A Little White Death

By: John Lawton

Narrated by: Sara Coward

Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

1963. England is about to explode. An ageing hack defects to Russia. A cabinet minister resigns. A young woman takes an overdose. A Harley Street physician blows out his brains. Commander Troy investigates. But what with the sex and the drugs, he finds that he's up to his neck in the mess, personally and professionally. The damn thing might blow up in his face, and the English can be so unforgiving of a good scandal.

©1998 John Lawton (P)1998 Oakhill Publishing Ltd

Critic reviews

"A haunting novel, transcending the bounds of genre fiction." (Daily Telegraph)

BORING

This production was so dry and witless that I gave up after about two hours. The plot was hard to follow and the characters were hard to care about.

Total Dud

I agree with shadowdoc about the characters exciting no empathy. I couldn't care less about them. I did stick with it a bit longer than he, and found the very explicit sex scenes not only quite irritating, to the point of being disgusting, but gratuitous. I did want to find out where the early thread was going but totally lost interest after the author seemed to. I definitely cannot reccommend it and am 'dumping' it half way.

Lawton does it again.

This is another entry in wonderful Alex Troy series. Lawton's revival of the world of England from the late '30s to the early '60s is among the most faithful I have read. Each novel covers a span of that time and contains snippets of actual modified history, lending the stories a compellingly fresh quality.

If you aren't familiar with London or English history during those years or are unfamiliar with English slang, some parts of this novel may be somewhat difficult. The writing is first-rate and the characterization, while somewhat more colorful than real life, is interesting and vivid.

The reader, Sara Coward, is wonderful. Her steady, controlled performance makes this book a joy to listen to.

I highly recommend this book to Anglophiles, particularly those with an interest mid-century history.

Couldn’t get into the book because of the narration

The narration of this book is simply awful compared to the previous novels. Why do the publishers change such things.

Not the right narrator for so many male characters

Perhaps I’ve become too accustomed to Lewis Hancock narrating the other books but as effective as this Ms Coward was one can’t get past the mental image of her chucking her chin to her chest and scowling for every male character, and throwing in a hint of northern if they happen to be cross. One voice (not including ‘all purpose foreigner’). The naive cockney sparra teenager nearly made me give up.

Dutifully moving to the next John Lawton, braced once again for the main character to coincidentally know everyone involved (this book was not as bad for that as the last) and hoping the plot carries interest to the end.

Lewis Hancock is perfect for Lawton, unfortunately...

The reader does as good a job as she can but it's an odd choice to have a female actor reading a book in which all the key characters are men. Doubly so when Lewis Hancock fits hand in glove with Lawton's excellent books.

Lawton and Hancock turn the Troy and Wilderness books into works of art so this is frustrating. A real pity they didn't use Hancock for this one. I guess they had a good reason.

Excellent in every respect

Brilliant, complicated plot. Sara Coward's narration was superb, I preferred it to the narration of the other books if not more so. This is the 3rd book in the series that I have listened to, I will purchase the others.
Troy, the main character, is an amoral, unlikable man, but this isn't important. some of the elements of the story are distasteful to me, but that's lide, sadly.
i would give it 10 stars.

Older and even more cynical

First of all, let’s get the narration out of the way. So it’s a bit annoying when an excellent narrator is swapped for another but Sara Coward does a good job here. The reviewer who said a woman couldn’t narrate this story because it’s all about men (🙄) needs a long hard look in the mirror.

Anyway, despite never quite getting a grip on what order any of this series takes place in, I thoroughly enjoyed this Profumo-esque story. It’s definitely one of the darker and more cynical stories in the series but very satisfying.

The best Troy

Not the last book written but the book set the latest in Troy’s life. Spans every event in London in 1963 wonderully well. Cannot recommend highly enough. Stands very well as a single book.
Massive praise for Sara Coward’s narration. Beautiful voice and helps with the enjoyment.