Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Vine Street, by Dominic Nolan.

 

          Dominic Nolan’s latest novel is a mighty tome in size (You’ll need strong wrists for in-bed reading) and scope as he takes us into superb thriller territory starting in 1935, when vice-squad detective Leon Geats is summoned to a mean Soho address where the body of a prostitute has been found strangled by one of her stockings knotted round her neck.  The Flying Squad are the lead investigators – what do the vice squad know, being less than elite (they are known as The Dirties) – and it isn’t long before the lead Flying Squad detective declares that the death is a suicide.

            Leon, an expert reader for years of everything happening in Soho – the ponces, their prostitutes, ethnic gangs, in fact everything in that London area that corruptly generates money, is horrified and infuriated by the Higher-Up’s casual verdict;  the willingness to let someone literally get away with murder because the Coppers couldn’t be bothered working the case through to its conclusion – she was only a whore anyway.

            Until more bodies are eventually discovered, and the authorities finally decide to put on more manpower to apprehend The Soho Strangler, as he is now called by the Press, and Leon is teamed up with Flying Squad detective Mark Cassar – who is less than enthusiastic.  Dead whores don’t rate very highly with him until, despite his initial lack of interest, he finds that working with Geats is a lot better than being the most junior member of the Flying Squad.  Together, they hope to crack the case, Geats to get justice for the steadily mounting number of murder victims, and Cassar for the status he longs for in his career.

            Mr Nolan effortlessly steers the reader through 1930’s London, introducing intriguing characters high and low;  a couple of the Mitford sisters make an appearance, along with Oswald Mosely and his Blackshirts, but by the start of World War Two,  the murderer has still not been caught. He   continues killing, cleverly disguising his crimes amidst the wreckage and chaos of the Blitz.  And his modus operandi is particularly cruel:  every victim has been whipped till they are bloody by a razor strop;  some have been shot in the head but are kept alive for a time of the murderer’s choosing.  Geats and Cassar are beside themselves with frustration and the lack of concrete evidence available, and aghast at the authorities for eventually blaming an innocent mentally disturbed man for the crimes.  Case closed!

            Mr Nolan has proved himself a master of the unpredictable as he takes us up to 2002 and the unmasking, and I would be very surprised if any reader could foresee the outcome.  This is indeed a great read.  SIX STARS!