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The third Joe Wilderness spy thriller from a master of the genre,
moving from icy Finland to tumultuous Cold War Prague, Hammer to
Fall is a tale of vodka smuggling and a legendary female Red Army
general who is playing a dangerous game It's London, the swinging
sixties, and by all rights MI6 spy Joe Wilderness should be having
as good a time as James Bond. But alas, his postings are more grim
than glamorous. Luckily, Wilderness has a knack for doing well for
himself even in the most unpromising postings, though this has
gotten him into hot water in the past. A coffee-smuggling gig in
divided Berlin was a steady money-maker but things went pear-shaped
when he had to smuggle a spy back to the KGB instead. In the wake
of what became an embarrassing disaster for MI6, Wilderness is
reprimanded with a posting to remote northern Finland, under the
guise of a cultural exchange program to promote Britain abroad.
Bored by his work, with nothing to spy on, Wilderness finds another
way to make money, this time by smuggling vodka across the rather
porous border into the USSR. He strikes a deal with his old KGB pal
Kostya, who explains to him there is, no joke, a vodka shortage in
the Soviet Union, following a grain famine caused by Khrushchev's
new agricultural policies. But there is something fishy about why
Kostya has suddenly turned up in Finland--and MI6 intelligence from
London points to a connection to the mining of cobalt in the
region, a critical component in the casing of the atomic bomb.
Wilderness's posting is getting more interesting by the minute, but
more dangerous too. Moving from the no-man's-land of Cold War
Finland to the wild days of the Prague Spring, and populated by old
friends (including Inspector Troy) and old enemies alike, Hammer to
Fall is a gripping tale of deception and skullduggery, of art and
politics, a page-turning story of the always riveting life of the
British spy.
A study of the role of miracles in the Bible and of the way in
which changing concepts of faith and of revelation have altered the
understanding of the miraculous. An important analysis of the
theological views about miracle and revelation in the period from
the disintegration of the medieval world view until the twentieth
century. In doing so the Author illuminates other discussions, such
as the relationship between religion and science.
Most birders keep lists of the species birds they have seen, but do
any keep a list of pub birds, that is birds on pub signs and in pub
names? This book is about these pub birds, their natural histories,
folk-histories and those of the pubs that bear their names, some of
the people involved in the story, and the memories that pub birds
have evoked over a birding lifetime. This may appear to be a niche
aspect of birding but before the advent of modern technology, pubs
in 'good birding spots' were often the best place to find out from
other birders "What's about?", preferably over a pint. On the
eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales at the entrance to Wensleydale,
are four pubs all named after Black Swans within a five-mile
radius. Intriguing, but why there? They sparked John Lawton's
interest in pub birds and the list that began then spans eleven
years, based on a sample of 711 pubs named after birds or things
that are 'bird-related'. There are 117 identifiable species of
birds, 17 non-specific birds (for example duck), and four mythical
species, plus 35 pubs named after bird-related things. Technical
stuff aside, pub birds are fun. Whilst being as accurate and
informative as possible, this book is not meant to be too serious.
Whilst 'plain vanilla' swans get boring, the 'Swan and Cemetery'
(in Bury), the 'Swan and Railway' (in Wigan) and three pubs called
'The Swan with Two Necks' (in Bristol, Clitheroe and Wakefield) cry
out for an explanation. As do two Welsh pubs both called 'The Goose
and Cuckoo' in Llanover (Monmouthshire) and Llangadog
(Carmarthenshire). The resulting aviary of 117 species doesn't
quite range from A to Z, but the list does run from 'The Blackbird'
on Earls Court Road in London to a 'Yellow Wagtail' in Yeovil. The
book covers the commonest pub birds, why they are so named, their
geography and history, and also pub birds in art, literature and
music. There is even a short chapter on nests, babies, feathers and
bird paraphernalia. Throughout, the author has woven some of his
fondest memories of pub birds into the story and from time-to-time
he may even have gone into the pub for a pint.
Spanning the tumultuous years 1934 to 1948, John Lawton's A Lily of
the Field is a brilliant historical thriller from a master of the
form. The book follows two characters--Meret Voytek, a talented
young cellist living in Vienna at the novel's start, and Dr. Karel
Szabo, a Hungarian physicist interned in a camp on the Isle of Man.
In his seventh Inspector Troy novel, Lawton moves seamlessly from
Vienna and Auschwitz to the deserts of New Mexico and the
rubble-strewn streets of postwar London, following the fascinating
parallels of the physicist Szabo and musician Voytek as fate takes
each far from home and across the untraditional battlefields of a
destructive war to an unexpected intersection at the novel's close.
The result, A Lily of the Field, is Lawton's best book yet, an
historically accurate and remarkably written novel that explores
the diaspora or two Europeans from the rise of Hitler to the
post-atomic age.
A standalone from one of England's best-loved literary thriller
writers, regularly compared to John Le Carre and Philip Kerr, Sweet
Sunday takes the reader back to the hot, sweaty summer of 1969, the
American summer in the American year in the American century.
Turner Raines isn't a typical New York private eye. He's a
has-been--among the things he has been are a broken Civil Rights
worker, a second-rate lawyer, and a tenth-rate journalist. But in
1969, as the USA is about to land a man on the moon, and the
Vietnam War is set to continue to rip the country to pieces, Raines
is working as a private detective helping draft-dodgers make it to
Canada. As Norman Mailer finalizes his campaign for Mayor of New
York, Raines leaves for Toronto, and by the time Raines gets back,
his oldest friend is dead, the city has changed forever, and with
it, his life. As Raines follows the trail of his friend's death, he
finds himself blasted back to the Texas of his childhood,
confronted anew with his divided family, and blown into the path of
certain people who know about secret goings-on in Vietnam, stories
they may now be willing to tell.
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Old Flames (Paperback)
John Lawton
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R472
R404
Discovery Miles 4 040
Save R68 (14%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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In April 1956, at the height of the Cold War, Khrushchev and
Bulganin, leaders of the Soviet Union, are in Britain on an
official visit. Chief Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard is assigned
to be Khrushchev's bodyguard and to spy on him. Soon after, a Royal
Navy diver is found dead and mutilated beyond recognition in
Portsmouth Harbor. Troy embarks on an investigation that takes him
to the rotten heart of MI6, to the distant days of his childhood,
and into the dangerous arms of an old flame. Brilliantly evoking
the intrigue of the Cold War and 1950's London, Old Flames is a
thrilling adventure of intrigue and suspense.
A newest novel in the Inspector Troy series, a tale of Cold War spy
dealings centred around Guy Burgess. For readers of John le Carre,
Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. It is 1958. Chief Superintendent
Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard, newly promoted after good service
during Nikita Khrushchev's visit to Britain, is not looking forward
to a Continental trip with his older brother, Rod. Rod was too vain
to celebrate being fifty so instead takes his entire family on 'the
Grand Tour' for his fifty-first birthday: Paris, Siena, Florence,
Vienna, Amsterdam. Restaurants, galleries and concert halls. But
Frederick Troy never gets to Amsterdam. After a concert in Vienna
he is approached by an old friend whom he has not seen for years -
Guy Burgess, a spy for the Soviets, who says something
extraordinary: 'I want to come home.' Troy dumps the problem on MI5
who send an agent to debrief Burgess - but when the man is gunned
down only yards from the embassy, the whole plan unravels with
alarming speed and Troy finds himself a suspect. As he fights to
prove his innocence, Troy discovers that Burgess is not the only
ghost who has returned to haunt him...
From “quite possibly the best historical novelist we haveâ€
(Philadelphia Inquirer), the fourth Joe Wilderness spy thriller,
moving from Red Scare-era Washington, D.C. to a KGB prison near
Moscow’s Kremlin In Moscow Exile, John Lawton departs from his
usual stomping grounds of England and Germany to jump across the
Atlantic to Washington, D.C., in the fragile postwar period where
the Red Scare is growing noisier every day. Charlotte is a
British expatriate who has recently settled in the nation’s
capital with her second husband, a man who looks intriguingly like
Clark Gable, but her enviable dinner parties and soirées aren’t
the only things she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has
been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last
seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union.
Charlie is soon shocked to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame
of his, who, thanks to all her gossipy parties, has a packed
pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share. Two decades or so
later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the
Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above
his pay grade—but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to
try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All
roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies…
Featuring crackling dialogue, brilliantly plotted Cold War
intrigue, and the return of beloved characters, including Inspector
Troy, Moscow Exile is a gripping thriller populated by
larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels
strangely in tune with our present.
London, 1958. Chief Superintendent Frederick Troy of Scotland
Yard--newly promoted after good service during Nikita Khrushchev's
visit to Britain--is not looking forward to a European trip with
his older brother, Rod. Rod has decided to take his entire family
on "the Grand Tour" for his fifty-first birthday: a whirlwind of
restaurants, galleries, and concert halls from Paris to Florence to
Vienna to Amsterdam. But in Vienna, Frederick Troy crosses paths
with an old acquaintance: British-spy-turned-Soviet-agent Guy
Burgess, who makes an extraordinary confession: "I want to come
home." Troy knows this news will cause a ruckus in London, but he
doesn't expect that an MI5 man will gunned down as a result--and
Troy himself suspected of the crime. As he fights to prove his
innocence, Troy finds that Burgess is not the only ghost who has
returned to haunt him. Richly atmospheric and full of twists and
turns, Friends and Traitors will satisfy John Lawton's many fans
and win him new ones as well.
Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in
Washington, D.C. with her second husband, but enviable dinner
parties aren't the only thing she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie
Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy
Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the
Soviet Union. Charlie is surprised to cross paths with Charlotte,
an old flame of his, who, thanks to her gossipy parties, has a
packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share. Two
decades later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side
of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way
above his pay grade - but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going
to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All
roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies...
Featuring crackling dialogue and brilliantly plotted Cold War
intrigue, Moscow Exile is a gripping thriller populated by
larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels
strangely in tune with our present.
Joe Wilderness is a World War II orphan, a condition that he thinks
excuses him from common morality. Cat burglar, card sharp, and
Cockney wide boy, the last thing he wants is to get drafted. But in
1946 he finds himself in the Royal Air Force, facing a stretch in
military prison . . . when along comes Lt Colonel Burne-Jones to
tell him MI6 has better use for his talents.
Posted to occupied Berlin, interrogating ex-Nazis, and burgling the
odd apartment for MI6, Wilderness finds himself with time on his
hands and the devil making work. He falls in with Frank, a US Army
captain, with Eddie, a British artilleryman and with Yuri, a major
in the NKVD and together they lift the black market scam to a new
level. Coffee never tasted so sweet. And he falls for Nell
Breakheart, a German girl who has witnessed the worst that Germany
could do and is driven by all the scruples that Wilderness lacks.
Fifteen years later, June 1963. Wilderness is free-lance and down
on his luck. A gumshoe scraping by on divorce cases. Frank is a big
shot on Madison Avenue, cooking up one last Berlin scam . . . for
which he needs Wilderness once more. Only now they're not smuggling
coffee, they're smuggling people. And Nell? Nell is on the staff of
West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt, planning for the state visit of
the most powerful man in the world: "Ich bin ein Berliner "
"Then We Take Berlin" is a gripping, meticulously researched and
richly detailed historical thriller - a moving story of espionage
and war, and people caught up in the most tumultuous events of the
twenty-first century.
It's London, the swinging sixties, and by rights MI6 spy Joe
Wilderness should be having as good a time as James Bond. But alas,
in the wake of an embarrassing disaster for MI6, Wilderness has
been posted to remote northern Finland in a cultural exchange
program to promote Britain abroad. Bored by his work, with nothing
to spy on, Wilderness finds another way to make money: smuggling
vodka across the border into the USSR. He strikes a deal with old
KGB pal Kostya, who explains to him there is a vodka shortage in
the Soviet Union - but there is something fishy about Kostya's
sudden appearance in Finland and intelligence from London points to
a connection to cobalt mining in the region, a critical component
in the casing of the atomic bomb. Wilderness's posting is getting
more interesting by the minute, but more dangerous too. Moving from
the no-man's-land of Cold War Finland to the wild days of the
Prague Spring, and populated by old friends (including Inspector
Troy) and old enemies alike, Hammer to Fall is a gripping tale of
deception and skulduggery, of art and politics, a page-turning
story of the always riveting life of the British spy.
A newest novel in the Inspector Troy series, a tale of Cold War spy
dealings centred around Guy Burgess. For readers of John le Carre,
Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. It is 1958. Chief Superintendent
Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard, newly promoted after good service
during Nikita Khrushchev's visit to Britain, is not looking forward
to a Continental trip with his older brother, Rod. Rod was too vain
to celebrate being fifty so instead takes his entire family on 'the
Grand Tour' for his fifty-first birthday: Paris, Siena, Florence,
Vienna, Amsterdam. Restaurants, galleries and concert halls. But
Frederick Troy never gets to Amsterdam. After a concert in Vienna
he is approached by an old friend whom he has not seen for years -
Guy Burgess, a spy for the Soviets, who says something
extraordinary: 'I want to come home.' Troy dumps the problem on MI5
who send an agent to debrief Burgess - but when the man is gunned
down only yards from the embassy, the whole plan unravels with
alarming speed and Troy finds himself a suspect. As he fights to
prove his innocence, Troy discovers that Burgess is not the only
ghost who has returned to haunt him...
Turner Raines is not a typical New York private eye. He'd tell you
so much himself, "I may not be the greatest gumshoe alive, but I'm
a good listener." He is a has-been--among the things he has been
are a broken Civil Rights worker, a second-rate lawyer, and a
tenth-rate journalist. But as a detective, he's found his niche. In
the summer of 1969--the hottest, sweatiest in history, the American
summer in the American year in the American century--the USA is
about to land a man on the moon, and the Vietnam War is set to
continue to rip the country to pieces, setting sons against
fathers, fathers against sons. If your kid dodges the draft, hooks
up with a hippie commune, makes a dash for Canada, Turner Raines is
the man to find him. He won't drag him back, that's not the deal,
but he will put you in touch with your loved one.
That turbulent May of 1969, as Norman Mailer runs for Mayor of New
York, Raines leaves the city, chasing a draft-dodging punk all the
way to Toronto. Nothing goes as planned. By the time Raines gets
back to New York, his oldest friend is dead, the city has changed
for ever, and with it, his life. Following the trail of his
friend's death, he finds himself blasted back to the Texas of his
childhood, confronted anew with the unresolved issues of his
divided family, and blown into the path of certain people who know
about secret goings-on in Vietnam, stories they may now be willing
to tell. Lucky for Raines, he's a good listener.
Joe Wilderness is a World War II orphan, a condition that he thinks
excuses him from common morality. Cat burglar, card sharp, and
Cockney wide boy, the last thing he wants is to get drafted. But in
1946 he finds himself in the Royal Air Force, facing a stretch in
military prison . . . when along comes Lt Colonel Burne-Jones to
tell him MI6 has better use for his talents.
Posted to occupied Berlin, interrogating ex-Nazis, and burgling the
odd apartment for MI6, Wilderness finds himself with time on his
hands and the devil making work. He falls in with Frank, a US Army
captain, with Eddie, a British artilleryman and with Yuri, a major
in the NKVD and together they lift the black market scam to a new
level. Coffee never tasted so sweet. And he falls for Nell
Breakheart, a German girl who has witnessed the worst that Germany
could do and is driven by all the scruples that Wilderness lacks.
Fifteen years later, June 1963. Wilderness is free-lance and down
on his luck. A gumshoe scraping by on divorce cases. Frank is a big
shot on Madison Avenue, cooking up one last Berlin scam . . . for
which he needs Wilderness once more. Only now they're not smuggling
coffee, they're smuggling people. And Nell? Nell is on the staff of
West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt, planning for the state visit of
the most powerful man in the world: "Ich bin ein Berliner "
"Then We Take Berlin" is a gripping, meticulously researched and
richly detailed historical thriller - a moving story of espionage
and war, and people caught up in the most tumultuous events of the
twenty-first century.
Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as
crack' (Daily Telegraph), the Inspector Troy series is perfect for
fans of Le Carre, Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. 1938. The Germans
take Vienna without a shot being fired. Covering Austria for the
English press is a young journalist named Rod Troy. Back home his
younger brother joins the CID as a detective constable. Two years
later tensions are rising and 'enemy aliens' are rounded up in
London for internment. In the midst of the chaos London's most
prominent rabbis are being picked off one by one and Troy must race
to stop the killer.
Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as
crack' (Daily Telegraph), the Inspector Troy series is perfect for
fans of Le Carre, Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. 1959. An old flame
has returned to Troy's life: Kitty Stilton, now wife of an American
presidential hopeful, has come back to London, and with her, an
unwelcome guest. Private eye Joey Rork has been hired to make sure
Kitty's amorous liaisons don't ruin her husband's political career.
But before Rork can dig any dirt, he meets a gruesome end... But he
isn't the only one, and with the body-count mounting is it possible
that the blood trail leads back to Troy's police force and into his
own forgotten past?
Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as
crack' (Daily Telegraph), the Inspector Troy series is perfect for
fans of Le Carre, Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. 1941. After ten years
spying for the Americans, Wolfgang Stahl disappears during a Berlin
air raid. The Germans think he's dead. The British know he's not.
But where is he? MI6 convince US Intelligence that Stahl will head
for London, and so Captain Cal Cormack, a shy American
'aristocrat', is teamed with Chief Inspector Stilton of Stepney,
fat, fifty and convivial. Between them they scour London, a city
awash with spivs and refugees. When things start to go terribly
wrong, ditched by MI6 and disowned by his embassy, Cal is
introduced to his one last hope - Sergeant Troy of Scotland Yard...
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. 1963. England is a
country set to explode but Troy, now Britain's most senior police
detective, is fighting his own battle against ill-health. While he
is on medical leave, the Yard brings charges against an
acquaintance of his, a hedonistic doctor with a penchant for
voyeurism and young women, two of whom just happen to be sleeping
with a senior man at the Foreign Office as well as a KGB agent. But
on the eve of the verdict a curious double case of suicide drags
Troy back into active duty. Beyond bedroom acrobatics, the secret
affairs now stretch to double crosses and deals in the halls of
power, not to mention murder.
Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as
crack'- Daily Telegraph The Inspector Troy series is perfect for
fans of Le Carre, Philip Kerr and Alan Furst. London, 1956.
Khrushchev and Bulganin, leaders of the Soviet Union, are in
Britain on an official visit. Chief Inspector Troy is assigned to
be Khrushchev's bodyguard and to spy on him. Soon after, a Royal
Navy diver is found dead and mutilated beyond recognition in
Portsmouth Harbour. What was he doing under the hull of
Khrushchev's ship, and who sent him there? Meanwhile, cold-blooded
killings have started to follow Troy wherever he goes. Is it
possible that the executioner is a fellow policeman, or, worse
still, an old friend?
Written by 'a sublimely elegant historical novelist as addictive as
crack' (Daily Telegraph), the Inspector Troy series is perfect for
fans of Le Carre, 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.
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