Library Limelights 304

 

Kate Atkinson. Shrines of Gaiety. UK: Transworld Publishers, 2022.

Atkinson's newest book revives the Roaring Twenties of London's post-First World War euphoria. Nellie Coker's life illustrates the evolution of the dance hall craze; she owns several, each calculated to appeal to a different level of society. The Amethyst—"the gaudy jewel at the heart of Soho's nightlife"―is one of her favourites, a venue of higher tone than some others. There, she rakes in the nightly club "membership" fees herself from the fun seekers. Extra money-makers are renting a "hostess" for a dance and paying for over-priced, illegal liquor. What the pretty dance girls get up to beyond their employment hours, Nellie cares not. Dope dealers and con men are usually among the finely dressed (or sometimes costumed) guests. "Shrines of gaiety" indeed, as per a contemporary newspaper comment.

Nellie produced six children and only her careful planning kept the family from destitution. Nearly all of the six contribute loyally to the clubs, themselves embodying common traits of the times. Niven is an ex-soldier, mostly a taciturn mystery to his own family, loves his dog Keeper, keeps an eye on all the clubs. Edith is second in command of business after Nellie, an accountant with a no-nonsense personality. Betty and Shirley are almost twins, the pretty ones, Cambridge-educated, dividing their time between clubs Foxhole and Pixie. Kitty is the protected innocent kept at home, harbouring unrealistic yearnings, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Ramsay is the ineffective boss of the Sphinx, relying on his barman Gerrit for support; a would-be writer, Ramsay is secretly addicted to dope.

A recent stint in Holloway prison for a licence infraction gave Nellie "too much time to think," according to her daughters. Her well-paid cop, DI Maddox, had failed to make the charge go away; he'd been nowhere in sight, earning Nellie's future retribution. That is why straight arrow DCI John Frobisher was seconded to the Bow Street police station; to find evidence of Maddox's corruption, and illicit dance hall activities in general. Another concern is the number of young women being found lifeless in the Thames. When Gwendolen Kelling appears in his office to inquire about two missing girls, Frobisher makes an unorthodox proposal: Gwendolen agrees to attend an Amethyst evening as his spy. A librarian, engaged in nursing during the war, she is no shrinking violet—more like heroine material, we think. And the small adventure may assist in her search for Freda, daughter of a friend. Naive Freda had run away to London to become a famous theatre star.

Nellie has her own spies; she didn't rise from the slums to riches to have her empire poached. She's always a step ahead of threats. Put them all together, major and minor figures, and it's an utterly fascinating study of humanity. Romantic notions are not lacking. A thousand authentic details of the time period suck us into Nellie's world—the grit and graft, the eternal optimism of youth, slumming celebrities and royals, everyone with intrigue on their minds. Providing an evening of joy for war-weary Londoners of all classes has depths that carefree customers would not suspect. For all her hard-boiled exterior, Nellie has that spark you can't help cheering for. An Atkinson masterpiece.

Nellie

▪ Enjoyment was something other people paid Nellie for. (40)

▪ With each child she had produced, Nellie's interest had waned, so that Ramsay and Kitty at the tail end were dreadfully neglected. (61)

▪ But if she handed over the reins to Edith, then Edith would need a lieutenant of her own, a Coker who was willing to do anything necessary to preserve the legacy of the business. Betty might be shallow, but she had depths of ruthlessness not shared by Shirley and Ramsay. (104)

▪ Edith was too useful to Nellie for marriage and Kitty had already been abandoned to chance, so buccaneering Nellie's ambitions for an entrée into the upper echelons of English society rested on Betty and Shirley. (146)

▪ His mother was a living ledger. Everything had a price. If she could have pawned her children, she would have done. (No, only Kitty, she said.) (152)

▪ Azzopardi was trying to frighten her, whereas Maddox was trying to destroy her—or rather he was trying to destroy her business, which was much the same thing as far as Nellie was concerned. (156)

▪ She had confessed a great deal to Nellie in the back of the Bentley, but there were things her mother must never know. (252)

▪ Hawker glanced in his rear-view mirror at Nellie. You could almost see her brain working, he thought. It was terrifying. (325)

Frobisher

▪ The delinquent Coker empire was a house of cards that Frobisher aimed to topple.(7)

▪ Frobisher had no small talk, he never had done. It meant he was a much misunderstood man, presumed to be stand-offish, arrogant even. (26)

▪ His colleagues would have been intrigued to know that he had a French wife, even more intrigued to know that she was often not in her right mind. (43)

▪ Perhaps, after all, he did understand why people stayed out carousing until the early hours. It meant they didn't have to go home. (173)

▪ He removed the needle and syringe, closed the lid of the sewing table and fetched a blanket to cover her with. (174)

▪ "Frobisher," Betty said and gave a little shiver. "That man is as cold as a dead cod." (230)

▪ He couldn't deny the little leap his heart gave at the thought of her. (235)

Gwendolen

▪ "I am a librarian," she had reassured him. "We are accustomed to moving through the world unnoticed." (52)

▪ (She was quite expressive for a librarian. Almost Italian. The word "librarian" had previously conjured up an image of a vinegary spinster, not the animated creature before him.) (55)

▪ What an extraordinary few hours—from Holloway first thing, to being assaulted and robbed on Regent Street, not to mention being recruited to spy on the notorious Cokers by Frobisher the previous day. The Library could not compete. (79)

▪ Everything was done with such enthusiasm, did she look for entertainment in everything? (277)

▪ "Oh for heaven's sake," she snapped, "I'm not a librarian." (320)

Freda

▪ "Don't worry, pet, you only need to be able to count to eight if you're going to be a dancer," Vanda said. (32)

▪ Freda summoned every last shred of strength and snapped her teeth onto her offender's fleshy jowls, like a dog. (170)

▪ "Meek, not cheek" when dealing with the Old Bill, Duncan used to caution. (226)

Others

▪ Edith, under the weather though she was, had a tryst with her lover. They were possibly the least romantic pair ever to grace the inside of Pinoli's restaurant on Wardour Street. (142)

▪ By the time the police plodded clumsily into the club there was nothing illicit in sight, only a bogus air of virtue. (151)

▪ The thing was, no matter how much Ramsay denied it, he and Quinn were friends, albeit the kind of friends who didn't like each other much. (179)

▪ The band, unfazed by anything that ever occurred in the club, started up with "Runnin' Wild" at an alarmingly frantic tempo that only served to intensify the fracas. (183)

▪ "Shall we go for a little drive, Mr. Coker? You'll be pleased to hear that I've thought of a way for you to repay me." (315-6)

Marion Todd. See Them Run. Ebook download from TPL. UK: Canelo Crime, 2019.

It's not Todd's first novel, but it's the first of a series starring Detective Inspector Clare Mackay. The Scottish setting in St Andrews, a university/ seaside town, appealed to me. Sure enough, the opening scene features a rousing wedding complete with kilts and country dancing. The joy comes to a total halt when they discover that Andy Robb, brother of the bride, has been deliberately and fatally mangled by a vehicle in the driveway. Hit and run. DI Mackay is in charge of a very small police station, including her DS Chris and several constables; she reports to DCI Alastair Gibson. Nonetheless, Clare has had plenty of prior homicide experience in Glasgow. In fact, her last activity there involved shooting a young troublemaker, Francis Ritchie, who was brandishing a gun that proved to be fake. Although she was officially cleared by the investigators, she learns now that the Ritchie family will try to privately prosecute her (what we call a civil suit, I believe).

But at present, Clare and colleagues are suddenly facing a serial killer. Two more male victims have been run over by perhaps the same vehicle. Number 5 on a card was found on Andy's body; the next two men were numbered 4 and 3; number 3 is barely clinging to life after his encounter. Clare needs to work as fast as possible to find the killer before the next two victims are attacked―with no clue to their identities. As well, DCI Gibson has taken a dislike to her, even more or less firing her at one point. Yet Clare is confident, plunging on, having been granted extra bodies, to scour the countryside for the killing vehicle. And she uncovers a whole different criminal operation. At times she must be missing the boyfriend – Tom – she left behind in Glasgow. She can't forgive him for not supporting her in person at the original Ritchie investigation.

So. It's a good no-frills police procedural. No-frills in that it falls a bit short of fully-fleshed characters and local colour. Scotland? Apart from the very first scene and references to the justice system, this could have taken place in Nunavut, Canada, or Gumshoe, Australia. I did appreciate humour, notably in the dialogue, which holds promise for the next books. Seven mysteries (since 2019!) follow See Them Run in this series, so one expects the author has since developed her characters more dimensionally. Some of the additional books appear to be digital only, at this stage. I wonder if any of the "Bits" would entice a reader.

Bits

▪ "He could be a right bastard. Women, practically from the start. But he was my bastard." (29)

▪ Andy's death was starting to look like more than just an aggrieved ex-girlfriend. (82)

▪ "Some sort of club he went to on Thursdays. Raising money, that sort of thing." (90)

▪ Had she sleepwalked through the past few months, not really knowing what she was doing? (100)

▪ "Only that your fondness for Mrs Gilmartin might make it difficult to ask the right questions." (164)

▪ She'd had Tom and had made a mess of that. Maybe she wasn't meant to be part of a couple. (169)

▪ "The DCI will knock me into the middle of next week if I go anywhere near the fragrant Jennifer." (180)

▪ They had two sets of fingerprints, neither of them on the system, a woman's shoe print and a Land Rover no one could find. (200)

▪ "I know boozy breath when I smell it. You're drunk! You're drunk and you're not fit to be running this investigation." (217)

▪ "I just don't need a sanctimonious DCI on top of a triple murder investigation." (220)