Starred review from January 13, 2020
Lawton scores another hit with his third Joe Wilderness novel (after 2016’s The Unfortunate Englishman). Joe starts off in familiar territory, 1948 Berlin, where he’s nominally in the Royal Air Force but in reality an MI6 agent; he’s also smuggling coffee and cigarettes into East Berlin. During one of his usual deliveries, he’s approached by a young Russian, Konstantin “Kostya” Zolotukhin, who wants to place an order for a hundred jars of peanut butter. Joe agrees, setting in place a relationship with Kostya that re-emerges in 1968 England. As the years pass, Joe’s often in trouble with various authorities, until his father-in-law and spy boss, Alec Burne-Jones, decides to get Joe out of the U.K. for a while and sends him to Finland, where Joe takes up his old smuggling habits. Most of Joe’s old cronies and even his Berlin lover, Nell Burkhardt, appear, and it’s a pleasure for series fans to see them all again. Terrific writing, a complex plot with a twist ending, and a roguish lead will have readers eagerly awaiting his next adventure. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (U.K.).