I did not finish this book. It was hard to follow. I was really intrigued by the story line but just felt like I had read so much of the book and still was reading exposition.

Did not finish prior to publication; was unfortunately not compelled to keep reading. I thought this one would be very much up my alley, with London, air quality ( I live in Salt Lake where we have significant issues and find the subject endlessly fascinating/horrifying), and the serial killer. But I picked it up three times only to put it back down and essentially forget about it. Just didn't work for me, unfortunately.

I really enjoyed this book. As the teacher in charge of stocking the senior school library, I like to ensure that the books are diverse and the students are exposed to both excellent fiction and excellent modern non-fiction. I think that this is both a fascinating and well-written book that has much to recommend it and will keep the students interests. It is good to stretch their reading interests by providing them with books about subjects they might never have considered before and this definitely does the job well. It is also good to find books that I know the teaching staff might enjoy as well as the students and I definitely think that this applies in both cases. Absolutely recommend wholeheartedly; a fantastic read.

A fun combination of true crime and non-fiction - I was excited to read about the deadly fog after seeing it featured on The Crown. I enjoyed the marriage of a deadly fog and a serial killer, though I found some of the writing surrounding the serial killer a bit tedious and long winded. The parts that discussed the deadly fog could have been expanded - if possible, I would have loved more statistics.

A fascinating look at two killers haunting London in the early 195os. The author clearly lays out the industrial source for the deadly fog (smog) that took so many Londoners’ lives, and artfully portrays the lives and concerns of individual citizens. The most compelling sections of the book center around the bland-looking but extremely deadly serial killer, whose terrible deeds went unknown for many years during the same time period. Recommended for fans of history and true crime.

What a fascinating book!!! Dawson seamlessly weaves together two completely separate, but at the same time intertwining, narratives - a thick, deadly London fog that was killing Londoners, and a terrifying serial killer prowling the streets. It's such a unique idea to weave these two stories together. The writing was so atmospheric that I could almost smell and feel the fog in the air. I highly, highly recommend this one!

I liked the combination of the true crime and the non fiction. I learned a lot about the fog that happened in England.

I chose this title because I was interested in learning more about the Great London Fog of Dec., 1952, after seeing it featured in an episode of "The Crown". I got a pretty good sense of the effects of that disaster within the first couple of chapters of the book. The secondary plot about the serial killer I found quite tedious and did not think it meshed very well with the fog story, I gave up about half way through the book. Too much detail about too many different characters, none of whom were especially compelling.

Dawson's fantastic book combines true crime with narrative non-fiction in a manner perfect for fans of Erik Larson. While an unusual London fog creeps its way into people's homes and lungs, creating a perfect storm of death and mayhem, a serial killer stalks the streets, using the dense fog as a cover. Dawson does an excellent job conveying the tense, dangerous situation, utilizing both first person accounts and historical sources. An excellent, compelling novel that will keep readers turning the page.

I can’t say I didn’t like the book, but I was not overwhelmed. The story about the serial killer was interesting. The story about the fog and it’s aftermath not so much.

The research was done very well. I didn’t find it dry or text booky, but maybe drawn out to much. It might have benefited from more real life situations and less of the MP perspective. It was a very interesting subject, maybe not a full length book.

For fans of the Netflix series, The Crown, it is hard to forget the great London fog of 1952 that killed over 12,000 people. Combine that environmental disaster with the psychological disaster of a human being, Reginald Christie, Nottinghill serial killer, and a book is born. Dawson shows her journalistic past with deep research into both stories, though at times the details become slogged down in repetition and a dry voice. The science part of the deadly smog is fascinating, and scary as we watch the EPA being deliberately dismantled here in America, and the author delves deeply into the government's lack of response, a back bencher's fight to bring the media attention to a less-than-thrilling story, and one personal tale of a London family. However, I do think this part of the book would have been better served with more personal stories; it suffers from the MP's problem in getting newspapers to print more stories - one needs to make people relate, to empathize, to care, and we do that through the lives of ordinary people. However, the serial killer side of the story seems to explore the characters more deeply, though there is little suspense in the eventual ending. Overall, this was an interesting story but it would have benefitted with a more personal, compelling voice.

Unfortunately, I applied to receive a copy of this book late one night and was approved, but it was archived the next morning before I was able to download it. I have contacted the publisher regarding this issue. If it is resolved I will then be able to read and review this title.

Death in the Air is a dual exploration of two murderers in 1950s London: The Great Smog of 1952 and John Reginald Christie, a serial killer. Over five days in December 1952, the smog killed thousands of people. Christie murdered at least seven women between 1943 and 1953, including his wife, Ethel. The tenuous thread between the two is that they caused death by asphyxiation, and both were catalysts for policy change regarding the environment and the death penalty, respectively. Ultimately, the author failed to convince me as to why she put them together in one narrative since, truthfully, they have nothing to do with each other except thematically.

Both subjects could have been interesting on their own, given the proper focus and format, but neither narrative is quite given its due. The descriptions of the Great Smog --which take up a good chunk of the first part of the book -- were unfortunately repetitive, though the aftermath covered in the latter half was more interesting. I also found Christie to be uninteresting, as far as serial killers go. Still, there are important and very relevant lessons to be learned from the role government negligence (and influence from special interest groups) played in causing the fog and the subsequent push for better regulations on pollutants and clean air policies.

Despite my issues with the book, I believe the book could be enjoyed by a variety of people: true crime readers, those interested in environmental policy, and readers interested in modern London history will find something of interest. There also may he heightened interest due to the smog's appearance in the TV series "The Crown" on Netflix.

Thanks to Hachette and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of this title. I liked this historical mix of serial killer story and the story of the air pollution (another serial killer?) crisis of 1952. I knew nothing about the fog killing so many, and coincidentally, was watching the Netflix episode of The Crown dealing with this not long after I started reading, which dovetailed nicely. I think the writing was good, but I found much of the descriptions of the political back and forth to be very dull. The ending was not entirely satisfying, through not fault of the author’s, only the facts.

A very informative book that goes very in depth about a great fog and smog that killed thousands of people in London in a week in early December 1952. At the same time, serial killer John Reginald Christie just happened to be going around knocking off women, a minimum of 6, probably more. A very creepy, terrible time in London to be sure and there apparently was a lot of cover-up going on by the government over the number of fog deaths and what the real reason was behind it for many, many years. But the seeds were also planted to begin to turn things around too. Quite a read for history and true crime fans. An ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an unbiased review.

Kate Winkler Dawson’s occasionally overwrought Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City is a parallel history of the Great London Smog of 1952 and John Reginald Christie‘s crimes. Focusing on December 1952 and the aftermath of the Great Smog, Dawson records the vastly different responses of the authorities to the two killers. While Parliament dawdled in studying London’s deadly pea-soupers and finding solutions, British police launched a nationwide manhunt for Christie after his crimes came to light. The lesson of this book is that it’s obviously much easier to deal with a clear and present danger than to deal with a systemic problem.

London has suffered deadly fogs since the medieval era, due to meteorological conditions, growing heavy industry, and the use of coal for everything. Because so many London homes (and homes across Britain) depended on coal for heating and power, it would have cost the nation millions of pounds that it didn’t have after fighting World War II. But in December 1952, a five day fog descended on London that had such devastating effects it was impossible to ignore the human costs of the smog. Police had to guide traffic with flares and flashlights, as well as deal with opportunistic burglars. Hospitals were overrun with people in respiratory distress. Dawson notes that coffin makers ran out of coffins for people who died during and after the fog. In Parliament, the response from Conservative members was that the fog was something that Londoners just had to put up with. Labour members, however, led by Norman Dodds, pushed the majority into investigating the fog. Then, once the reluctantly formed Beaver Committee Report declared that the fog was a deadly problem with feasible, albeit difficult solutions, Dodds and the Labour Party worked to create clean air legislation.

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A police officer guides a double-decker bus during the 1952 fog. (Image via CNN)
Meanwhile, John Reginald Christie (who is often described in accurate but distracting pejoratives) had been killing women since the end of the war. Christie’s portrayal here is confusing. To me, he made baffling choices that indicate a lack of intelligence. Dawson gives Christie more credit than I think he deserves. Even though Christie is described as a neurotic, unconfident man, he hid the bodies of all of his victims in and around his house. He wasn’t caught mostly because his victims were people who were not missed and because his crimes were so bizarre no one even suspected he might be up to such ghastly acts. If anyone had investigated the awful smells in his flat, he would have been caught and convicted on the spot. Because no one did, Christie was able to carry on for years. There’s also a chance than one of his neighbors was wrongfully executed for the murder of his wife, who may have been one of Christie’s victims.

I was hooked by Death in the Air even though Dawson’s writing style occasionally irked me. She is prone to using hyperbolic language when talking about Christie and the fog’s death tolls. This may be effective for some readers, but I prefer to let the historical record and contemporary voices speak for themselves. Christie and the Great Smog are more than interesting enough to carry this book; rhetoric is unnecessary and distracting.

If readers can look past this, I think they’ll find a moral lesson in how governments respond or fail to respond to dangers. Both the pea-soupers and Christie were ignored until it was impossible to ignore them anymore. Because Christie was one man, it was relatively easy to “solve” him once he’d been caught. The fogs, however, required Britons to change their attitude towards pollution, enact legislation, and upgrade their infrastructure to use cleaner fuels. The heroes in this book are the people who refused to just deal with the status quo as Londoners and actively worked to end the fogs and bring killers like Christie to justice.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 17 October 2017.

WOW. You must read this book. I am so bummed I can't share my notes because there are some truly alarming statistics in here―all the more important due to the conversations we're having today around climate change, pollution, and renewable energy.

12,000 people died because of poisonous fog. And it was barely a blip in the news. Comparatively, John Reginald Christie (the other antagonist in this story) killed at least eight people, making headlines across the world. This book provides not only two fascinating narratives (the one about the deadly fog, and the one about the serial killer), but unique commentary around popular media, man-made disasters, and the fact that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to environmental protection. People are STILL dying from smog―according to the author, about 4,000 people in China die every day, accounting for 17% of deaths in the country.

4/5 stars mainly because I found several sections to be repetitive. Some of the Parliamentary sessions discussing nutty slack dragged on too much for my liking.

This is a riveting story, and an important one. Highly recommended for folks who liked The Radium Girls by Kate Moore!

This is the story of how the fog in London in the early 1950s, combined with emissions from factories and vehicles, and especially thanks to the unrationed and inferior coal dust nuggets known as nutty slack, killed thousands of Londoners and made life miserable for millions more. During the winter especially, when there was no wind for several days and the air didn't move, the fog became the worst. The weather was too cold to go without heat and most people relied on the cheap and plentiful and unrationed nutty slack. The government encouraged people to use the smoky and dirty coal even though it was becoming increasingly apparent that the coal was a major contributor to fogs so gritty and thick that some people remembered that you couldn't see your fingers when your arm was extended in front of you. Member of Parliament Norman Dodds was a particular thorn in the side of Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, who preferred to ignore the problem. Thanks to Dodd the press and eventually the government, recognized the problem and began to deal with it.

I enjoyed this bit of history, which was mostly new to me, and well told. I was confused however, with the parallel story of serial murderer Reg Christie. These events also took place during the early 1950s, but were not a result of the fog. Christie had not used the fog as a cover for his crimes and the fog hadn't driven him insane as far as we can tell. It almost seems as if the author was not convinced that the story of the killer fog would be compelling enough on its own and threw in a contemporaneous crime story to liven things up a bit. Eventually I began to skip this part of the book to concentrate on the more interesting and more relevant story of a deadly weather phenomenon.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for a digital review copy.)

Book received from NetGalley.

The book was ok, but not great. I think the author would have done better either focusing on the deadly London smog or the serial killer, but not both. I believe the book was just too short to do either story she was trying to tell justice.