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I had a hard time figuring out how to review this book. Maybe I tried to take it too seriously (British humor can catch me unaware, although I adore it). Or maybe I was just too lazy to keep track of the myriad plot reversals and story twists. But, in my defense, I felt Lawton had a tendency to overindulge in adjectives (in flagrant opposition to the book I finished just prior to OLD FLAMES, in which finding a sentence with both a noun and a verb was a cause for celebration). Despite that, he has crafted a complex, richly imagined tale set during the height of the infamous Cold War. And much of the feel of elaborate detailing may be due to his filmmaking background. At times, the book reads like a colorful script, the set described with painstaking particularity.
Imagine this: It is 1956, London. Chief Inspector Freddie Troy --- first introduced in BLACK OUT --- finds himself volunteering, under some duress, to be bodyguard for Nikita Kruschev during the Russian's visit to England. It's Troy's little secret that he understands Kruschev's language perfectly well and the British government wants him to keep it his secret, even listen in whenever possible and, naturally, report back any interesting tidbits. As assignments go, it's not too bad until a corpse shows up, that of an apparent Royal Navy diver killed while spying on Kruschev's ship. Troy undertakes to solve the problem of the frogman's identity and to unravel the mystery of his mission and who killed him. But, to complicate matters, nearly every direction he turns to search for answers leads him to another dead body. And each dead body reveals another layer of intrigue. Wedged in with his pursuit of clues, he squeezes in a few romantic encounters and some nostalgic ones. The relationships intertwine with the investigations, making them inseparable from one another.
OLD FLAMES is a virtual cornucopia of detail. It contains a plethora of personalities, plot twists and storylines. Characters abound. Lawton keeps you on your toes trying to figure out who's who, on what side and why. Motives must be questioned; backgrounds have to be taken into account. But, while intricately plotted, the book seemed a slow starter. In fairness, though, just about the time I was complaining vociferously about the plodding action, it hit dead on, full force and continued relentlessly. The wrap-up sneaked up on me. It kind of left me breathless. Take the time to walk through the first several chapters; you will find yourself running through the rest.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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