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Published Nov 2008
432 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
John Lawton adds another spellbinding thriller to his Inspector Troy series with Second Violin. The sixth installment in the series, Lawton’s novel opens in 1938 with Europe on the brink of war. In London, Frederick Troy, newly promoted to the prestigious Murder Squad at Scotland Yard, is put in charge of rounding up a list of German and Italian “enemy aliens” that also includes Frederick’s brother, Rod, who learns upon receiving an internment letter that despite having grown up in England he is Austrian-born. Hundreds of men are herded by train to a neglected camp on the Isle of Man. And, as the bombs start falling on London, a murdered rabbi is found, then another, and another. Amidst great war, murder is what matters. Moving from the Nazi-infested alleys of pre-war Vienna to the bombed out streets of 1940 London, and featuring an extraordinary cast of characters, Lawton’s latest brings to life war-torn London. In this uncommon thriller, John Lawton delivers a suspenseful and intelligent novel, as a good a spy story as it is an historical narrative.
"Lawton does a fine job...though some readers may find he relies too often on deus ex machina for their taste." - Publishers Weekly.
"Weaving complex characters and plot threads from Kristallnacht to Fleet Street, he builds a suspenseful story that long remains in the reader's memory. Highly recommended." - Library Journal.
"History and politics again add depth and texture to Lawton's impressively complex thriller. " - Kirkus Reviews.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Lawton is a producer/director in television who has spent much of his time interpreting the USA to the English, and occasionally vice versa. He has worked with Gore Vidal, Neil Simon, Scott Turow, Noam Chomsky, Fay Weldon, Harold Pinter and Kathy Acker. He thinks he may well be the only TV director ever to be named in a Parliamentary Bill in the British House of Lords as an offender against taste and balance – he has also been denounced from the pulpit in Mississippi as a `Communist', but thinks that less remarkable.
He spent most of the 90s in New York – among other things attending the writers' sessions at The Actors' Studio under Norman Mailer – and has visited or worked in more than half the 50 states – since 2000 he has lived in the high, wet ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to John Lawton's Website
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