Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors. This new title by her does not disappoint. Set in England, between the wars, London is reeling from the privations of the First World War. It is the scene of nightclubs, corruption, and debauchery. The queen of this dazzling world is Nellie Coker, owning nightclubs throughout the city. There is an ugly underbelly that belies the gaiety as unscrupulous men are pandering young girls and bodies start turning up.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson was covered in my Fall Book Preview, where I share a curated list of the season’s hottest new titles including the books I’ve most enjoyed, the ones I’m most looking forward to reading, and the ones the industry is most excited about. I really enjoyed the modern voice of this story, There is good suspense with a lot of humor and light heartache.
Our Fall Book Preview event is exclusively for members of our MMD Book Club community and What Should I Read Next Patreon “Book Lover” supporters. Our communities also received a printable of all the picks with Shrines of Gaiety's' publishing info and release date included.

“Shrines of Gaiety,” by Kate Atkinson, Doubleday, 416 pages, Sept. 27, 2022.

It is 1926. England is still recovering from World War I. In clubs in Soho, London, there is a new nightlife. Nellie Coker is being released from prison after serving six months for liquor law violations. She is known as a notorious nightclub owner. She owns five, with the jewel in the crown called Amethyst.

Nellie is the mother of six. The eldest, Niven, served in the Somme in World War I. Ramsay is her second son. He is trying to write a novel. She also has four daughters: Edith, Betty, Shirley and Kitty. Edith ran the business while Nellie was in prison. Each of the siblings is in charge of one nightclub.

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher is investigating the disappearance of five teenage girls over the last few weeks. He thinks their disappearances are linked to Amethyst.

Freda Murgatroyd and Florence Ingram, both 14, are among the missing. Librarian Gwendolen Kelling goes to Frobisher to report their disappearance. Gwendolen is friends with Freda’s half-sister, Cissy. Gwendolen was an Army nurse during the war. Frobisher asks Gwendolen to go into the Amethyst for one evening to see if the girls are working there.

This is an excellent, complex novel with diverse characters and plots. In addition to the characters, Kate Atkinson does an outstanding job of recreating 1920s London.
This is part literary fiction and part police procedural. I thoroughly enjoyed “Shrines of Gaiety.” It is one of her best novels.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Welcome to a world of crime, hard-partying, intrigue and sudden freedom. World War I is over and London and its inhabitants are finding ways to make money, spend money and celebrate being alive. Only sometimes, this hedonistic streak may have dire consequences when the wrong choices or wrong people enter the lives of these men and women. This book has a cast of people that starts with Nellie Coker, a nightclub owner of questionable and criminal character. Her six adult children are in line to carry on her enterprises, not all are suited to fill her shoes. An emotionally damaged police officer is trying to make a case against Nell. A young woman, formerly a librarian of sorts, sees an opportunity to assist the officer. This complicates both their lives. Meanwhile, two young girls dream of fame and perhaps fortune in London. They are runaways who learn London is not what they expected.

Kate Atkinson has given the reader a kaleidoscope of characters and places. It is a wonderful place to catch the vibes of the post war period. The only thing that would make this book better would be a soundtrack (some period songs are mentioned.) There is mystery, romance, history and brilliant dialog. Makes me want to read it again. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

Had a hard time getting into/understanding what was going on in the beginning so I could have used more detail, but once I got going I loved it. Rich characters, exciting story!

Boisterous Nightclub Narrative

The book opens in 1926 and Nellie Coker is getting out of prison. She is the owner of an empire of sorts. In addition to her five children, Nellie’s domain includes five nightclubs. Think of the roaring twenties, except in London, where these flashy clubs are dens of wickedness and fun. Nellie doesn’t trust anyone to manage her clubs, the main one called Amethyst. Instead of hiring, her offspring manage the clubs: Niven, Edith, Betty, Shirley, Ramsay and Kitty. She is not motherly, but she is a good teacher of survival and management. Nellie’s nightclubs offered a safe haven and a place to hide secrets.

One of the most interesting characters is John Frobisher, a detective, who is married to a grieving French widow who seems to be in active mourning day and night.

An important secondary character is Gwendolen, a survivor of World War I, and a nurse. She is helping the good detective find two runaway girls: Freda and Florence who have no clue that London is seedy and dangerous. They are entering bedlam and tawdry havoc. It is not a place for young, innocent girls.

This is an historical fiction that is flooded with odd and lively characters, too many to name, but they all have a place in the novel. The story moves fast but it has some interesting scenes, like the one with Freda and Mr. Birdwhistle, her mother’s boyfriend. Atkinson seems not to miss a type or manner of those who were existing in post Great War London – a century ago. The novel is packed with allusions and quirky characters.

My Gratitude to NetGalley and Doubleday for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was one of the best books I have read in the past several years. Atkinson does a lot very well in this novel, including an amazing, vivid setting, a plot that propels you to the end, and prose that feels effortless, but it’s her characters that shine through it all. She seems fascinated by each person in the story, no matter how small a part they play, and she creates compelling, complex, and well-rounded characters we (and she) can’t help but love; even (and sometimes especially) the characters who are doing terrible things. I honestly wanted to get a hold of the physical copy as soon as I finished so that I could read it, again. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy historical fiction, brilliant prose, and compelling characters.

Another fastidiously plotted, expertly researched novel from Kate Atkinson. Seemingly a departure from her usual setting, we are quickly drawn in to the demimonde of 20's London coppers, pickpockets and nightclub owners and clients. The Coker family are colorful and intriguing characters I hope to see more of!

Set in London in 1926 the seedy nightlife becomes immeshed in gangsters, crooked policemen, missing girls and murder. This is fun and fascinating with a wonderful cast of misfits. thieves and do goodness.

I think Atkinson is a superb writer and her skills in this novel are as strong as others. I just couldn’t get into the story. I was skim reading chapters and gave up half way through as the story just didn’t interest me enough. I will usually try to finish all books I start and I tried to keep going.
I would recommend all her other books! And the writing was sharp and deserved the three stars.

Kate Atkinson is an amazing storyteller. She transports us to the dazed world of post WWI London, complete with its bitterness, hope, opportunity and regrets. Her main character is Gwendolen Kelling, a library employee from York who has come to London to find a friend's runaway sister. Gwendolen is a strong women -- she was a war nurse and is eminently capable and calm. And, she spent years nursing her petulant and wounded mother after Gwendolen's two brothers were killed in the Great War.

As usual with Atkinson, there are several roads and plots which converge. Gwendolen and her search for the two missing girls lands her right in the middle of the Coker clan -- London crime lords who own a handful of clubs and have just welcomed their matriarch Nellie back from a prison stint. Nellie and her six children are an interesting group, from Edith, who with her head for accountancy is slated to take over for Nellie someday; to Niven, the WWI vet who tries to stay separate from his family's illegitimate dealings but keep them safe; to Ramsay, a dissolute wannabe novelist who is foundering.

Meanwhile Scotland Yard is a mixed bag of men trying to clean up the corruption in their organization and crooked coppers on the take. Inspector Frobisher, a somewhat tragic figure married to an unhinged Belgian war refugee, yearns for many things: love, the pastoral scenes of his boyhood, a workforce he could trust. There is even an occasional appearance by the spectral spirit of a young girl from Nellie's past.

Atkinson is brilliant at braiding together the characters, usually not in a predictable way. We are left with sadness, and questions, and maybe a bit of optimism. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Nellie Coker, the owner of several nightclubs in London, has been released from jail. She returns to dissatisfied children, spies, double-crossers, and a man out for revenge.

This book has a lot of different viewpoints. These viewpoints also aren't linear and tend to go back in time. The beginning was slow because so many different characters were introduced, and some were more interesting than others. For instance, Nellie's children, except her elder boy Niven, were annoying to read about. All I wanted to get back to is Gwendolen's story, a woman trying to find two teens who ran off to find stardom in London or Freda, one of those teens who finds out how inhospitable London is.

Once I got into the groove of the book, it was hard to put down.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. This book was very well written with great characters and setting. It is a great book that I am sure will be popular with readers who have loved Atkinson in the past. Looking forward to recommending it to our patrons.

I’ve been a big fan of Kate Atkinson (particularly the Jackson Brodie series), so I was happy to receive a copy of Shrines of Gaiety from Doubleday and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. If you are a fan of family sagas and historical fiction, grab this one! It’s set in the roaring 20s, where London’s “gritty underworld and glitzy nightclub scene” provide a vivid setting for Ms. Atkinson’s beautiful writing. It is told from multiple POVs and jumps around in time (both of which tend to annoy me if it is too choppy), the pacing can be a tiny bit slow at times (usually annoying unless the writing is as beautiful as this one is), and the many characters might be difficult to follow if you are like me and tend to read multiple books at once.

The story unfolds over several days in 1926 London, and follows the adventures of four main characters. Nellie Coker, queen of the nightclub scene, has just been released from prison and is more than ready to get back to overseeing her nightclub empire and her six children. Freda Murgatroid has come to London as a runaway along with her friend Florence, and they are both set on becoming stars. Gwendolen Kelling is a friend of Florence’s family, and they have come to London to find Florence and return her to her family. Finally, inspector John Frobisher is on a mission to clean up police corruption and put Nellie Coker back in prison, where he thinks she belongs. The lives of these people intertwine as they each pursue their own goals, Ms. Atkinson is known for her meticulous research, and she has based Basing Nellie Coker on a real life female nightclub owner in post WWI London. added to the realism of the story. A tough business woman, Nellie is ever protective of her brood of six children with ambitions for them as well as her business ventures.

Here’s the thing: the stereotype of librarians is generally way off. (Ask any bartender or cocktail waitress working at a library convention, and they will express shock at how much library people drink and how much fun they are – but I digress). Gwendolyn is an “assistant librarian” and is described a “librarian habit of lisle stockings, tweed skirt, woollen cardigan and one of her increasingly worn-out lawn blouses.” For her, “The Library had not been a career choice (after all, who would choose to be a librarian?”). And that just annoyed the hell out of me.So I took off one star. Petty? Maybe. But I do still love reading Kate Atkinson.

Shrines of Gaiety is a great historical fiction bringing the reader to London in the 1920's. I loved the seedy dark underbelly of the city. The character study was great and very enjoyable.

In case you hadn’t noticed, we are not living in the Roaring Twenties—unless “Roaring” refers to the level of political discourse. No, for the glitter and abandon of the real Roaring Twenties, we have to jump back a century, as Kate Atkinson has done. In this book, it’s 1926, a few years after the carnage of the Great War. London’s Soho neighborhood is packed with restaurants, clubs, and other places dedicated to pleasure and sin.

Nellie Coker is the queen of the Soho nightclub scene. She owns several clubs, which she runs with the help of her many children. Handy, since she needs someone to keep the drinks flowing and the hired dancers entertaining the customers at those times when she has been arrested for drink-licensing violations. As the novel begins, she is just being released from Holloway Prison—and observed by an array of those, on both sides of the law, who aim to bring down her empire.

There is danger intermixed with the glitter of the nightclub world. Young women coming to London to seek their fortune are easy targets, there are drugs all around, and there is a killer at work in the night; one who tosses his victims, mostly young women, into the cold currents of the Thames.

Several key characters enter into Nellie’s orbit in this novel, which plays out over a few weeks after her release from prison. Gwendolen Kelling, a nursing veteran of the Great War, is in London looking for two young women who left their homes in York for London. Freda Murgatroyd, the self-styled Fay le Mont, is one of those two young women, and is seeking her fame on the stage. DI Frobisher is a member of the Metropolitan Police sent to the Bow Street Station to clean up Soho, especially Nellie Coker’s clubs. I noticed that all of the principal characters are essentially on their own, with little or no family to provide a safe haven. They have only themselves to rely on, and they are the stronger for it. Even Nellie, with her brood of children, makes sure she never has to rely on any one person.

I’m a huge fan of Atkinson’s work. This one is a little bit slow getting started, with several pages of exposition before we get going. But then we are drawn into the world Atkinson creates, full of not just our principal characters and their lives, but a large and vividly realized set of supporting characters, including dancers, prostitutes, crooked policemen, Croker children, Bright Young Things, and more. As always with Atkinson, it’s clear she loves her characters, and she conveys them in all their human strengths and frailties. This is another Atkinson triumph.

I always love Kate Atkinson's storytelling and always rush to read her books. This was another good story, but I wanted to get deeper into some of the characters vs. being introduced to so many different characters. Well-written and a compelling story but I wanted to feel more deeply connected. .I still recommend this book and am a big fan of hers.

I adored Life After Life, so I was expecting to love this as well--and it was good, but I will recommend Life After Life actively. This one is a bit forgettable.

The story has a cast of protagonists and explores the 20s England nightclub scene. There is crime and murder, though there's only one death that could feel sad and it's well at the end and presented as an OK thing. There are jewels and motorcars and a string of clubs owned by Ma Croker, who never quite seems as formidable as I think we are meant to feel she is.

The plot itself was fine, but I think the timing of it was off a bit--the ending felt rushed (the climax is told so quickly and from a strange point of view, when you have so many protagonists to pick from) and the beginning felt a little sloggy.

Glitz, Glamor, and Gangsters!

Shrines of Gaiety is a witty romp of a novel that takes place in the dark underbelly of London during the Roaring 20s.

Nellie Coker is at the forefront of the story. She isa cut-throat nightclub owner recently released from prison who finds her hands full battling with her 6 duplicitous children, a librarian, a detective, and two missing teenage girls.

The narrative alternates primarily between Nellie, night club proprietress; Detective Frobisher investigating the Coker family; former librarian Gwendolen Kelling; and Freda, a 14-year-old runaway searching for stardom. There are a few more voices mixed in. There are many characters to keep track of, but each has a distinct voice making it easy to not get confused. What is a little confusing in the beginning is how the characters connect.

All of the characters are multilayered and unique. Gwendolen was my favorite, but I could have used more chapters from ruthless Ma Coker’s POV. It isn’t often that one reads the portrayal of a female gangster in the 1920s.

I loved the setting, as Atkinson captures the feeling of 1920s London. From the gritty streets to the posh clubs to the dirty underbelly of the elite, I was transported. In addition, there are drugs, mob wars, the sex trade, the chase of fame and fortune, and murder to contend with.

I loved everything about this book. The dialogue is sharp, quick-paced, and witty. There are a ton of subtle literary references mixed in. I would describe Shrines of Gaiety as a bit of Peaky Blinders combined with Gatsby. Atkinson brings to the table exquisite writing and captivating characters.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Doubleday Books.

It’s a day to rejoice when a new Atkinson is released. I loved it and felt all the fizz and grime of 20s London in all its splendor. The characters leap off the page, and the story is such a great example of accessible literature. Atkinson is a born storyteller, bar none.

Hurrah and Bravo