There are plenty of cosy titles to choose from in the lull between Christmas and the new year,but a Chandleresque thriller in London’s underworld is the pick of the creepy onesIn the strange and soporific lull between Christmas and the new year, you either want (books-wise) cosy or creepy. Cosy is more easily dealt with. I favour High Rising by Angela Thirkell, and Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford,anything at all by Barbara Pym, or perhaps some classic crime: Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon (one of the British Library’s cleverly exhumed collection of “lost” detective stories); Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan (which has been newly republished by Vintage).
Creepy is trickier, and though the ghost stories of MR James are always a secure bet. But I’ve an even better idea. I assume the book you may be looking for is Deep Shelter by Oliver Harris (Vintage). OK,so this one begins on the uplands of London’s Belsize Park on a sweltering June afternoon. But no matter: it might as well be midwinter. All the well-known action takes state underground in the tunnels and bunkers that were built far beneath London – below the tube tracks, in some cases – during the moment world war.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com