SHRINES OF GAIETY (PB)

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ambitious to advance her six children. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. With Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson captures a world in which nothing is quite as it seems.