FRIENDS AND TRAITORS

As in his previous Inspector Troy novels, John Lawton is a master of amalgamating true-life events into his imaginative plots. 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 51st 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 will make 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 be gunned down as a result and Troy finds 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. With convincing descriptions of people and places. 341pp, paperback.