Dominic Nolan’s White City is a gritty, evocative story set in 1950s London, a city in ruins after World War II. While many crime novels set in the city focus on the East End, here we’re up west, in and around Notting Dale, Soho, White City itself and down to Brixton. And things get underway near Paddington, where the biggest heist in British history takes place.

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White City is a tour de force; what a story. I’ve recently been reading biographies of Ruth Ellis and Bruce Reynolds the great train robber. Both were significant figures in London in the 1950s and White City provides such a plausible fictional narrative to their world, London was recovering from the devastation of the war and many families were struggling to survive. Crime was rife and there was an underworld with very strict social mores. The central characters in this story inhabit this world which is brought so vividly to life by language, violence, racism and brutality. Against a backdrop of deprivation and a totally dysfunctional family, a Post Office heist is the lynchpin for Dominic Nolan to explore a very different world. West Indians are pitched against teddy boys, and old scores are settled in the midst of Notting Hill and Brixton slums. Exciting stuff, so well written and a real insight into a myopic world. Loved it.

Set in 1950’s London, a place of devastation, still lying in ruins after the bombings of the war. Families have been left homeless, loved ones have been lost and poverty is rife. Addie and Ness are sisters; their mother Stevie not coping well at all. Addie’s father says he’s working nights, but Addie isn’t so sure and when he doesn’t come home, the whole family is left in penury and Stevie takes to drink in a big way.

This is a story of grim times and the richness of the descriptions bring a vivid evocation of the times. Brutal, harsh, full of racism, the criminals and the thugs come together to unleash a new onslaught of violence in slum ridden London. The language will make you cringe but Nolan tells it as it was in his version of what happened in the aftermath of the biggest unsolved case London has seen to date.

A post office van has been held up and robbed in the middle of the night in a violent attack. The van contained many valuable mail bags and the police have no clues. White City tells the story of what happened after that robbery and the impact that it had on those affected.

This brutal robbery was the brainchild of Billy Hill, head of the local crime family. Teddy ‘Mother’, Nunn is his enforcer. Mother is terrifying; there is nothing and no-one he will not sacrifice in order to get the job done and his clean up method is certainly final. No-one will so much as look at him sideways, lest they feel the brunt of his anger. Dave Lander is ex-forces and knows his way around a gun. Now he is up to his neck in the gangster way of life. Dave is caught between a rock and a hard place. He may want out, but he knows there is no way out of this gang for him and so he must be sure to do Mother’s bidding just to keep himself in favour.

Together with Dave Lander and Addie, we meet Claire and her sons Ray and Joe. Claire’s husband is also missing and she fears for her sons growing up in the heart of gangland London. Encompassing the meeting of gangsters and the posh clubbers of seedy Soho to the slums of Notting Dale and Brixton, Nolan has painted a wide canvas on which to roll out his often grotesque characters. His story follows the fate of the key characters and their families through the period from 1952 to 1958, culminating in the Notting Hill riots of that summer when so many West Indians were brutally attacked.

Linked by poverty, slum dwelling and crime, we follow these fractured families alongside the corrupt and the violent as the police and the gangsters more often than not collude and occasionally collide.

Dominic Nolan’s language vibrates with authenticity though the colloquial racism is hard to hear. The pent-up nature of the frustration and violence almost makes the pages crackle.

In Soho it’s all two piece suits for two bit hoods and the glitterati partying to excess while mingling with the well kitted out gangstas. Nolan contrasts that behaviour with the very real problems of poverty, with families in hock to loan sharks; forced into crime or degradation to survive. He draws his characters so vibrantly and when there is a small slice of compassion or kindness, it shines fleetingly like a beacon of light in a quagmire before it is rapidly extinguished. In this remarkable book there is betrayal and there is love. There are tender moments to touch your heart, and there is redemption.

Verdict: Dominic Nolan reflects 1950’s London; full of dark shadows and forbidden places, claustrophobic and menacing. This is a version of London where angels tread with trepidation. White City is a tour -de-force, combining strong characters with writing that excels. Nolan is a master wordsmith and he writes with razor-sharp clarity and precision, bringing scenes and characters to life. I really can’t recommend this book too highly. Go buy it now.

I loved Vine Street, it being one of my top reads of 2021.

White City takes us back to 1950's London and meet two young sisters, Addie and Ness. Life is hard already, but when there father goes missing, Addies is left picking up the pieces looking after little sister Ness and supporting her mum Stevie. At the other, more brutal end of it is Dave Lander and 'Mother' who are dealing with the fallout of a violent post office van robbery.

This is a complex story and took me a little time to get into, but it was very readable and ultimately a compelling drama.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance copy in return for an impartial review. This novel stood out to me as one to try as I love crime fiction and am interested in post-war London society in general. This is more of a thriller than your typical police procedural type crime novel and all the better for it. It is very readable and the seemly unrelated plot lines draw you in to the inevitable conclusion.

There’s a mix of true life and fiction, with the plot starting with the true crime of the 1952 Eastcastle Street post van robbery, which at the time was the biggest heist in British history, and there is a mix of real life and fictional characters too.

Two characters stand out for me - Dave Lander, the corrupt policeman unable to break out from his world and the circumstances that have shaped it, and Addie Rowe, a teenage girl hoping to get on in life by going into nursing. You’ll have to read it to see how this works out for both of them, and how their stories intertwine.

There is some brutal violence, so it’s buyer beware on that score. 1950s London really comes to life through the novel, and anyone familiar with Notting Hill and surrounds will find much to recognise. It’s also interesting to understand just how much of London was still in ruins long after the war. There’s also some pretty offensive language, so just watch out for that too. I’m sure much worse was heard at the time and the book only gives a flavour of it, but it’s still pretty shocking. As are the conditions people were forced to live in - worth remembering when dredging through the nostalgia-filled Facebook groups harking back to happier simpler times.

I would definitely recommend this and would be interested to read more of this author’s work.

This was a real shame as I was so looking forward to reading this but the download was corrupted and really hard to read as so many words were missing letters and it was impossible to concentrate on what appears to be a wonderful evocative thriller. Shame.

At last here is, for me, Dominic Nolan’s long awaited novel. I couldn’t wait to read it after I had enjoyed ‘Vine Street’ so much. It is set in more recent times than that previous novel. In ‘White City’ ’Nolan imagines what befell the perpetrators of a postal van hold- up in London in the 1950s: an event which actually happened and remains unsolved. He offers a bleak view of the poverty of post- war London where people live next to bombed houses reduced to rubble and where a single mother with no income to live on is reduced to having to do “favours” for her landlord. Her young daughter Addie has to care for her little sister when her father disappears on the day of the hold-up while her mother sinks into alcoholic stupors.

The earlier part of the novel is shockingly brutal with the violence of the thieves instigated by the head of the Mob’s main man, Mother. In Mother Nolan has created a terrifying human being whom nobody would care to cross. One of the main characters, David Lander, has to balance his life to keep himself in favour with Mother and this is one of the main strands of the story. Nolan has a breadth of characters who pull at your heart strings or enrage you.The force of emotions and trepidation is played out against a backdrop of racism and violence against the West Indian population.and the thuggery of the mob.

This is historical fiction which educates while it terrorises. It is a brilliant story which has fleeting glimpses of happiness and the kindness of communities but it is ultimately very dark, showing the cruelty which humans can inflict on each other which sadly remains apposite 70 years on.

Thank you very much to the publishers for the ARC.

Got to love a page turner of a crime novel, an essential purchase for the upcoming winter when all you want to do is curl up with a good book

London, post War 1950s, Robbery, Gangsters and Race wars make up this excellent standalone from the brilliant Dominic Nolan.

I read Vine Street when that was released and whilst I don’t think is quite in the elite category that particular books sits in, it is very very good reading on its own merits.

The story follows a cast of characters, some louder than life Guy Ritchie style gangsters and some more likeable and believable in Addy, a young West Indian girl trying to hold her small family together.

It’s paced well, at times language needs re-reading as it’s written in the style of the times, but it all comes together for a thoroughly good read with some heart breaking moment but also some poignant ones to make you smile to.

It’s a fine effort from a superb author.

1950s London, rationing, ruins and racial prejudice. Throw in quite a cast of gangsters minor and major, and you have the setting for White City by Dominic Nolan. Initially we meet two young sisters, Addie and Ness (and their mother Stevie) and life is quite hard particularly when your father goes missing. Then there is a far more adult scene; it's four in the morning and there is a violent attack on a post office van carrying money and the aftermath of that. Part of that aftermath involves Dave Lander and "Mother" (who is anything other than motherly and not female!). This story is quite brutally violent at times.

The consequences of the successful blag on the post office van are wide ranging and are at the core of this book. People are missing and we get to know some of the families affected. We've already met Addie and Ness and we also get to know Claire, whose husband is missing, her son Ray and her brother Joe who is suspicious of Mother. I guess few people in this are exactly what they first appear to be. Dave Lander would be a good example of this and we hear that "Dave Lander never slept".

I found this a somewhat complex story and it took me a while to get to grips with it. In part this may be because of the language used which is probably authentic London gangs 50s style. Worth noting too is the fact that some language was used in this era that would definitely be considered offensive now.

For me the book has a really good feel of post war London. I liked the way that historical events and facts were woven into the story. A number of the characters a quite rich - I would call both Dave and Addie that. However I really did find it hard to like anyone in this. No one really gripped me and my attention was not held at times. I do remember the writer's way with rich colloquial language from his previous London historical book, Vine Street. However Vine Street held me in a way that this one did not. 3.5/5

White City is a powerful novel set in 1950's London,specifically the sleazy Soho of that era and the bombsites and squalor of Notting Dale and Brixton.
Mixing fact and fiction,both in its storyline and cast of characters ,White City is often bleak and violent, sometimes brutal, just like the city and times it's set in.

The tale begins with the real life East Castle postal van robbery in 1952,organised by crime lord Billy Hill. Led by enforcer Terry "Mother" Nunn the robbers carefully dispose of any evidence,to the extent that 2 families are left wondering why the man of the house hasn't come home. Another trusted Hill crony,Dave Lander who was on the robbery,finds himself with torn loyalties in more ways than one.

As in the author's previous book,the superb "Vine Street" ,London is almost a character in its own right with the rough working class areas and Soho teeming with criminals,many of them policemen,the remains of aristocracy slumming it and intent on blowing their family fortunes,celebrities and even a member of the Royal Family indulging in the excesses that were well-known but never reported at the time. The story moves on to it's finale in 1958 and a resolution to the tortured Lander's guilt and the Notting Hill race riots.

This is an excellent book very much in the style of James Ellroy with its gritty action , deeply flawed characters and the very worst of human nature. The struggles of the "little people", those living in the slums, those that people like Hill barely noticed and his cronies preyed on and exploited are expertly drawn and some of those characters are the real heroes in a story full of crooked policemen , the greedy,sordid and degenerate ranks of the upper classes and the self-styled criminal elite who are shown for what they really were.

Post-war London is a bombsite, literally. But it's not just the buildings in ruins.

Life is difficult for everyone, with gangsters and spivs ruling the roost.

So the splashing of a elaborate heist sends everyone into a frenzy.

But, on the day of the robbery, two families find that their fathers haven't returned home...