White City

Dominic Nolan's 'Vine Street' was exceptional, but 'White City' goes above and beyond, a gripping story of curdled dreams and bad intentions set in a sharply-realised 1950s London. I very much doubt I'll read a better crime novel this year. * IAN RANKIN * The best crime novel I've read this year * THE TIMES * Superb * THE GUARDIAN - BOOKS OF THE MONTH * Quite breathtaking...as sweeping as anything by James Ellroy * DAILY MAIL * A gripping, atmospheric tale ***** * HEAT * Dom Nolan novels aren't just stories, but complete worlds. Immersive, epic, unforgettable. WHITE CITY is simply unmissable for anyone serious about (crime) fiction. * Jo Furniss, DEAD MILE * Yet again Nolan confirms his place as one of the UK's finest writers. White City is both fiercely ambitious and startlingly intimate, teeming with morally complex characters desperately trying to navigate a way through dark, treacherous waters. UK crime has waited a long time to find its James Ellroy; the wait is now officially over. * TREVOR WOOD * White City has it all: violent gangsters, a love story across the ages, riots, revenge. It will lift you high above the clouds, then dash you on the rocks. Nolan doesn't shy away from doing the unthinkable; no character is safe, not even the most beloved. Beautiful and brutal, this is a book to get lost in, to savour and enjoy, time and time again. -- SAM HOLLAND Transportive, compelling and completely all consuming, White City confirms Nolan as one of Britain's elite crime writers. Prose so expertly crafted, you can reach out and touch it, and characters so real they possess your soul. A gift of a novel. -- ADAM SIMCOX WHITE CITY is quite simply a brilliant novel: broad in scope, deeply etched, so very sharp and stylish. The seamless blend of fact and fiction, the richly imagined lives of these heroic and monstrous characters, and the swagger and swing of the writing make for a masterpiece of social historical crime fiction. -- JOE THOMAS Terrific! A noir-drenched tapestry of 1950s London, in which two families struggle to survive as their lives crack apart like a bullet-riddled windscreen in the aftermath of robbery and murder. Crackling dialogue, biting humour, brutal action and issues that resonate today, all underscored by poignancy and compassion. -- ROBBIE MORRISON White City is a love letter to the gritty underbelly of last century London, one I struggled to leave. I fell in love with Lander (I defy you not to) and indeed with the very streets themselves. The violence is brutal, the grief is vivid, and yet I was spellbound. It's a masterpiece. -- RACHEL WOLF WHITE CITY is set to be the crime novel of the year: an epic immersion into 1950s London's gang violence, racial tension, riots and broken families, in the aftermath of the biggest robbery in British history....Nolan writes with enviable skill and subtlety about the brutal and profound. His prose is divine, sending you head over heels with his characters and then dashing your heart on the rocks. And we love him for it. -- HEATHER CRITCHLOW Provocative, compelling, and an immersive and timely depiction of 1950's London. Nolan grabs the reader by the scruff of the neck and frogmarches them through a city whose buildings and minds are scarred by war. Violence and death are nothing to the criminal who has seen such horrors on the battlefields of Europe. A complex, visceral plot populated with unforgettable often tragically flawed characters at the heart of which lies a beautiful almost fable-like love story -- TIM SULLIVAN Mind-blowing...so much more than a crime novel. Entirely immersive, with such a brilliant cast of characters and a commentary that works for today, it's just frankly an amazing piece of work * SARAH PINBOROUGH * White City is a triumph of British noir writing. The dark beauty of post-war London is explored in stark, fearless prose. Populated with characters unforgettable for both their humanity and monstrosity, White City is a complex exploration of inequality, criminality and heartbreaking betrayal. -- NATALIE MARLOW 'What a triumph. What an absolutely magnificent achievement. Transporting, startling, and ultimately almost overwhelmingly powerful' * A. J. FINN * An extraordinary piece of work. The writing is beautiful and the world is entirely realistic in its brutality and moments of transcendence, reminiscent of Patrick Hamilton's work and also Brighton Rock. A brilliant book. * HARRIET TYCE * Incredibly good... one of the most interesting, brilliant crime writers around * JANE CASEY * A major success....strongly recommended. * THE CRITIC * Gripping * CRIME MONTHLY * A tremendous feat of mid-century conjuring: attentive to all manner of vanished moral and material minutiae, while practically Ellroyian in narrative shape, scope and verve. This is one of the richest, most absorbing novels I've read all year, with its cast of hell-seekers and heartbreakers, the hunters and the haunted. Nolan's achievement here is crime fiction as social history, as national reckoning. -- TOM BENN A truly excellent crime novel * MAIL ON SUNDAY *