Julie Anderson's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I like all of Kate Atkinson’s writing; her prose is pitch-perfect, and her characters, while often morally ambiguous, are always engaging and well-drawn.

Atkinson refuses to recognise the artificial categorisation of books into genres like "crime" as opposed to literary fiction. Shrines of Gaiety is a perfect example of a book which is both and neither, it is simply, very good.

This book is set in the demi-monde of Soho, its gangsters and addicts, police, and thrill seekers, but also shows the shadow of the Great War. Set in the 1920s, the crime plot is about the murder of young girls, but also the trade in flesh, in London and abroad, for profit.

There is a wide cast of characters, police and gangsters, particularly the second-generation Coker family, whose mother, Nellie, is the central lynchpin of an underworld clan providing entertainment of all kinds to whoever can pay for it. Based on a real person, Nellie Coker is mesmerizingly believable as the matriarch. As the book progresses, we watch the foundations of her hard-nosed philosophy begin to crumble.

The dialogue is pithy and witty —a wonderful book. I will read it again.

This is a superb evocation of a changing London, especially Soho, from the 1930s to the 1970s. These streets are brought to life over the decades – jazz and flappers in the 30s, air raid sirens and searchlights, followed by bomb sites and rubble, Raymond's Revue Bar and the sex shops of the 60s when London was swinging– but all the time, the little restaurants and shops too.

This world is gritty, corrupt, depraved, and happenstance, where being in the wrong place at the wrong time can lead to disaster. It's a dog-eats-dog underworld, and the police who are there to uphold the law are only a little better than the criminals they pursue.

Astonishingly, the book has love at its heart, a longstanding romantic amour, as well as a long-lasting friendship. This is a gangland crime novel, and yes, there is a mystery to solve, but the book is about far more than catching a killer.

The central trio of characters are finely drawn and superbly interlinked, and the final "twist" may or may not be guessed, but it doesn't matter. It's still sad, lovely, and full of humanity and kindness despite the bleak inhumanity and cruelty on show.

It is thoroughly immersive and to be read again.

I read this book when it was first published back in 1995, but I re-read it this year. Ackroyd sets his tales in London, whether modern or historic (sometimes, like in Hawksmoor, both), and this one is set in the Victorian era.

We are in the pre-Jack the Ripper East End, where there is a series of gruesome killings by the almost supernatural "Limehouse Golem" while, at the same time, Elizabeth Cree (a music hall performer) is on trial for killing her husband. Inspector Kildare has to deal with both.

Kildare is a wonderfully drawn character, world-weary but half-enamored of Ms Cree. Bill Nighy was a superb choice of actor in the film.

The dark and dangerous streets of Limehouse give way to the naptha and greasepaint of the music hall, as Dan Leno (a real person) is drawn into the case, as are Karl Marx and George Gissing. Leno often appeared in drag, and one of the book's themes is gender. Ms. Cree regularly dressed in male garb, just as Dan Leno becomes female characters on stage.

This is a crime book, but more than that. This book shows what can be achieved by a very good writer even when they write in a genre area of fiction. Not to be missed.