The Streets of Town [Hardcover]

Gardner takes us once again to the London of WWII. This time, however, we have moved forward to 1941 with the Blitz at an end and the drudgery and privations of an island at war with its continental neighbours now endemic. We meet once more not only WDS Mountford but also her lover, DCS Tommy Livermore, and his Scotland Yard Reserve Squad. Ranged against them are a collection of the unusual suspects from the first novel, the Balvak Twins (forerunners of the Krays), assisted by one of Force's own, and an enigmatic character of the night who describes himself as a ghoul and 'collects' bodies following air raids so that he can bury them in his cellar. Gardner, so liberal with most other aspects of this novel, jealously guards the identity of the ghoul until a breakneck climax that skilfully brings all the stands of the tortuous plot together in a neat and chilling dénouement.

This is a novel that spares no one's feelings, least of all the major characters'. Gardner has little use for scrubbed sentimentality and he begs us witness the horror and brutality of war at one remove - not the commonplace, indiscriminate tragedies of a world engulfed by conflagration but the private gangland infighting of lawless opportunists using the war as a cover for squalid empire-building. Gardner takes us into their world, into lives lived forever on the edge in a melded tumult of comedy and iniquity. He contrasts the ruthless lawbreakers with the fast and loose detectives on their trail, the poignancy of missed opportunities and misunderstood emotions never far from the surface. And despite their obvious and very human faults, we care about these characters - all the more so because Gardner so patently cares.

Liberated now from the straitjacket of the James Bond franchise, John Gardner is firmly in his stride with this second Suzie Mountford novel. In fact, he writes more freely than ever before. Slipping readily from past to present tense, from tragedy to comedy, from heroine's perspective to villain's, he gives us the views and mores of the time without the guilty sticking-plaster of modern political correctness.

These 'Streets', as Gardner quotes Eric Maschwitz, are indeed paved with stars. They are also penned with gold. I look forward with relish to the next instalment of the Suzie Mountford saga, as Gardner follows her life and career through the war years.

Gardner takes us once again to the London of WWII. This time, however, we have moved forward to 1941 with the Blitz at an end and the drudgery and privations of an island at war with its continental neighbours now endemic. We meet once more not only WDS Mountford but also her lover, DCS Tommy Livermore, and his Scotland Yard Reserve Squad. Ranged against them are a collection of the unusual suspects from the first novel, the Balvak Twins (forerunners of the Krays), assisted by one of Force's own, and an enigmatic character of the night who describes himself as a ghoul and 'collects' bodies following air raids so that he can bury them in his cellar. Gardner, so liberal with most other aspects of this novel, jealously guards the identity of the ghoul until a breakneck climax that skilfully brings all the stands of the tortuous plot together in a neat and chilling dénouement.

This is a novel that spares no one's feelings, least of all the major characters'. Gardner has little use for scrubbed sentimentality and he begs us witness the horror and brutality of war at one remove - not the commonplace, indiscriminate tragedies of a world engulfed by conflagration but the private gangland infighting of lawless opportunists using the war as a cover for squalid empire-building. Gardner takes us into their world, into lives lived forever on the edge in a melded tumult of comedy and iniquity. He contrasts the ruthless lawbreakers with the fast and loose detectives on their trail, the poignancy of missed opportunities and misunderstood emotions never far from the surface. And despite their obvious and very human faults, we care about these characters - all the more so because Gardner so patently cares.

Liberated now from the straitjacket of the James Bond franchise, John Gardner is firmly in his stride with this second Suzie Mountford novel. In fact, he writes more freely than ever before. Slipping readily from past to present tense, from tragedy to comedy, from heroine's perspective to villain's, he gives us the views and mores of the time without the guilty sticking-plaster of modern political correctness.

These 'Streets', as Gardner quotes Eric Maschwitz, are indeed paved with stars. They are also penned with gold. I look forward with relish to the next instalment of the Suzie Mountford saga, as Gardner follows her life and career through the war years.