Shrines of Gaiety

London, 1926. Nightclub proprietor Nellie Coker presides over a small empire of fashionable, disreputable venues while her children jostle for position and the police watch for an opportunity to bring the family down. Detective John Frobisher investigates corruption around the clubs as runaway girls, aspiring performers and socialites pass through the same glittering nocturnal world. Atkinson uses crime, family rivalry and post-war restlessness to expose the glamour and danger beneath London’s Jazz Age nightlife.

The nightclubs thrive because post-war London is renegotiating boundaries of class, gender and respectability. Wealthy patrons, working performers and criminal intermediaries share the same rooms while experiencing very different levels of risk. Frobisher's investigation reveals the labour and exploitation behind the glamour, particularly for young women drawn to the city by promises of independence or theatrical success.