by Mark Ellis
My name is Mark Ellis and I write a crime fiction series set in World War Two London. My protagonist is a Scotland Yard detective called Frank Merlin. The sixth in the series, Death Of An Officer, came out in the UK in May and is being published in the US in September.
A great deal of research is involved in writing these books and I am particularly keen to ensure that my portrayal of wartime London is accurate and captures the atmosphere of time and place successfully. A Financial Times reviewer recently described my new book as ‘immersive, authentic and evocative’ so maybe I’m not doing too badly at achieving my aim.
While DCI Merlin is my lead player, London itself runs him a close second as a principalcharacter. The city has of course been the location of thousands of crime stories.
So I have been asked to produce a list of 10 great crime novels set in London. I do not set them out below in order of quality or preference but in order of publication date. I have also imposed a cut-off date on myself of 2000, so that I am only choosing from books which have stood the test of time.
1.The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)
Hard to exclude Sherlock Holmes from any list of top crime books set in London.Holmes is the ultimate fictional London detective. After all, which other such detectives have their own London museum? The story of The Sign of Four is a gripping one of lost treasure and ancient skullduggery among Indian Army officers and in my view one of Conan Doyle’s best.
2. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers (1928)
One of the four ‘Queens of Crime’ in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (the others being Christie, Allingham and Marsh) Sayers was a prolific and very successful author. Her best known creation is the amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, who will always be to me Ian Carmichael, the actor who so perfectly captured the character in the 70s BBC series. An elderly General is found dead in an armchair at his gentleman’s club. Wimsey investigates. Top notch Sayers.
3. Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton (1941)
Patrick Hamilton is not particularly known as a crime writer despite the fact that crime features heavily in much of his work. He wrote two very successful thriller plays, Gaslight and Rope, both off which were turned into films, the latter by Hitchcock. Hangover Square features a downtrodden alcoholic who has a tortuous relationship with a failed actress who takes advantage of him. The relationship inevitably turns very sour. A great book. (If you like this I would also recommend Hamilton’s Gorse Trilogy but those books are set in a variety of locations.)
4. The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene (1943)
Some might say this is more of a spy story than a crime novel but to me it is clearly a bit of both. The story is set in the Blitz and the main character, Rowe, has just been released from a psychiatric prison where he’d been sent after his mercy killing of his wife. He goes to a fortune teller’s séance where a man is somehow murdered with Rowe’s own knife. He goes on the run. Complications ensue. A great outing in Greeneland.
5. The Tiger In The Smoke by Margery Allingham (1952)
This is one of the best known and most highly-regarded books in the author’s Albert Campion detective series. The story is set in a wonderfully atmospheric foggy London. A young widow remarries then begins to receive photographs suggesting her first husband is still alive. A complex and compelling plot ensues. A classic.
6. At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie (1965)
The Queen of ‘The Queens of Crime’ and the most successful fiction writer of all time, with over 2 billion books sold. Some people like Poirot some Marple. I like both equally. This is a relatively late Miss Marple story set in and around Bertram’s Hotel, the London hotel where she is holidaying. There is an interesting mix of guests at the hotel and naturally not all is at seems. Miss Marlowe applies her detection skills and assists the London police as they investigate robbery and murder. Masterly.
7. The Chelsea Murders by Lionel Davidson (1978)
After wartime service in the Royal Navy, Davidson became a reporter then took up thriller-writing. His spy thriller Kolymsky Heights has been much-acclaimed. Author Philip Pullman called it ‘the best thriller I’ve ever read’. The Chelsea Murders has been much-praised too. A masked killer is on the loose in Chelsea, beheading his victims. Cryptic quotations indicating future victims are left for the police to interpret. This is a terrific London crime thriller.
8. Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd (1985)
Like Hamilton, Ackroyd is not known as a crime writer but more as a prolific historian, biographer and literary novelist. Notwithstanding, Hawksmoor, one of his most popular books, is a novel of crime fiction. The story takes place partly in the 18th century and partly in the present. The Hawksmoor of the title is the real 18th century architect who was responsible for many of London’s finest churches. He provides the model for Nicholas Dyer, the novel’s 18th century protagonist, while a character with the name of Nicholas Hawksmoor is a 1980s detective investigating murders at various of Dyer/Hawksmoor’s churches. Yes it sounds complicated but it’s a great read.
9. Astra’s Book by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine (1993)
Ruth Rendell is most famous for her Inspector Wexford detective series but, under the pen name of Barbara Vine, she also wrote a series of wonderful stand-alone psychological thrillers. Asta’s Book is my favourite of these. The book of the title is the diary of a Danish immigrant who came to London in 1905 and then raised a family. Many years later the diary falls into the hands of her grand-daughter who finds significant gaps in her grandmother’s life story. She investigates and discovers terrible secrets. A brilliant book.
10. Original Sin by PD James (1994)
Last in my list of great London crime books is one from another master female crime author, P,D.James. She wrote 15 detective novels featuring her policeman hero Inspector Adam Dalgleish. Original Sin is Number 9 in the series. In this story, Dalgleish investigates the murder of the managing director of a London publishing house. The victim has many enemies and there are more murders as the Inspector unravels a tangled story. Marvellous.
So that’s my list. London is of course a wonderful location for crime fiction and I’m lookingforward to continuing to portray its dark and dangerous side as I continue my Merlin series. The latest Merlin book, ‘Death Of An Officer’ will be out on September 2nd in the US. If you’re interested in true crime, I’ve also recently written a short history of the subject in the wartime years. It is called ‘Boom Time – True Crime in WW2 London’ and is alreadyavailable in the US.
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