From an author whose books have been described as “one of the great pleasures of modern spy fiction” by Slow Horses author Mick Herron and compared to the works of Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, and Joseph Kanon, in Smoke and Embers John Lawton turns to the murky days, weeks and years following the end of World War II in Germany, Britain, and beyond. Smoke and Embers is the ninth installment of the beloved Inspector Troy series, and opens in 1950, when a file lands on Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Troy’s desk, indicating that his boss has been conducting an affair with the known mistress of West London’s infamous runner of rackets, Otto Ohnherz. Ohnherz has mostly preoccupied himself with taking dubious care of the Jewish refugees arriving in Europe—finding them jobs and skimming their wages—but the line-item that gives Troy pause is the mysterious origins of Ohnherz’s second-in-command, Jay Fabian, who claims to have survived the concentration camps. Smoke and Embers is a highly surprising and intricately woven novel of the opportunity of reinvention after World War II, where identities swap, and smoke covers all tracks. With a twisting plotline, crackling dialogue, characteristic humor, and the return of beloved characters, Smoke and Embers is an exciting new addition to John Lawton’s masterful canon.