variety of people affected by the buildup and beginning of the second World War, this is the book for you. I found the main characters, their lives, and their situations fully engrossing and the historical detail both fascinating and convincing.

However, I began reading the book seeking a mystery, and while there are some murders, there is no investigation to speak of, and certainly no conclusion. There are, however, a veritable school of red herrings. One has the sense that the author, pleased with his character study, decided not to pin the murder on any single character (there are several suspects, none of whom seem to have actually been capable of committing the crime) and allow the book to conclude.

Final opinion? I enjoyed it and will recommend it to those interested in WWII Great Britain. I can't recommend it to anyone seeking a mystery or thriller. Obviously, Harriet Klausner never actually *read* the book before she reviewed it.

About ten pages into "Second Violin," I was consciously slowing down my reading to make the experience last longer. It's that kind of pleasurable and intriguing book.

Surprisingly, the first third of the novel, which is the seventh in the Troy mystery chronicles, gives scant mention of the redoubtable Freddie Troy. Instead, the focus is on the other members of the Troy family, especially patriarch, Alex, and older son, Rod. Through the eyes of these Troys, author John Lawton lays out a short but vivid history of pre-WWII Europe as Hitler bullies his way into anschluss with Austria, annexation of Czechoslovakia and openly attacks Poland. There is a particularly poignant portrayal of the brutalization of the Jewish population of Vienna that sets up the appearance of several characters that are principals when the book moves on to wartime Britain.

The story then focuses on a lesser known event of the war, the internment, by the British Government, of foreign nationals from Germany, Austria and other Axis allies. Ironically, this pulls in a large number of the Jewish refugees who suffered under the Nazis before fleeing to the UK. It also results in the arrest and internment of Rod Troy, who in most respects is British to his fingertips, but because of his Austrian birthplace, is technically a resident alien. His experiences in an internee camp are well told and constitute an interesting and not so noble chapter in British history. (There is some obvious parallel here to the USG treatment of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry and Japanese and German aliens after Pearl Harbor.) Britain's homegrown Fascists also come into the story here in an important way that continues through to the end of the novel.

The book then produces a serial killer (of London East End rabbis) that swings the lime light to newly-minted Police Sergeant Freddie Troy, the series mainstay.

"Second Violin" is right up there with author John Lawton's best writing, but has some original and creative story elements that give it special zip and interest. Lawton writes a personal love-hate relationship between Alex Troy and Winston Churchill into the story. He gives Alex a pre-WWII meeting with the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, aimed at driving a wedge between Mussolini and Hitler. German Dadaist artist Kurt Schwitters has a cameo role to play in a British internment camp. As good as this story garnish is, Lawton's best writing is lavished on the development of his characters--primary and secondary. The interaction and dialogue between those characters is almost always credible and intelligent.

This novel is pure pleasure in almost all of its parts. (One small quibble--why do all of Freddie Troy's women friends seem to be so sexually aggressive and tragic at the same time?) Excellent read. Highly recommended.

In 1938 the latest European war seems imminent. The London based Sunday Post owned by Alexei Troy covers the growing hostilities; in fact Alexei's oldest son Rod is the paper's star reporter on the continent; working in Vienna. Back home Alexei's other son Frederick has become a Scotland Yard Murder Squad Investigator.

Rod learns that when his father lived in Vienna years ago, he was a patient of the imminent Dr. Sigmund Freud and that he was actually born near the Danube not the Thames as he once believed. However, Rod knows it is time to stop musing or for that matter reporting as the increasing violence of Hitler minions has reached Vienna so he needs to get his family out.

In London, Alex meets the country's leaders as peace in our times is over and war with Hitler about to begin. A Russian-Englishman, Alex rips into his birth country for considering appeasement with the Nazis, who he knows will not stop in Poland.

Frederick is assigned to a goon squad arresting anyone who might have Nazi, German or Italian loyalties; these suspects are shipped to the Isle of Man. While Hitler sends his air force to bomb the English into submission, someone kills a rabbi in a hit and run incident. When a second rabbi is murdered in his synagogue, Frederick is assigned the case to insure that some Hitler sympathizer is not performing a local final solution.

This is an excellent WW II historical thriller that contains three strong subplots; each well written and connected through the Try bloodline. The story line is fast-paced whether it is on Vienna, the streets of London or Parliament. Fans will appreciate John Lawton's brisk expanded Frederick Troy thriller that fascinatingly goes back a decade plus from the usual Freddie Troy police procedurals.

Harriet Klausner

I am only a quarter of the way through, and while I am really enjoying this one, the editing is terrible. If Kindle is going to be viable as a choice, the publishers and editors have to do a better job. I would like to see more Kindle reviewers comment on the quality of the transfer from print to e-media.

I really enjoyed this book, but don't know how to classify it. It's called a thriller, but it's not really. It's not a mystery as the mystery only comes in about 3/4 of the way into the book. There is much historical info, but it's not really a historical novel. The secret to the books success, it seems to me is the wonderful insight into the feelings and emotions of the diverse cast of characters from Jewish immigrants to english peerage to cops on the beat and a whole cast of interesting characters.

Second Violin is chronologically the first novel in the Inspector Troy mystery series. The series is set in London in the late 1930's into World War II. Let me say right off there is very little mystery in this book. About three quarters of the way through the story we become aware that someone is murdering rabbis in London. The investigation is somewhat vague and there are a myriad of suspects and in the end no conclusion. Rather this story is a character study of a number of Brits and some Jewish immigrants who end up in London at the beginning of the war. The main characters are part of the Troy family, the patriarch Alex emigrated from Russia in the beginning of the twentieth century and has become a peer of the realm due to his success in the newspaper business. He has two sons, Rod a newspaper man and Frederick a Scotland Yard detective. Alex interacts with the great historical figures of the day - Churchill, Freud and others. His sons interact with Londoners of all classes- from the nobility to Jewish immigrants in the East End.
The story begins in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss. The description of the persecution of Austrian Jews is harrowing. The escape of one Jew (Josef Hummel) is gripping and I found myself hanging on every word hoping for the best. The scene then shifts back to England where German/Austrian immigrants are interred on the Isle of Mann and the Battle of Britain commences. One Troy brother is rounded up with the Isle of Mann detainees (he was born in Vienna and was not naturalized as a British citizen) and the other brother investigates the rabbi killings during the Blitz. Again descriptions of the bombing in London and the fear and danger experienced by the people are mesmerizing.
So in summary I would recommend this book but not as a mystery thriller. Those interested in World War II, London and a character study of people who lived through these events would be rewarded reading this book.

John Lawton confused most followers of the Inspector Troy series by not publishing the books in chronological order. SECOND VIOLIN is the sixth book in the Inspector Frederick Troy series to be published but it is a prequel and as such it should be the first book read by anyone who wishes to try this series. This is a review of SECOND VIOLIN.

The activities of the Troy family make much more sense if SECOND VIOLIN is read first. The seventh book, A LILY OF THE FIELD, has just been released. The prologue is dated 1948; the first chapter begins in Vienna in 1934. According to a list at the beginning of A LILY OF THE FIELD, the order in which the books should be read chronologically as opposed to date of publication is as follows:

SECOND VIOLIN, BLUFFING MR. CHURCHILL, BLACK OUT, A LILY OF THE FIELD, OLD FLAMES, FLESH WOUNDS, and A LITTLE WHITE DEATH.

Happily, I have a copy of A LILY OF THE FIELD which I will be reviewing next week.

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SECOND VIOLIN

Inspector Frederick Troy is the youngest child of Alexei, an immigrant from Russia, who wields considerable influence in political circles in England as a newspaper mogul and political columnist. When the book opens in 1938, Troy's older brother, a foreign correspondent for his father's paper, is in Berlin. Against his father's wishes, Rod goes to Vienna to see the aftermath of Anschluss. One night Rod steps into a fight and saves the life of `Joe' a Jewish tailor. His action is witnessed by Wolfgang Stahl, an officer with the SD. He arrests Rod but puts him on a plane, forcing him to leave Austria to go to the security of England.

Yet, when Rod returns to England, he discovers that he is not safe. Unlike his younger brother, Rod was not born in England but in Austria and, as Europe moves towards war, he is classified as a "stateless" person. He is ordered to an internment camp on the Isle of Man to join other stateless persons such as the Jews and Italians who had made their lives in England and who thought themselves valued members of British society.

Frederick Troy is a member of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad but he is pressed into service rounding up other stateless persons in the neighborhoods of London he had patrolled at the beginning of his career. Both brothers begin to question if they are truly "English" or is that a status that will always be closed to them despite their money and their success.

Then, as the bombs begin falling on London, a rabbi is murdered and then another and another. Freddie decides that, even in the midst of war, the taking of even one life must be punished. On the Isle of Man, Rod again meets Joe and, with the other stateless persons of London, they form an alliance for survival.

SECOND VIOLIN is the story of how far a country might be willing to go when circumstances force neighbors and friends into the role of "other". The internment camps in England were real; the pro-Nazi aristocracy was real; a hit list of dissenters was real. In an historical note, Lawton writes that he believes that the rest of the world becomes "other" when respect for humanity and differences is lost, when that which makes us human is also lost. SECOND VIOLIN is a complex story set in a complex time but it is an uplifting story of men who learn they can rise above circumstances beyond their control and earn their right to be part of the whole.

The Inspector Troy series is significant because it gives those of us who were born after WW II and into the 1950's some idea of the challenges faced by people who wanted to do the right thing despite the atmosphere and the leadership that had taken over Europe. It is worth contemplating the circumstances birthed by WW I and the Depression that led to the rise of Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and Stalin in the Soviet Union.

This book is given five stars only because Amazon doesn't provide the ten it deserves. I'm talking this book up to everyone I see. It's well worth reading more than once. Also will be looking into the sources mentioned by the author in his end notes when I get my copy back from the person I just loaned it to.