John Lawton is a writer of elegance whose books offer a history of Britain from the early twentieth century and its World Wars into the Cold War. His characters appear and reappear in different novels, both in the Met and in a variety of military, diplomatic, and espionage units. Somewhere between books there is often time passing and characters disappearing, never to be seen again. There's a strong whiff of LeCarre, but there's nothing wrong with that. What's more, Lawton's women are better drawn than LeCarre's. Alongside the historical aspects of his writing, there is a considerable amount of attention to social change, achieved without making a fuss. There is also some wonderful writing about music and musicians. This latest novel has Guy Burgess not quite at its heart, but certainly a constant presence. It has taken me quite some time to write this review because I kept going back to earlier novels to make sure I was keeping track of people and places. Read this book now, allowing yourself to circle back as and when necessary.

A really interesting and well told story with wonderful writing. I found myself thinking about it when I was reading it and raced pack to pick it up. Lawton puts together a brilliant story.

I seem to be making a habit recently of coming in at an advanced stage of a series. As a case in point, Friends and Traitors is book eight in John Lawton’s Inspector Troy series. (However, it’s not quite as bad as a book I’m shortly to read – Prussian Blue by the late lamented Philip Kerr – which is number twelve in his Bernie Gunther series.)

As a sign of how far we are into the series, Inspector Troy is now a Chief Superintendent in charge of the Murder Squad. However, the author is kind to readers like myself who haven’t read previous books in the series, because the first part of Friends and Traitors takes us back to when Troy was a young man and to his first meeting with Guy Burgess at a family dinner party. Over the next few years, Troy has a number of memorable encounters with Burgess, one of which will prove to be crucial to events later in the book.

The Guy Burgess of Friends and Traitors is the louche, sexually promiscuous, heavy drinking risk-taker that I remember from Alan Bennett’s television play, An Englishman Abroad (with the inimitable Alan Bates playing Burgess). However, he’s also terrifically entertaining. ‘It occurred to Troy that Burgess was the kind of bloke who’d never leave a party until physically thrown out.’ The author gives Burgess some great lines: ‘Two things an Englishman should never go abroad without – Jane Austen and a badger-hair shaving brush.’ There is also a brilliant section after Burgess’ defection where he lists at length all the things he misses about England, including ‘the bloke in the pub in Holborn who could fart the national anthem’, Mantovani, his flannelette stripy pyjamas and ‘jellied eels and a bit of rough’. (There’s a lot more.)

Talking of risk takers, Troy is a bit of one himself. Clever, well-read and resourceful, he nevertheless gets himself into some scrapes, many of them involving women. And every so often in Friends and Traitors, the author drops in a nugget of sometimes quite surprising information about Troy’s past. Troy’s family contain some characters as well, especially his sisters who also have a chequered history when it comes to relationships (with men and booze).

The book did feel a little fragmented at times as if a number of different stories had been melded together. For instance, there is section in which Troy joins members of his family on a ‘Grand Tour’ of European capitals whose main purpose seems to be to place Troy in Vienna at a pivotal moment. And the murder of the agent mentioned in the book description and Troy’s subsequent investigation of it doesn’t happen until around half way through the book.

However, I really enjoyed Friends and Traitors and the fragments of information about Troy’s previous exploits have made me keen to read earlier books in the series. Who knows, I might even break with habit and start from the beginning! As a fan of espionage stories, including John le Carré, I found the sections of the book about Guy Burgess really fascinating. I recommend reading the author’s Afterword which includes details of his research and key sources.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers Grove Press in return for an honest and unbiased review.