I have read several of the Troy books and this one was a disappointment compared to the others. Lawton gets so wrapped up in the political events of the time that the characters get muddled and the plots confused. The death mentioned in the title doesn't even occur until over the halfway through the book.
Lawton does love his political intrigue and scandal and fills each book with it, but this one had just too much of it. All the other Troy books I've read are substantially better than this one. ( )

John Lawton may not be obsessed with sex but his protagonist Chief Inspector Troy surely is, in this episode of Lawton's quite good series. Ill with tuberculosis and on invalid leave, Troy quite literally stumbles around pausing occasionally to have sex with a variety of women, young and old. His voyeur like approach to investigating murders emanating from the liberal use of drugs and "honey traps" as ensnarement devices in England's political and government arenas rarely gives him time to pause and look in a mirror. Strongly colored by a strong John Profumo/Kim Selby taint, his portrayal of Britain's establishment is ugly but apt. ( )

I love the Frederick Troy series of novels (and they are proper novels): so vividly realised is the social history of England through these unconventional murder mysteries. The writing is deft and subtle, the characters interesting and fully rounded. Troy himself is real enough that I sometimes find myself wondering what he would say to his creator if he met him, so often is he injured, wounded and generally made a victim of extreme ill health. Poor Troy: Lawton really does have it in for him in this one.

This one is set in 1963, and, at least at first, closely follows the story of the Kilby defection and the Profumo affair, though Lawton, in his afterword, emphatically denies that he has written a roman a clef; indeed, towards the end of the novel, the 'Profumo' character refers to a year of scandals, including his own as well as that of Profumo: cheeky!

Lawton is a master of the set piece: the weekend at the aristocratic country house (Uphill, which is obviously NOT Cliveden etc.), a visit to Moscow; and the sex is as surprising as ever. I have to admit that I'm not so keen on Troy's sometimes rather questionable choice of sexual partners, another characteristic of the series, but I do share Lawton's pleasure in the addition of a little grit in the oyster in the form of the sometimes rather vulgar diction in the mouths of the most sophisticated people.

The wittiest element, though, I think, is Lawton's use of anachronism: characters are made to seem amazingly prescient in their opinions with the benefit of the author's hindsight: predictions about the political future, or judgements of the character of, say, Harold Wilson, are (as we now know!) spot on. This is delicious.

If you've read Troy before, all your favourite characters appear and you're sure to enjoy this as a classic of the genre; if this is your first, I hope you come to love Troy as much as I do, and welcome to the club!

My one slight cavil with the whole series is the difficulty I've had in reading them in the proper sequence: they seem to have been written - or at least published - out of chronological order. But of course that just gives me the perfect excuse to read them all again, in the right order this time.

Oh, I nearly forgot: the murders and their solutions are, indeed, ingenious! ( )

It's about a scandal in 1950s (1960s?) London, back when the entire country was socially stifling and conservative. My memory of the book is jumbled, as I kept skipping ahead to the naughty bits. And I can't even recall what those naughty bits were.

It might've been a spy novel. Or a crime novel.

In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I only picked up this book because of its cover--but oh, the cover! ( )

Imagine a crime story based in 1960's London. No DNA, no emails, no cell phones. How refreshing ! But what's a top-ranking officer of Scotland Yard to use when confronted with a suspicious death (or two). Well, how about that old standby, fingerprints ? and intuition ? and careful listening to witness statements ? ALWD is one of those rare period pieces that really embraces the period. And it's filled with politics, money, class, scandal, conspiracy.....what more do you want? A spy story? Actually, ALWD feels very much like a spy story for the first 50 pages or so, similar to one of those grand Le Carre stories of 40 years ago, but then it gets very sexy, and the spooks drift into the background. This is about the 3rd novel in this series of seven books, and my first. It may not matter where the reader jumps into the storyline. The author hops all over the timeline as he goes from book to book, so you will not follow a story chronology unless you jump from book 4 to book 1 then to book 6 etc. (read the synopses for an accurate timeline). And it tracks with key moments in history. For instance, ALWD ends on a key date, one that most readers will see coming fairly early in the story.....Enjoy! ( )