Temples of Fun

Kate Atkinson entered the top tier of contemporary literature on her first try: her debut novel "The Museum of My Secrets" won the prestigious Whitbread Prize, beating Salman Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh."

Kate Atkinson's books have also appealed to Russian readers: the series of novels about private detective Jackson Brodie – "The Crimes of the Past," "Turning for the Better," "Should We Expect Good News?", "At Dawn, with a Dog", "Big Sky" – Stephen King dubbed "the major detective project of the decade." Looking for detective stories worth reading? This series is an excellent choice.

"Temples of Fun" is the British answer to "The Great Gatsby," critics wrote, threaded with literary allusions to a multitude of masterpieces, from Shakespeare to T. S. Eliot. The novel is already being called the best historical prose of the year and a book that has become an event in the literary world.

So, it's 1926. The country has hardly recovered from the meat grinder of the Great War, while the "Jazz Age" reigns in London. In the nightclubs of Soho, the lords of England rub shoulders with gangsters, and high-ranking foreign guests dance with starlets, paying a shilling per dance.

The trendiest clubs – "Amethyst," "Fairy," "Foxhole," "Sphinx," and "Crystal Bowl" – are ruled by Nelly Coker with her wayward children. But where there is success, there are enemies: Mrs. Coker is no stranger to warding off external and internal threats. However, now a mysterious adversary has set its sights on her empire as a whole – and in addition, the uncomfortable focus of police attention is drawing closer: an investigation into a series of mysterious disappearances of young girls is linked to her clubs. Is it a coincidence?..