Vine Street

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… show more.

Dominic wrote two very good crime books in a short series before publishing Vine Street.

I am including Vine Street on my list because, although it’s set in London and is therefore not ‘regional’, it was one of the great crime novels of 2021-22 and deserves to become a classic. I read this book before it was published, and I knew, like everyone else, that it was something special.

The story spans almost a century, from the seedy streets of London’s Soho in the 1930s, until the present day. There are some really well-researched and vividly depicted descriptions of police… show more.