LONDON, BURNING

If you grew up in the late ‘70s and remember the national strikes, the political tensions and demos, the news of frequent bomb and incensory devices then there will be plenty of reasons to indulge in Quinn’s latest crime thriller, ‘London, Calling’. From the master of storytelling, this novel is a blast of a read and a book that unwittingly chimes with 2021!

The novel opens with Vicky Tress, a young ambitious police officer, who becomes involved in a dangerous police corruption racket. Then in another part of the capital we are introduced to Callum, a struggling Irish academic and author, teaching in London, enjoying his music collection made up of ‘Bowie’ and the early punk rock band ‘The Clash’. By contrast, the reader then meets music and theatre impresario Freddie Selves, who finds himself caught up in his own political and personal mire and in need of some positive PR. Finally over to Hannah Strode a feisty journalist who has built a reputation writing newspaper profile features, not always complimentary, who skilfully gains access to the rich, the powerful and the movers and shakers in the city. The plot revolves around these characters each caught up in a slice of their own London life in which they become inadvertently linked.

Set against the historical turmoil of Callaghan’s fire-fighting government and the prospect of another under the first female PM, Margaret Thatcher, the reader knows where this is heading but still feels the tension and the desperation for a new era.

The clock is ticking. A nation divided against itself, a government trembling on the verge of collapse, a city fearful of what is to come and people bitterly suspicious of one another. Sound familiar? This story is elegantly crafted and a wonderful book club read capturing this turbulent period.

‘London, Calling’ follows Quinn’s popular trilogy ‘Curtain Call’, ‘Freya’ and ‘Eureka’.