OLD FLAMES by John Lawton - BOOK - ADVANCE READING COPY

Old Flames is a riveting spy novel sparked by historical events, with a twisting, turning plot that The Sunday Times (London) declares "a strange, thoughtful, quiet, intelligent spellbinder of a book, penetrating the very heart of betrayal." It is 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, son of a distinguished Russian emigre, 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. What was he doing under the hull of Khrushchev's ship, and who sent him there? Is the corpse that of Arnold Cockerell, a furniture salesman with a mysterious source of income and a bizarre fetish for scuba gear, or did Cockerell fake his own death to escape an unknown nemesis? To find the answers, Inspector Troy must venture into the heart of the M16. He encounters the trifling bureaucrats of Scotland Yard, fellow officers who may be sleeping with the enemy, and seductive identical twins. Meanwhile cold-blooded killings have started to follow him wherever he goes. Is it possible that the executioner is a fellow policeman-or, worse still, an old friend? In a world where secret codes lead to hidden Swiss bank accounts and an entire nation struggles to makes sense of itself in the wake of war, can anyone be trusted? Brilliantly evoking the atmosphere of the Cold War and London in the 1950s, Old Flames is a thrilling adventure of intrigue and suspense-"a lucid, disenchanted view of crimes past ... with nostalgia kept at bay and every inducement to find your own perspective"(Philip Oakes, The Literary Review). "A splash of Greene, a twist of Deighton, a small measure of history-Lawton has produced a thrilling cocktail." -- The Times (London) "... packed with amusing and tragic characters, both historical and imaginary, rich in period detail and political interest." -- Morning Star "An early candidate for Thumping Good Thriller of the Year ... just the joy of a plot racing along in overdrive."