Second Violin

March 1938. The Germans take Vienna without a shot being fired. Covering Austria for the English press is a young journalist named Rod Troy. Back home his younger brother joins the CID as a detective constable. November 1938. Kristallnacht. The Jews leave Vienna - Sigmund Freud with an American escort on a sleeper train, Josef Hummel tied to the underside of a boxcar. June 1940. Sergeant Troy is seconded to Special Branch to help in the round-up of 'enemy' aliens, among whom are Hummel and his brother Rod. Rod and Hummel are interned on the Isle of Man ...meanwhile a lunatic is killing rabbis in the East End of London. Troy asks for time off from Special Branch to return to his true calling ...Murder. London is now under siege, from German bombers, from its own prejudices and paranoias. Is London any better than Vienna?

Review: 'Lawton's writing is hypnotic...he deserves to be ranked with the best' Birmingham Post. 'Unputdownable narrative of spying, sexual intrigue, political scandal and murder...a haunting novel, transcending the bounds of genre fiction' A.N. Wilson, Daily Telegraph. 'Flawlessly recreates the tensions of a society, teetering on the brink of a social and sexual revolution. Lawton's trick is to take the threads of history and weave them into his own tapestry' The Times.