Smoke and Embers: An Inspector Troy Novel

The intricate ninth installment in Lawton’s series featuring Scotland Yard inspector Frederick Troy (after Friends and Traitors) tracks the fates of nearly a dozen Europeans during the desperate final months of WWII. The action opens in 1950, with London still in a postwar depression. Troy’s brother, Rod, has been reelected as an MP for the Labour Party, thanks in part to generous donations from war racketeer Otto Ohnherz and his consigliere, Jay Fabian, who claims to be an Auschwitz survivor—though Troy suspects him of being a Russian agent. The novel then rewinds to 1945 Poland, where Sam Fabian, a physicist and Polish Jew, survives Auschwitz and is recruited as a translator for the Russians in Berlin. There, he trades identities with Nazi deserter Klaus von Niegutt, who changes his fake name from “Sam” to “Jay” and heads for London. After Ohnherz dies in the 1950s timeline, Jay apparently falls off a roof to his death, but his past is so dense with deceptions and aliases that Troy suspects murder. Short chapters and snappy dialogue help speed the kalidoscopic narrative along, though not at the expense of character development or emotional power. Lawton remains a force to be reckoned with. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (May)