Fine entertainment. Shrines of Gaiety is a cocktail, bubbles and fizz on the surface with something dark lurking at the bottom of the glass. Full review at https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/shrines-of-gaiety-kate-atkinson/.

It’s 1926. A crowd has gathered outside Holloway Prison. Ma Coker, the Queen of Clubs, is being released.

In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign signatories with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.

As always, this latest novel from Kate Atkinson paints detailed, almost Dickensian, descriptions of her settings. Her command of the English language is second-to-none and her precise vocabulary depicts a huge cast of characters in such a way as to make them three-dimensional in every way.

Whilst this is a setting that has been explored before – think Peaky Blinders meets Bugsy Malone – it’s refreshing to read about the London gang scene from a female perspective.

I experienced this novel in its audiobook version, which was read by Jason Watkins. The narration was expressive and did help to bring the story to life, however I was not particularly keen on the way that Watkins read some of the female characters.

This was not my favourite of Atkinson’s novels, and I found the plot to be rather meandering at times. However, the beautifully-creating characters, evocative setting and the author’s mastery of language still made this a worthy read.

Kate Atkinson has done it again! It's a fantastically atmospheric read that kept me mystified and on the edge of my seat. Thanks for the ARC!

Nellie Coker, fresh out of prison, slots straight back in to running her business of five nightclubs in 1926 London. She is a very cleverly drawn character and a force to be reckoned with. Her family are all involved in the business to some degree and she uses her many connections, with a wide range of powerful people from the lowest criminals to the very rich and powerful, to protect them when necessary. There has been a spate of girls going missing in the locality and Chief Inspector Frobisher is tasked with finding the perpetrator. Nellie is his main suspect so he comes up with a cunning plan to infiltrate her den of iniquity. The descriptions are rich and believable and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful writing as always from Atkinson, that fully immerses the reader in the dark underbelly of 1920s London. Flapper girls, gin and gangsters abound. It's gritty, with a solid mystery surrounding missing girls at its core.

However, there's just too many characters and every backstory is spun out in minute detail and this really slowed the pace and interfered with my enjoyment of the plot. At times it felt like I was wading through characters to get to the story, instead of the characters carrying me along. The ending also felt quite rushed after this very slow buildup, and felt underwhelming as a result.

Not my favourite Kate Atkinson, but her still as a writer never fails to impress, and she nails the atmosphere here. If you love the 1920s, and all the glitz and seedy glamour that goes with it, I'd give this a go.

Overall I enjoyed the Shrines of Gaiety; I liked the glitz, glamour and gangsters of 1920s London and thought the novel had a strong start. However I felt there was a lot going on, particularly in the final quarter and unfortunately I thought the ending was a bit weak. I have loved other novels of Kate Atkinson more, so would recommend this one only when you’ve read her others first!

I absolutely love Kate Atkinson and it was such a treat to read this prior to publication but I found it quite challenging and at times confusing. I’m glad I completed the book but I was a little disappointed.

Picture the scene. London, 1926. Nellie Coker, nightclub owner and matriarch, is fresh out of Holloway. All the kids are out to meet her, ranging from World War I veteran Niven (he never talks about it) to schoolgirl Kitty (she never shuts up). Based on real life 'Queen of Nightclubs' Kate Meyrick, this is not Kate Atkinson's first foray into historical fiction but it is the first time that she has worn her research quite so openly on her sleeve. With a cast of characters so vast as to rival a Dickens novel, Atkinson is clearly having fun with her setting. However, for the first time that I can ever remember, I had the sense that the plot had gotten away from her. To my astonishment, I found myself actually disappointed by a Kate Atkinson novel.

The first issue that this novel had was that I would still not be able to point out the main narrative. Was it about Nellie Coker's battle to maintain control of her clubs following her recent unfortunate imprisonment? If so, why is her supposed nemesis so thinly drawn? We barely meet the man. Is it about Frobisher's crusade to bring Coker down? If so, why is he such a pathetic character? His alliance with Gwendolen Kelling is lacklustre at best and is rather drowned out in all the noise from the rest of the book. Is the book all about Freda and her battle to make it in London? If she is not the main character, why do we get all the needless backstory about the Knits? Particularly the rather tragic tales of what befell her fellow models? And what about Florence? What on earth was that all for?

In the middle of the narrative chaos, Atkinson appears to be making a stab at feminism. Nellie is followed around by Maud, the ghost of one of her hostesses who died from an overdose and whose body Nellie had dropped in the Thames. The nightclub is frequented by the Forty Thieves, an all female crime syndicate who operated in the era. Attempts are being made to investigate whether the spate of dead girls being hauled out of the Thames are suicides or murder victims. With greater care, this could have been an interesting depiction of women trying to make it in the city in a world geared to keep them down. But even at its best, Shrines of Gaiety feels very slapdash.

Atkinson spends a long time - too long - setting up Nellie Coker's origin tale and it is full of 'Nellie did this' and 'Nellie did that'. The reader gets to work out very little for themselves. Then it all happens again; at the end of the novel we are also given a lengthy final chapter explaining the fates of all the various characters, once more allowing very little room for the reader's imagination. In between all of this, the plot squeezes in between the elaborate world-building. I could do a reasonable job at visualising the Coker family residence or their various nightclubs - The Crystal Cup, the Pixie, the Amethyst, the Sphinx - but I would struggle to recount what exactly was going on or which characters I was supposed to care about.

If this was almost any other writer, I would have given up. But this is Kate Atkinson, one of my all-time favourite authors. She wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Life After Life. I know what she can do and so this was doubly disappointing. I kept thinking that surely the book would break open and I would see what the point of it all was. Atkinson had put so much work into conjuring up the era and her setting. It seemed impossible that she would have forgotten to pack a narrative. But even where there were moments that were clearly supposed to surprise the reader, I felt indifferent. Nellie had switched what was in the account with a forgery? Yes, of course she would have. Ok. And then after all the waiting for it all to mean something, the book was at an end. And we never find out what it was that Maud wanted.

There are plenty of high kicks and individual moments of flair within Shrines of Gaiety and Atkinson's personal connection to her creation is clear. However on this occasion, it would appear that her enthusiasm has prevented her from noticing her narrative weakness and this book suffers as a result. Atkinson will always be a writer worth watching and her books worth buying but sadly this is not her finest work.

I was excited to read the new book from Kate Atkinson -”Shrines of Gaiety”. The blurb is intriguing: ‘Evoking the bohemian atmosphere of Jazz Age London and peppered with unforgettable larger-than-life characters, Shrines of Gaiety finds the award-winning author of Life After Life on peerless form as she recounts the spectacular story of Nellie Coker, queen of the capital's nightlife.’ (from the Waterstones website <link>)

I’m afraid I struggled to get into the story of Nellie and her many children. I was never sure if you were supposed to like her or not, and she didn’t seem as formidable as she was made out to be, but more of a weary business man, irritated by her family and burdened by wealth.

Life After Life is one of my favourite books, and I also enjoy the Jackson Brodie series (high praise coming from someone who doesn’t read a lot of crime), but this one just didn’t hit the spot.

The story is of a clubland underworld infiltrated by spies and double crossing cops and robbers, where the good guys are actually the bad guys and vice versa - maybe. While I liked the characters, there were just too many of them to keep track of properly. Kate Atkinson cast her net too wide with so many main characters - it’s not a very long book, coming in at 448 pages for the hardback. It could easily have been double that, and a decades long, sprawling, dynasty novel following Nellie from birth to death and then on to her heirs. Reading it felt like there’s been a lot of research, there was a page limit and Kate Atkinson was determined to get all of this detail in there whether it adds to the story or not.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy this, it was just much more of a struggle than her other books. I wish it had been in two parts or that the story followed one or two people, rather than trying to detail everything that was happening, not only in Nellie’s family but also another five or six. Rather than being plot driven, it was character driven and that just didn’t work for me.

I did love Gwendolen Kelling as a character, the plucky nurse-turned-club manager who finds herself in the middle of the Cokers unwittingly. She reminded me of the main character from Transcription, Juliet. This is something that Atknson does really well - writes strong, relatable and fun female characters, including Ursula Todd from Life After Life. Nellie herself is a great character, we just don’t spend enough time with her to care about what happens to her, really.

The last few chapters really speed up and it feels much more of a ‘tell’ rather than a ‘show’, almost like we run out of pages or the author runs out of enthusiasm.
Recommended for die hard fans and for people who like a sprawling cast of dozens, with a lot of period detail thrown in for good measure.

Thanks as always to Netgalley and to Random House for providing me with the DRC!

. For me this really was like opening the pages and jumping right in. Starting with the release of notorious club owner Nellie Coker from Holloway Gaol, this books roars along, just like the era it’s been set in, 1920s London. This story has everything, the bright young things, who just live to party, the young girls who run away looking for fame and fortune and of course the underside of London too, the gangsters, the good time girls it’s all here. Nellie is queen of all she surveys but she needs to keep her wits about her if she’s to continue her reign. This book has a big cast of characters but each one is well fleshed out. This for me was a 5⭐️ read and since it’s my first book by this author I’m excited to peruse her back catalogue. Thanks to #NetGalley for my ARC of this super book. If you enjoy historical fiction then read this, I very much doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Atkinson really is one of our finest writers. This is such a page-turner without ever being cliche or simplistic. I loved the sweep of characters, the clever plotting, the brilliant observations. Pure intelligent escapism.

Kate Atkinson is a beautiful storyteller. Her books are full of surprise and never predictable and Shrines of Gaiety stayed true to this.

The characters, though maybe a few too many, were believable and well-rounded. Her world, London in the 1920s is magnificently portrayed, reminding me of Dickens novels. The story was complex and had me gripped from page 1. Her writing vivid and entertaining. Highly recommend.

Life is uncertain and it crashes on you like waves upon waves making it tough to gather your bearings and to have a strong hold. We are introduced to Nellie and her world where she ruthlessly tries to make it on her own in a harsh world but life's uncertainty throwing challenges and darkness and it's a wonder tosee Nellie navigate through it.

I buddy read this with the lovely Sally @salboreads. While her review was eloquent and richly flourished very much like the book, mine will no doubt be more like Fleur, blunt and to the point.

I love strong female characters and this had them in abundance. I had assumed that the notorious Nellie would be front of stage but instead it was librarian Gwendolen. She arrives in London to seek her friend’s missing daughter Florence, a naive and simple girl who has been led astray by ambitious Fleur who has set her sights on the stage and fame.

Has she instead been lured by the glitz and glamour to Nellie’s clubs?

With corruption inside the police force Chief Inspector Frobisher has his hands full trying to clean up London and work out the good from the bad, while also having a very unsettling personal life. Who would have thought that a little undercover work with Gwendolen could strike up such an amazing partnership.

The writing was so evocative you could almost hear the people spilling out of the clubs and onto the grimy streets. Thievery on every corner and bodies being delivered to the morgue becoming commonplace. I couldn’t help but be captivated and historical fiction is not normally my genre of choice.

The author cleverly concealed timelines so you couldn’t work out if the dancers bodies being fished from the river belonged to Florence and Fleur and that added to the heart racing dramatic tension.

Sizzling chemistry, characters you care about (even the baddies are genuinely likeable) beautiful writing and a real sense of time and place made this a wonderful book to kick off 2023.

A trip to the dark streets and bright lights of SOHO, in the company of some of its most colourful characters. Atkinson is on good form, with snappy dialogue and description, and a mystery that turns the pages by itself.

Set in 1920’s London, Shrines of Gaiety centres around the nightclubs owned by the infamous Nellie Coker and the variety of characters associated with them. These include the stereotypical bent coppers, impressionable young girls, celebrity party goers and sundry members of Nellie’s family. I found the writing style easy to consume, but not the storyline which to me seemed too predictable.

Another great book by Kate Atkinson. Unique characters and a great plot. Well worth the wait. I could not stop reading but don't want to spoil the story for anyone elsd

I am a huge fan of Kate Atkinson. She is such an incredibly versatile writer and turns her hand to many different genres and styles of writing...It was really the writer rather that the blurb which attracted me to this story. I wasn’t immediately drawn to reviews which focused on the Jazz Age aspect of the story.

This is really a story about people…about some incredible characters who all converge on London in the 1920s..Nellie Coker is larger than life; a woman with a big family and several Soho clubs where girls dance, men drink and there is a world of behaviour between the sparkle and the shade..Nellie has served her time courtesy of HM and knows that the boys in blue are out to send her back in again. She’s more than canny, she’s ruthless; she wants to pass on her empire to her children Does she have a heart of gold underneath..it’s definitely not gold, but there’s something rather compelling in her character and she’s a shade less uncaring than the corrupt boys in blue. Into this seamy world two young girls arrive from ‘up North’ running away from the promises of mediocre marriages and the only excitement being a box of chocolates from one of York’s two chocolate factories..They are young and naive and it is only a matter of time before they will fall into the path of corruption - will it come via Nellie or the Police? And then there’s the fabulous Gwendolyn who leaves her library to look for the two missing girls - having previously left to serve as a Nurse in World War One…

This book is my first five star read of 2023. It is absolutely wonderful. I was immediately pulled full force into the story. 1920s London and seamy Soho were so brilliantly recreated..I could picture the clubs and the shabby establishments where Fleur and Florence had to stay..Atkinson so cleverly wound the stories around each other, drawing them closer and closer into a shared narrative. The timeline moves backwards and forwards, deliberately vague which adds to the mystery as bodies are discovered in the Thames and you sit on the edge of your seat fearing the worst…Above anything I loved the characters. Atkinson has created some fabulous females here - Fleur, a slip of a girl with steely nerve and ambition; Nellie, plump and aging who shuffles around with the air of having lost the plot when actually she is in totally command; Gwendolyn gutsy and capable…
There is some wonderful chemistry between Gwendolyn and Frobisher and Niven which positively sizzles…

Not only does Atkinson, rather Nellie like, keep tight control of a huge cast of characters, a number of locations ..but she manages to weave in some fabulous comedy in the middle of a story which shines a spotlight on human depravity and corruption..

I loved this so much I bought my own copy and would highly recommend. Huge thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for a digital copy of this book.

I’m a big fan of Kate Atkinson and this did not disappoint. One of my favourite reads of the year - totally gripping.

Love Kate Atkinson and this felt like a classic Kate Atkinson.
The book tells the story of Nellie Coker and her empire of nightclubs in Soho in 1926. But like classic Atkinson it tells not just of Nellie but her family, the policemen who are trying to catch out her dodgy dealings, the girls who dance in her clubs and everyone in between,
Really enjoyed this book and would highly recomend.