Shrines of Gaiety, the latest novel by Kate Atkinson, takes the reader on an excursion to a London still recovering from the Great War in 1926 in a tale crackling with thrills, wit and humor.

As the novel opens, Nellie Coker, the notorious queen of a chain of glittery nightclubs, has just been released from a term in prison. Nellie's release is observed by Chief Inspector John Frobisher, who believes she is the key to the disappearance of girls in London. He is determined to bring her empire down.

Gwendolen Kelling, a librarian and former combat nurse, is recruited by a friend to search for Freda and Florence, two girls who have run away to London with dreams of becoming stars on the stage. In return for his help in finding the girls, Frobisher enlists Gwen as a spy on the Coker enterprises. Gwen gets a leg up on this latter effort when she employs her nursing skills on a gangster wounded in a shoot-out at one of the clubs. Her attempt to save the man's life impresses Nellie, who rewards the librarian with an offer to manage one of her clubs.

Though free of prison, Nellie is under threat of a takeover by uncertain enemies. Her suspects include Maddox, a police officer who has been in her employ, Azzopardi, a known gangster, and even one or more of her brood of children, all of whom are weak and spoiled save Niven, the eldest, who is struggling to cope with the trauma of his own experiences in the war.

The story revolves around Nellie but, as is common in Atkinson's other novels, the point of view shifts from character to character providing insight into them and others and how they all relate to one another and to Nellie.

As Atkinson relates in an afterword, the novel was inspired by Kate Meyrick, a woman who, like Nellie, operated a string of Soho clubs after the war and had a brood of children she struggled to educate and elevate. She also admits while there are real events and people in this novel it is fiction and not history, allowing her to fiddle with time and facts to suit the purposes of the novel.

Kate Atkinson is becoming one of my favorite contemporary writers, and this is an entertaining novel worthy of any reader's time.

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