John Lawton Books In Order

Publication Order of Inspector Troy Books

Chronological Order of Inspector Troy Books

Publication Order of Joe Wilderness Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

John Lawton is basically an author of the crime genre novels. He has written a series of successful novels set in England during the time of World War II and Cold War. His novel series ‘Troy’ features historical depictions and espionage. John is also a director and producer of television shows. Lawton was born in the year 1949 in England. He had a brief career as a publisher in London after which he became a television producer at a newly opened channel in London during the mid-1980’s. Lawton went and settled in New York in the year 1993 where he completed his novel ‘Black Out’. He was awarded the WH Smith award for that book in 1995. After that, he went back to England and started producing television shows up to 1999. In 2001, he returned with a show titled ‘Riptide’ which was made by Columbia Pictures. He has constantly changed his residence from USA, England and Italy. He was listed by the Daily Telegraph as one of the ’50 Crime Writers To Read Before You Die’. Since then, he has read novels in many places such as Toronto, Ottawa, Seattle and Portland and in the year 2010, he was named in the New York Times Review’s ‘Pick of the Year’ for one of his novels. Lawton had developed hobbies such as cultivation of onions and varieties of potatoes. He also liked to grow leeks. Lawton’s close friends describe him as seriously engrossed in whatever he did.

Lawton has worked with many notable people of his time such as Neil Simon and Noam Chomsky. He is the only director to be named in the parliamentary Bill as an offender against taste and balance in the British House of Lords. He has also been denounced as a Communist from the pulpit in Mississippi. He has attended a number of writers’ associations throughout the 90’s and has spent his life working in more the half of the 50 states. Lawton has lived in the wet and high hills of Derbyshire, since 2000 with frequent visits to the hills of Arizona and Italy. He has written many notable books and novel series’ such as the Troy series, Sweet Sunday and 1963,which was an extract from the historical and political life of Kennedy and Macmillan. Lawton novels have featured in the New York Times and have been made into television shows. He has also edited the stories of Joseph Conrad and the poetry of DH Lawrence. Lawton is devoted to the works of Cormac McCarthy, Barbara Gowdy, Franz Schubert and Art Tatum.

The crime novel series ‘Troy’ has fetched great name and fame for Lawton. He described the character of the protagonist Frederick Troy in this series. Frederick is a kind of character who does not like to be called by names other than his surname, Troy. Troy is depicted as the younger son of a Russian immigrant. His father becomes a rich newspaper publisher and a baronet. In spite of being rich and having all the luxuries of life, Troy defies the expectations of his family and joins the Scotland Yard. He becomes an investigator in a murder’ squad department’. The rights of the character of Troy were purchased by Columbia Pictures, who made television shows based on the storylines of the books written by John Lawton. The Troy series featured seven different novels full of thrill and excitement. The first novel was titled ‘Black Out’ and was published in the year 1995 by Viking. It was the debut novel of Lawton and was reissued recently by Grove Press. The novel is an exciting wartime thriller with stunning action scenes. The excellent storyline of the novel helped Lawton to cement his place in the list of greatest crime writers of his time. It significantly captures the realities of London during the war times. He has penned down a riveting drama in this novel encapsulating the uncertainty of Europe at the start of the postwar era.

During the war times of 1944, the Luftwaffe is making assaults on the capital of Britain and the people of London are forced to run for their lives taking shelter in anything that they can. The Blacked out city begins to face other troubles when the panic subsides. A group of children discover a severed arm while playing near a bomb site. Detective Troy tries to investigate the discovery of the arm and is successful in linking the severed arm to the vanishing of a refugee scientist from Nazi Germany. The new intelligence agency of America, the OSS gets involved in the matter. Troy comes from a high class lifestyle, but he is forced to leave London to investigate refugees and mysterious women in order to find the chain of secrets. The novel brings out the elegance and style of Detective Troy and its suspenseful plot makes this novel a fine thriller. It fetched an award for Lawton in the crime genre and boosted his career as a novelist. The second novel of the series was published in the year 1996 by Viking and then by Grove Press. It was titled ‘Old Flames’ and depicted the Cold War phase of 1956 England.

During this time, the members of the Soviet Union are on an official visit to Britain. Troy is assigned to the job of protection of Khrushchev and Bulganin. Troy finds out the body of a Royal Navy diver and begins to investigate his death. He tries to link all the instances that have happened before him and starts suspecting Khrushchev for some kind of plotting against England. During the course of his investigation, he comes across an old flame Larissa Tosca, who is an ex-army officer from U.S and is currently serving Khrushchev. The dead body of the diver is suspected to be of a furniture salesman named Arnold Cockerell or he might have faked his own death. Several murders take place wherever Troy goes for investigation and he begins to think of Cockerell as an agent or a spy. As his mystery deepens, Troy gets closer to solving the case and bring the culprits to trial. The novel was appreciated as a thrilling adventure of suspense and intrigue. Noted writes considered it to be brilliantly presented by Lawton. It was believed to be full of marvelous thoughts and moments. Readers liked the rich mixture of old-fashioned mayhem and political intrigue.