Lawton, J: Then We Take Berlin

"Lawton captures both the immediate postwar and midcentury landscapes perfectly, stirring elements of Graham Greene, John le Carre, and the great Ross Thomas' too-little-known McCorkle and Padillo novels into a superbly well-built Cold War cocktail--bracing, deliriously delicious, but carrying the slightly bitter aftertaste of dreams gone bad."--"Booklist" (starred review) "Lawton kicks off a crafty new series of spy novels centered on Joe Wilderness, a former British airman sent to Berlin after WWII to find former Nazis. From Kennedy's 1963 Berlin visit to the nitty gritty of the divided city's black market, this thriller is chock full of early Cold War history and rich fictional characters."--"Publishers Weekly" Fall 2013 Books Preview: The Season's Big Books "This intelligent first in a new series from Lawton ("A Lily of the Field" and six other Inspector Troy thrillers) opens on the eve of President Kennedy's 1963 Berlin visit, but the real meat lies in the compelling backstory of John Wilford Holderness, an East London Cockney who joins the RAF in 1946. . . . A wonderfully written and generally wise book that will thrill readers with an interest in WWII and the early Cold War era."--"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) Praise for "Lily of the Field" "An unbearably tense account of two musicians whose lives and careers are shattered in the aftermath of the Anschluss . . . Technically dazzling. Lawton keeps his historical perspective on the war while introducing new characters and adding layers of political subtext to the plot."--"The New York Times" "Lawton has always pushed the boundaries of the series crime novel, edging ever closer to broad-canvas historical fiction, but this time he has leaped the fence altogether. Like Dennis Lehane in The Given Day, Lawton introduces multiple characters and stories in a sweeping tale that comes together at a particular historical moment, but unlike Lehane, he does all that without abando