Black Out

This debut novel (published in 1995; there have been many sequels in this series as well as other novels) by TV documentary producer John Lawton is richly atmospheric, evoking a structurally and morally torn and tattered London during the final days of the Nazi Blitz. In the midst of the destruction and chaos, who would expect to find a human arm in the remains of a bomb site, but a group of street urchins do and this launches an investigation by Detective Sargeant Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard. He offers a reward to anyone in the mob of youngsters who can finds more of the victim and is eventually led to a basement and more human remains in an old furnace. The victim was shot and then dismembered and burned--all except for that stray arm. It belonged to a German scientist who may or may not have been working for British Intelligence. When this case seems to share ties with a missing persons report about another east European immigrant, Troy begins to feel there has been a systematic effort to protect someone fairly high up in the food chain.

Troy, the son of a titled Russian émigré who eschews riding on the coat tails of his now wealthy father, gets involved with two different women. One is an  American WAC sargeant, Larissa Tosca, who serves as secretary to an American liaison with MI5. The other, Diana Brack, is a disaffected member of the upper classes who is involved with Troy's primary suspect, Jimmy Wayne. She and Troy develop a very complicated relationship. He is alternately cruel and lustful towards her, and she eventually tries to kill him. Given an unassailable alibi by American high command, it appears that Wayne will get away, but Troy is nothing if not persistent.  Four years later, in post-war Berlin, he tracks down the man he believed killed at least three people and pulls every string to get him back on British soil so he can be arrested. 

There is a lukewarm review from Publishers Weekly, while a review from Kirkus calls this thriller "beautifully paced."