Stratton's War
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Review
"Stratton's War should certainly swell the ranks of Laura Wilson aficianados" (CRIME TIME )
'Totally deserving of the 2008 Crime Writers Association / Ellis Peters Historical Award, it's well researched, well written and brilliantly plotted.' (SAINSBURYS MAGAZINE )
'Wilson has established a reputation for stylish psychological crime; the first in her series featuring decent copper Stratton is enriched with warmth and humour as well.' (GUARDIAN )
A breathtakingly good novel that weaves credible fiction onto fact, brilliantly evoking wartime London.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
'Totally deserving of the 2008 Crime Writers Association / Ellis Peters Historical Award, it's well researched, well written and brilliantly plotted.' (SAINSBURYS MAGAZINE )
'Wilson has established a reputation for stylish psychological crime; the first in her series featuring decent copper Stratton is enriched with warmth and humour as well.' (GUARDIAN )
A breathtakingly good novel that weaves credible fiction onto fact, brilliantly evoking wartime London.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
Review
"Stratton's War should certainly swell the ranks of Laura Wilson aficianados" CRIME TIME 'Totally deserving of the 2008 Crime Writers Association / Ellis Peters Historical Award, it's well researched, well written and brilliantly plotted.' SAINSBURYS MAGAZINE 'Wilson has established a reputation for stylish psychological crime; the first in her series featuring decent copper Stratton is enriched with warmth and humour as well.' GUARDIAN A breathtakingly good novel that weaves credible fiction onto fact, brilliantly evoking wartime London.' HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a lengthy, intricate and necessarily leisurely read. It is also a very absorbing one. Wartime London amidst the bombs and blackout makes a bleak but graphic canvas for murder, nascent Fascism and subversive intrigue. The two protagonists, Stratton and Diana - robust policeman and refined Secret Service recruit (loosely based on real life agent Joan Miller) - are believable and sympathetically drawn, and their widely differing milieux realistically portrayed. Indeed, one of the strengths of the novel is the way that Laura Wilson collates and blends the various professional fields, domestic contexts and social strata. The suave and seamy, the urbane and humdrum, crisp ruthlessness and crude thuggery are deftly manipulated to produce a thriller of compelling realism. The pace may be leisurely but the prose is delivered with clarity, style and punchy humour; and the auxiliary characters - such as M I 5 chief Forbes-James, or Diana's distasteful husband - are sharply defined. Blackmail, espionage, illicit sex, unexplained deaths - yes, these are the classic ingredients of crime fiction; but set against and woven into the heightened ethos of the London Blitz, they take on an additional frisson. Set in a world of complex ambiguity, the novel's ending is appropriately oblique and prepares the reader for fresh developments.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very complex plot and suitably confusing for a novel involving the secret service. Nice ambiguous ending as well.
The story starts with a simple, apparently, death and becomes more and more of a tangled web as the investigation by the one police officer who did not accept the coroner's suicide verdict continues. At the same time the british intelligence service is infiltrating the Hitler appeasing group of the establishment. Eventually the two strands of investigation become entwined.
The story starts with a simple, apparently, death and becomes more and more of a tangled web as the investigation by the one police officer who did not accept the coroner's suicide verdict continues. At the same time the british intelligence service is infiltrating the Hitler appeasing group of the establishment. Eventually the two strands of investigation become entwined.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
DI Ted Stratton is a policeman working in central London in 1940. He is married to Jenny and their two children have been sent out of London. for safety. His home life is happy apart from the constant entreaties from his wife, which he is beginning to dread, to bring back the children from the country as she misses them. His extended family leave something to be desired, but we all have the same problems in this area.
He is called to investigate the death of silent screen star Mable Morgan who has been found dead impaled on railing outside her flat. The verdict is suicide, but Ted is not so sure, and against his superiors advice he starts asking questions.
On the other side of the tracks we meet Diana Calthrop, a tall elegant blonde who is recruited into MI5 working with senior official Sir Neviile Apse. Diana meets handsome Claude Ventriss and against her better judgement and her colleagues advice, is attracted by Claude. Diana is on sticky ground all round, she is married to Guy, who is serving abroad, but unlike Ted Stratton her marriage is not happy, and with her home life scrutinised by her mother-in-law, and a job that is by its very nature secretive, she really has no one she can trust.
As Ted delves further into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mable Morgan he finds links to the criminal underworld that in turn lead him to Diana's secret world, and thus their paths cross.
A brilliant story following two different walks of life set across the backdrop of war-torn London.
------
Lizzie Hayes
He is called to investigate the death of silent screen star Mable Morgan who has been found dead impaled on railing outside her flat. The verdict is suicide, but Ted is not so sure, and against his superiors advice he starts asking questions.
On the other side of the tracks we meet Diana Calthrop, a tall elegant blonde who is recruited into MI5 working with senior official Sir Neviile Apse. Diana meets handsome Claude Ventriss and against her better judgement and her colleagues advice, is attracted by Claude. Diana is on sticky ground all round, she is married to Guy, who is serving abroad, but unlike Ted Stratton her marriage is not happy, and with her home life scrutinised by her mother-in-law, and a job that is by its very nature secretive, she really has no one she can trust.
As Ted delves further into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mable Morgan he finds links to the criminal underworld that in turn lead him to Diana's secret world, and thus their paths cross.
A brilliant story following two different walks of life set across the backdrop of war-torn London.
------
Lizzie Hayes
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable but has weaknesses
Stratton's War is part of the burgeoning number of crime novels using the Second World War as its backdrop. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Rob Kitchin
Dull as dishwater
A promising start failed to develop into anything interesting. Threw the towel in after eight hours reading and decided life was too short. Who dunnit.... Who cares!
Published 3 months ago by J. Malone
Stratton - a character to follow
I love Laura Wilson's writing and this book is up there with her best. I've come to it late so have the luxury of being able to read more about Ted Stratton at once as I move on... Read more
Published 15 months ago by L. Mumbray-Williams
Stratton's War
Laura Wilson made a good job of this book. It is set in War Time London (WW2), it is based loosely on a real person. Read more
Published 15 months ago by MIDNIGHT
Intrigue and criminality in a London under frequent Luftwaffe...
This novel is immaculately written and it has an interesting and believable plot. The two main characters, DI Stratton and Diana Calthrop, a deb-type spy, are very well drawn as,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Lewis Duckworth
Rather tired and boring
This book was given to me to review for my local book club. The book was about 200 pages too long. The author seemed to be trying a complex plot and came undone half-way there. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by Cormac Mac
Not quite as good as it could be
The plot never quite grabbed me as it should have done. Period detail great but in the end there seemed to be too many characters with not quite enough to do. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by Mrs. Helen Read
Evocative of the period
There is no doubt that Laura Wilson has an innate ability to bring to life in a highly evocative way the early war years in London (1940). Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2009 by D. P. Mankin
Fails to live up to its promise
I was looking forward to this book having read Wilson's 'The Lover'. However, although the character of Stratton was interesting and well-drawn, the story was bogged down with two... Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2008 by Annabel B
Starts well, but...
I wanted to like this book, but it's too long - 450 pages - for the slight plot, and there's an interminable and uninteresting illicit affair subplot that adds nothing to the book,... Read more
Published on 1 April 2008 by George Rodger
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