Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Black Out

By: John Lawton
Narrated by: Lewis Hancock
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £28.99

Buy Now for £28.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

As the Luftwaffe make their last desperate assault on the city, Londoners take to the shelters once again and eagerly await the signal for D-Day. In the East End, children lead police to a charred, dismembered corpse buried in a bombsite. The victim is German, and it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary murder.

For Russian emigré Detective-Sergeant Troy, it is the start of a manhunt which will lead him into a world of military intelligence and corruption in high places - a manhunt in which Troy is both the hunter and the hunted.

©2015 John Lawton (P)2015 Oakhill Publishing
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Night Soldiers cover art
Prince of Spies cover art
The Scarlet Papers cover art
Official Secrets cover art
The Blitz Detective cover art
My Name Is Nobody cover art
The Poet cover art
The Murderer's Son cover art
Agent in Berlin cover art
At First Light cover art
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story cover art
Waking Nightmare cover art
Don't Look Now cover art
The Dispatcher cover art
20/20 cover art
Maxwell's Reunion cover art

What listeners say about Black Out

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    21
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Thoroughly Enjoyed

The four stars overall indicates that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Blackout. The missing stars indicate that it has some wearisome flaws. However, they do not outweigh my enjoyment and I will certainly be listening to the next Troy book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Tale with twists.

Another good tale from Lawton very well read.
Good information about the history of the times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Couldn't get into it...

I just couldn't get into this story at all! Especially with Lewis Hancock's narration. It seemed that the whole story jerked along in a mist, sometimes a fog of sorts. I can only hope the next story in this series takes off. This one crashed😔.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Thought it would never end

I persevered with this book because the author was new to me and had been recommended by a friend.

The story is almost incoherent and totally unbelievable, badly written with clunky dialogue. Although the background is London during the war, from 1944, it hardly impinges on the narrative and the main character isn’t really inconvenienced by bombed streets etc.

Maybe it’s a story better suited to the page. The narrator did his best, without managing to do a convincing female voice, which was confusing at times.

I can only say, don’t waste a credit on this tedious and much too long book. I wish I’d had the sense to throw in the towel after the first few chapters but I’m an optimist at heart and kept thinking it was bound to improve. It didn’t.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Suddenly becomes pornographic

Nice little story, interesting, well told, quirky characters. Excellent narration. I was settling in to enjoy the whole series. But then suddenly, two-thirds in, there was an explosive, violent sex scene involving the lead character, which objectified a woman and used vile language for women's genitals. Just awful. One minute a bland detective story. The next bordering on pornographic. It was so out of place, totally salacious and completely unnecessary. I think the author must have been working through some personal fantasy. I stopped reading at that point, it disturbed me (as a woman) so much, and that was it for me. Shame. So I won't be reading the whole series after all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful