It’s a rare writer who can turn the inevitable into gripping drama. This is a special challenge for spy novelists whose work centers on World War II or the Cold War. After all, we know how World War II ended. We know (or we think we know) who won the Cold War. The greatest espionage novelists — John le Carré, Eric Ambler, Alan Furst and a handful of others — find new drama in the shadowy, private battles that rage in the hearts and minds of spies themselves.
John Lawton’s Frederick Troy novels fit somewhat uneasily into this category. Troy of Scotland Yard is not a spy so much as a cop who finds himself enmeshed in espionage plots with alarming frequency. That Troy’s father is an émigré from a prominent Russian family adds a convenient — and utterly convincing — personal connection to many of the Cold War-related plots of the Troy novels.
John Lawton’s Frederick Troy novels fit somewhat uneasily into this category. Troy of Scotland Yard is not a spy so much as a cop who finds himself enmeshed in espionage plots with alarming frequency. That Troy’s father is an émigré from a prominent Russian family adds a convenient — and utterly convincing — personal connection to many of the Cold War-related plots of the Troy novels.