Shrines of Gaiety

Set in London in the 1926, Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson is largely the story of Nellie Coker and her family who own a group of night clubs in London. Nellie has just been released from prison and she returns home to discover that the nightclubs are under threat from men who want to either take over the business or close her down. Nellie finds that there are also issues within her family that need attention.

Another thread of the novel deals with the life of a young girl, Freda, who comes to London with her friend Florence to seek fame and fortune in the theatre. Meanwhile Chief Inspector Frobisher is investigating the disappearance of young girls who turn up drowned in the Thames. He enlists former librarian Gwendolen Keller to assist him by working undercover to discover what is happening.

As many of the population of London try to forget the effects of the recent war by attending clubs, consuming large quantites of alcohol and drugs and gambling it is obvious that there is a crime wave in the city and some members of the police force are major players in this crime wave.

The author provides the reader with a large number of characters with which to engage and I found that it took quite some time to fully follow what was happening. The storyline is further confused when sometimes the author provides information relevant to the plot then in the next chapter or two provides other information that occurred earlier disrupting the unveiling of the plot. However, when I eventually worked out how the author was telling the story I enjoyed reading the book.