The year is 1910, and in the small and seemingly sleepy English municipality of Haxford, there's a new chief police inspector. At first, the dapper and unflappable Pignon Scorbion strikes something of an odd figure among the locals, who don't see a need for such an exacting investigator. But it isn't long before Haxford finds itself very much in need of a detective. Luckily, Scorbion and the local barber are old acquaintances, and the barbershop...

She keeps house for Inspector Witherspoon . . . and keeps him on his toes. Everyone's awed by his Scotland Yard successes-but they don't know about his secret weapon. No matter how messy the murder or how dirty the deed, Mrs. Jeffries's polished detection skills are up to the task . . . proving that behind every great man there's a woman-and that a crimesolver's work is never done. When the general office manager of Sutcliffe Manufacturing is murdered,...

With his Inspector Troy series, John Lawton has been compared to top historical espionage writers such as John le Carre and Len Deighton. Brilliantly re-creating London in the time of ration tickets and bread lines, Bluffing Mr. Churchill is a blistering page-turner. It is 1941. Wolfgang Stahl, an American spy operating undercover as an SS officer, has just fled Germany with Hitler's henchmen on his trail. Stahl's man in the American embassy, the...

The latest novel from the master spy novelist John Lawton follows Inspector Troy, now Scotland Yard's chief detective, deep into a scandal reminiscent of the infamous Profumo affair. England in 1963 is a country set to explode. The old guard, shocked by the habits of the war baby youth, sets out to fight back. The battle reaches uncomfortably close to Troy. While he is on medical leave, the Yard brings charges against an acquaintance of his, a hedonistic...