Customer Reviews

Story of O: Part II Return to the Chateau

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

World War II ended fourteen years ago, but London still shows the ruins. For Russian descendent Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard Freddie Troy, the conviction of crime kingpin King Alf should be a time of elation. Instead the war years have returned; his former lover Kitty Stilton is back in town but unavailable since she is married to American presidential hopeful, Calvin Cormack, another person from Freddie's espionage past.

Private investigator Joey Rork is in town to insure that Kitty behaves while in England. However, while London swings with Kitty as its biggest swinger, a war seems imminent to take over King's Alf's crime syndicate and American gamblers and crooners are in the middle of the action. When Rork and others are violently killed, Freddie leads the inquiries that take him back to 1944 when he was recovering from a bullet courtesy of his mistress and the antics of his family especially his promiscuous sisters and his brother, who has present day (1959 that is) ambitions. There is also links to when he was Sergeant Freddie Troy. Still, in spite of his efforts London with Ike coming is filling up with mutilated corpses.

FLESH WOUNDS is an exhilarating British historical police procedural that binds events and real persona or obviously disguised persona between World War II and 1959. The story line is overloaded with several subplots that at times may feel overwhelming, but not only come together but enables readers to compare 1944 and 1959 London. Freddie is terrific in both eras as he is the string that keeps the multitude of subplots tied together. Fans will appreciate this deep but dark look back to two distinct Great Britain's only fifteen years apart within a fine Noir.

The strange thing with the Inspector Troy books is that they get different titles when they're released in the US to when they originally come out in the UK. So, if you're from the UK and excited that to find a new Inspector Troy story you're sorely mistaken -- this book was originally called "Blue Rondo" and was first published in paperback in 2005. Why the title "Blue Rondo" is unsuitable for an American audience I don't know.

But with that out of the way, "Flesh Wounds"/"Blue Rondo" is one of my favourites of the Troy books. Over time, we've got to love the characterisation, Police Surgeon Kolanciwicz is one of the foulest-mouthed people I've come across, but is hilarious to read, and Troy's attitude to most people seems to be that they can go and get lost.

The best so far.

This is the fifth installment in the Frederick Troy series. Troy is a London homicide detective of Russian heritage - his father an immigrant who became a very powerful and wealthy newspaper publisher. The series takes place between the 1930's and the sixties and although there is a chronology to these books, the series doesn't follow a calendar. Also several of the books, including this one, have been published under different titles, i.e. same book, different title depending on if it's the British or American version.

I have not run across many folks who are familiar with this series which is unfortunate - these are great books - Flesh Wounds or Blue Rondo - being no exception. The books are historically based mysteries with historic figures - for instance Eisenhower makes an appearance in this one - and follow the events of the time. Our hero Troy is somewhat of a lone wolf on the police force - jaded just enough to be both pragmatic and at times very funny but personable, politically savvy and competent enough to climb the promotion ladder. He's the Chief Superintendent in this one.

There's also a supporting cast of characters - Troy's family, his friends and co-workers, including a distant cousin of Winston Churchill - who are well developed and engaging on their own. The books are a blend of mystery, police procedural and political intrigue, all handled extremely well by the author. Lastly, much like Charles McCarry's books, there is a lot of sex in this series and there's even more bed-hopping in this book than its predecessors - including one brief but bizarre and somewhat disturbing scene.

Flesh Wounds begins with a brief flashback to 1944 and war-time London and then moves forward to 1959. Troy finds himself embroiled in case in which the London East End underworld is in transition as a more violent group of Young Turks are supplanting their older predecessors. Troy and his cohorts get knocked around a bit and find themselves not only dealing with this new breed of criminals but also the same old corrupt politicians - but they come out on top in the end.

A very good book and highly recommended although - and I seem to be saying this with more and more frequency - I wouldn't start here simply because you miss a lot of Troy's history - specifically familial - if you haven't read the earlier books.

John Lawton has created a thought provoking detective series
set in the UK during/after World War 2. He does a fine job at
developing/solving the crimes. He excels at weaving the social costs of the War into his stories. This is both informative and thought provoking. Be prepared for sex.

For those who are uninitiated, this book was originally published in England as "Blue Rondo" the title that makes more sense. Maybe it's because Lawton's books are always so 'literary' (no pun intended) that when I find sloppy editing and proofreading I tend to feel cheated. There are more mistakes (anachronisms) and failings in this book to list them all. Some of them are as follows:

No matter how drunk an American is, he or she would never NEVER spell favor with a "u" ie. favour.

There is not now or then (1959) a 103rd congressional district in New York or any state. There is a 103rd Assembly District in New York for the lower house of the New York State Legislature, but that would make Mr. Goldblatt an Assemblyman, not a Congressman.

No one in 1959 would ever say, "this will be the mother of all..." because the phrase was coined by Saddam Hussein to warn off the allies from attacking him and his Republican Guard, i.e. the mother of all battles. If you are going to write a period story, write it right.

Ok, now I'm done complaining and explaining why I only gave this story a four. Other reasons are everyone, and I do mean everyone, running around London, screwing everyone else. It sounds more like the 'lost generation' of the twenties/thirties or the 'free love' generation of the sixties, than the 'staid' fifties.

I'll grant Lawton the language, but I really wonder if his books need all the sex, promiscuity, adulterous affairs, homosexuality, incest (I mean INCEST) come on, how badly do you want to shock your readers or are you just bored! Let's face it, this stuff goes way back to Victorian times when everyone slept with their sister and brother or buggered everyone's brother in 'school' (the true old school tie). SO WHAT. It added nothing to the story or plot. Could it be gratuitous? Quite!

So what we have is a good story that's just a little too bloody and has too many shoot-outs for an english noir, but it could have used an editor with a stronger hand.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Frederick Troy was twenty-nine years old in 1944. While London was recovering from the bombings that ravished parts of the city, Det. Sgt. Troy was recovering from a gunshot that ravished his kidney and small intestine. Thus the theme is set for the latest novel in this mystery series as it compares and contrasts the fallout wrought by world warfare and gang warfare.

Ladslaw Kolankiewicz, arms expert and longtime friend, insists on teaching Troy how to defend himself. So even though Troy believes in an unarmed police force, he spends weeks becoming proficient in every handgun available because Kolankiewicz does not want to see him shot to death. Troy is surrounded by many such close friends and they remain together over the years as the novel picks up again in 1959.

It is then that one of his best mates is killed by a car bomb blast and Troy is injured as well. While on sick leave he spends an inordinate amount of time in bed, and not alone. Not only is he separated from his wife, but his lover, Foxx, hands him an ultimatum, and he is comforted by his doctor, Anna, in very non-medical fashion. Then along comes his old flame from America, who is now the wife of a presidential hopeful, but all Kate wants to do is spark up Troy again. Whew.

The first half of FLESH WOUNDS reads like a soap opera with tiny bubbles of the mystery barely visible. Even after mutilated bodies start showing up, the investigation takes a back seat to simultaneous affairs, historical detours and various manipulations designed to get Troy to intervene with his Opposition Party Leader brother, Rod, for political favors. But once our Chief Superintendent becomes serious about getting to the bottom of things, we are offered an excellent look at the police work that has made Scotland Yard a force to be reckoned with.

John Lawton has written an ambitious book that encompasses postwar politics, ruthless gang activities, old-fashioned police work, and relationships complicated enough to make Danielle Steel smile. Lawton is not afraid to push the envelope when it comes to the horrific violence of the underworld or to traditionally taboo sexual themes. The work is perceptive and witty while the English vernacular is fun and definitely increases the reader's store of epithets.

--- Reviewed by Maggie Harding

Flesh Wounds is set in London inearly summer 1959. It opens, with Detective Freddy Troy - now a Chief Inspector - having been shoot in the abdomen in 1944 by a Lady Diana Breck then follows with a history of his being shot in the head and sustaining several other injuries all serially; and now before we are past page 39 in this book he's blown across the street when a car explodes and he's got another head injury which merits his immediate retirement from Scotland Yard. But he's indestructible. He won't retire, of course, because if he did there might not be any more Frederick Troy books by this very excellent writer of rather chatty but noir action-crime stories. So he doesn't retire - and we get to the storry

Seems that the London police have taken down Big Alf, the town's leading gangster, and someone has replaced him - but who? Well, a lot of bodies start turning up. Some in concrete. Some otherwise but interesting. Eventually the scoundrel - or scoundrels - turns out to be twins named Ryan who are about as deadly as anyone you will meet on any page in any detective story. And, even though it takes a bit of patience Troy brings them to justice - his justice. It's a great action story. You will like the way Troy takes down the Ryan brothers

Also turning up in this book is his old lover - Kitty Stilton - now Kate Stilton, mother of three, and wife of Senator Calvin Cormack and a leading possibility to be the Republican candidate for President succeeding Dwight Eisenhower. (Kate was the Kitty of Bluffing Mr. Churchill set in burned and bombed out London in late 1941) Troy wastes no time bedding her, besides bedding his sister Masha, his Doctor Anna Pakenham and his old lover Foxx - serially and from time to time. (He's no mother's boy)

John Lawton as an author takes a bit of getting used to. His stories jump around a bit and the reader needs to pay attention. He's quite good at setting a scene, but not quite so good at describing the people he writes into his books - and I still don't have a handle on who Freddy Troy really is even though this is the second John Lawton book I've read..

One thing about John Lawton's books. They're on a time line - in chronological order (thanks to a reader named Maine Colonial): Second Violin, Bluffing Mr. Churchill, Black Out, A Lilly of the Field (just published and reviewed by the New York Times within the last two months) Old Flowers, Flesh Wounds and A Little White Death - but they weren't published in that order, so reading one of them is often a bit like getting into the middle of a movie. You don't know the characters, but it helps if you have read about them in a book detaiing previous episodes in Troy's life.

I don't usually review back list books because no one really wants to know about a book published five years ago. On the other hand, John Lawton's "Flesh Wounds" is a wonderful piece of his on-going Inspector Troy series, begun ten or so years ago. I reviewed for Vine Lawton's latest, "A Lily of the Field" a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the book, but felt I had rather entered a story-in-progress. I decided to order Lawton's back list and try to discover who was who, who killed who, who slept with who, and the many other "who", "what", and "when" questions raised by "Lily".

"Flesh Wounds", set first in London of 1944 and finishing up in London of 1959. Rather different times for both the city and its citizens. Frederick Troy - a policeman in the last years of the war - has ascended to chief superintendent of "the Yard". (That's "New Scotland Yard" to you and me, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.) The post-war years in England had seen a rise in crime, as well as an almost continuing Tory government. Labour was itching to regain power after two straight electoral defeats, and Troy's brother, Sir Rod Troy was a shadow Labour minister. The Troy's, a family whose father had emigrated from Russia in the early part of the 20th century, were a wealthy family, represented in government, newspaper, and police circles. There are also a set of really crazy twin daughters in the family.

There was another crazy set of gangster twins - this pair was male - who were partaking of a crime spree in London. Part of Frederick Troy's job is to arrest the Ryan brothers, suspects in several brutal crimes.
But Frederick Troy doesn't have this story all to himself. Complicating his life are several women - both past and current lovers - as well as many police officers and officials working with Troy. Lawton juggles many on-going stories brilliantly. His story-telling and character development is excellent. This is a real winner of a novel, looking back and forward to an England of 50 years ago.