Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

An epic crime thriller set in 1930's Soho London. Sergeant Leon Geats patrols the grimy alleyways with a watchful eye over the various lowlifes. Then a young woman is found strangled with her own stocking. Pursuing the killer, Geats loses his moral compass, as the stakes and the violence intensify. A blistering and brutal atmospheric tale.

Had I listened to Vine Street before Christmas then it would have, without a shadow of doubt, been my favourite audiobook of 2021. As it stands it is currently my top audiobook listen of 2022 and the title which other audiobooks need to beat. So shall we proceed on the assumption you know I loved this book?

London in the 1930s is where most of the action in Vine Street takes place, except the story isn’t confided to that period. In fact, the opening scenes are actually set decades later when characters we will come to know well have their quiet retirement disturbed when ghosts from the past will be brought to their door.

But Soho is where much of the action will take place and we meet Leon Geats he is a police officer but he immediately struck me as the cop who doesn’t conform or play by the rules. This first impression was pretty much spot on as Geats is a loose cannon in his team and very much takes life in his own style. Geats is called to a house where a woman has died. She is found with a stocking around her neck but the investigating officer doesn’t want to rule it as murder. She appears to have been a working girl and a foreign national – almost not worth the bother of investigating! But Geats isn’t having it and he will dig and ask questions despite the apathy of his colleagues.

What Geats had not anticpated was the presence of a child at the murder scene. The daughter of the victim and all alone in the world, she takes a shine to Geats but he knows his lifestyle is too chaotic to be able to care for her so he finds one of her relatives to care for her. It’s a sensible and, Geats thinks, the correct thing to do but, as we will see, some decisions have reprecussions.

Vine Street is a huge book and it is impossible for me to do it justice in a brief review, I could wax lyrical for many, many pages. It’s the story of 1930’s Soho, the dancing, the girls, the hardship of the time, the police and some corruption within their ranks. But at heart it is a story about murders and an obsession to catch a killer. You will be drawn back in time and become fully immersed in these London streets. You will know the bar owners, who likes the music and where the dancing happens. But the lighter side of Soho has an opposing dark side. Prejudices are rife, racism, sexism, homophobia are commonplace and it will make for uncomfortable reading at times. Dominic Nolan takes it all and delivers the reader with an experience which will not quickly be forgotten.

I mentioned that I had listened to the audiobook of Vine Street. The narrator is Owen Findlay and he made this story shine. It’s without doubt one of the best narrator/story combinations I have heard for quite some time. The book is cracking and Findlay gave it such energy that I was hanging onto his every word. It’s over fourteen hours of listening and I am not going to lie when I say I wanted more.

There are real emotional highs and lows in Vine Street, some characters left too soon and I missed them badly. Some more than outstayed their welcome and I was glad when their contributions were at an end. The emotional impact all these players had on me is testament to the outstanding work of the author. There are some books I will always be glad I read, Vine Street is on that list.

Atmospheric, visceral, very noir, beautifully plotted with memorable characters and a wonderful sense of time and place. This was a real pleasure and a discovery by an author new to me who can really write.

Search for a serial killer but lots, lots more and a treat for students of London in the 30s and beyond.

Highly recommended.

I’m a fan of Dominic Nolan’s first two novels, contemporary crime thrillers, Past Life and After Dark. Vine Street is a departure from Nolan’s previous books because it is a historical crime thriller, set in London in the 1930s. I’ve always loved London’s Soho and used to enjoy night outs there in the 1990s, and its reputation and history is rich and storied.

Vine Street is set in a world of organised crime set around prostitution, prostitutes, and corrupt police. With the war on the horizon in the first half of the novel, and then the war itself and postwar, there are also fascists in the guise of the Blackshirts and spies. And in the centre of it all, is a serial killer, whose murder spree crosses decades and whose killings aren’t recognised as such except by DS Leon Geats, a member of the porn squad, DS Mark Cassar of the flying squad, and WPC Willamina 'Billie' Massey.

This is a sprawling book, 600+ pages, and is an incredibly impressive feat. It’s a great story and the characters are well drawn and interesting. The serial murders are gruesome, the victim’s fates horrific to contemplate. The story is compelling and I highly recommend this novel.

Completely immersive, totally engrossing, unique crime fiction. Nineteen thirties, forties London lives and breathes on the page as all the problems we still hear about are playing out on the streets of Soho. This is gritty and dark but funny and unexpected and has a proper story that will satisfy.

It's the first book I read by this author and it's not easy to express how much I loved this book.
It's dark, twisty, gritty and riveting. A page turner that takes on a historical trip down the memory, visiting long lost places and atmosphere that seems to be out of a 40s noir movie.
Great storytelling and plotting, excellent character development, a plot that keeps hooked and turning pages.
Great story and great thriller.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A most engrossing read spanning the lifetime of a Police Sergeant over some five phases of his life. Written in such intermate detail so that the reader is sharing his life with all its ups and downs. Patrolling his Soho beat between the wars, a rich cast of characters of street girls, pimps, madams, are encountered together with clubs and musicians’, entanglements with police raids and murders where he deals out justice according to his lights. With his knowledge of the trafficking of girls from Europe and suspicion that it could be a route for spies MI 5 makes use of him. The story leads to the lifelong tracking of a serial killer, tragic events during the blitz, work with MI5. war service and return to the police after demob. Coloured with his personal life with colleagues, lovers, and his mother while alive, and how he happily takes on a false identity with a wife and family in his final years. Altogether a great story.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric, criminal noir novel, set in the Soho of the 1930’s. It begins with the police coming to interview the elderly Mark Cassar and hi wife, Billie about two bodies found in a film. This then sees the story explored to when WPC Willamina ‘Billie’ Massey worked with Sargeant Mark Cassar and Detective Sergeant Leon Geats. Called to investigate the murder of a prostitute, Geats discovers a young girl hiding in the bathroom. When the investigating officer, Proudfoot, amazingly suggests that the victim, strangled with her own stocking, has committed suicide, it leads to Cassar and Geats investigating on their own.

Although I loved this book, it is a slow burner and you do need to keep with it and allow yourself time to get to know the characters. It is the relationship between Cassar, Geats and Billie that form the heart of the book, as well as Geats involvement with Nell, the girl he discovers at the crime scene. In the same way that the central characters spend time sitting in Soho clubs, it is important that you observe and relax into the rhythm of Nolan’s writing. For there is a killer on the loose and wartime will only help him to become more prolific.

This is a novel of clubs, gangsters, a serial killer, set in the Soho underworld, with characters that you will come to care about and a fully realised world that you, as the reader, will become invested in. I do love books set between the wars, particularly in London, and this really worked for me. I recommend this highly and received a copy of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Unfortunately I felt that Vine Street started too slowly and didn't capture my imagination so it is not a book that I can recommend.

My first read by Dominic Nolan and what a stunning story this is. 5 star, book of the year stuff.

Starting in the 1930s, the story tells of Detective Geats, a rough and ready giant of a man, a man more suited to street life yet he’s a vice detective running the dark and dirty streets of Soho.

When a couple of women die in similar circumstances, Geats begins to believe he is on the trail of a serial killer, and this soon calls for the attention of famed flying squad detective Natty Sharpe and his team, as they push the low-key Geats aside and begin the hunt for this killer.

Full of corruption and atmosphere, this dingy, gritty and bleak historical crime noir is simply superb, as it stretches through 70 years in time.

The War, spies, the speakeasies, Brothels, drugs, gangsters and more all have their place in this outstanding tale.

It reminds in parts of tv shows such as Boardwalk Empire, little hints of Peaky Blinders but this is its own stand out book.

Geats is some creation, and his relationships he develops throughout the book are so well done.

A story of murder but also very much of its shining protagonist. It has very little to lighten the darkest of tones, but it’s not really a book that needs that.

Simply Superb and supreme storytelling.

At nearly 600 pages it looks big but I read this in a few sittings, so good, I genuinely did not want to put it down

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Dominic Nolan's historical noir is viscerally atmospheric, set in the mean streets of 1930s Soho with its jazz clubs, blackshirts, ponces, corrupt and murderous cops, spies, and tarts, amidst which walks a serial killer it is to take decades to identify. Untroubled by handing out his own brand of rough and brutal justice is the larger than life DS Leon Geats, one of the 'Dirties', a member of the Vice squad based at Vine Street, who knows his Soho beat, including its criminal underbelly, like the back of his own hand. When a incompetent cop bungles the murder case of a strangled woman, a prostitute, in her own home, Geats continues to make his own inquiries. Other murders occur, including another woman killed with the same MO, bringing in the Flying Squad led by Chief Inspector Nutty Sharpe, with Geats having to work with the sharp dressed and mercenary DS Mark Cassar.

It is the relationship between Geats, Cassar and WPC Willamina 'Billie' Massey that forms the intricate heart of this story. It frames the burning obsession that Cassar and Geats have in hunting a serial killer, even when it not officially sanctioned by the police force. Indeed, an official cover up and killing of an innocent man blamed for the murders has Geats finally handing in his notice. The murders, of course, continue unabated, as the investigation is stymied by the war. The killer's victims grow during wartime, attempting to use the German bombing of London to disguise his nefarious activities. A tragedy has a grieving Geats joining the war efforts in numerous roles in Europe and beyond, uncaring if he dies. However, he returns to London, only to discover Cassar has been unrelenting in his absence in continuing the dangerous investigation.

It is only many years later that Geats and Cassar's deadly inquiry pays off, but at what cost? This character driven historical noir was a absolute joy to read, although I have to admit it took me a third of the book to become invested and immersed in it. The characterisation is standout, you cannot help but root for Geats and the tender relationship he develops with 11 year old Nell Martin, and in a socially awkward Cassar finding a home, drugs and his dancing feet at the Windmill Club. Nolan evokes 1930s Soho with skill and style, with his well researched details and rich descriptions. This is a complex and complicated piece of epic historical crime fiction, one that I have no hesitation in recommending highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

The description of this book as a 1930s Soho jazz club thriller only gives a slight indication of the breadth of the intricate plot. The novel is in several parts and covers a timeline from 1935 to 2002. Nolan moves the plot fluidly back and forth between these years to drip feed more information.
Sergeant Leon Geats teams up with his former partner Mark Cassar to investigate a death of a young woman in Soho in 1935 and so begins their hunt for a sadistic killer.
This is so much more than a linear crime novel: the excellent writing portraying the relationships of all the characters, particularly Geats and Caesar, sucks the reader into their world. Tensions and emotions are raised , creating a very memorable book. A really great read!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of Vine Street, a stand-alone historical novel set mostly in Soho.

Sergeant Leon Geats works Vice in Soho. In 1935 he is called to the death of a local prostitute. Murder is not his beat, but when another woman is killed in the same way the Flying Squad takes over the investigation. This begins Leon and Sergeant Mark Cassar’s decades long hunt for a twisted serial killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed Vine Street, which is a substantial, i.e. long, sprawling novel covering the seamier side of Soho and its denizens in intimate detail.

The novel is told mostly from Leon’s point of view, with Mark and WPC Billie Massey contributing from time to time to give an alternative perspective. It is rough and violent, not shying away from drugs, gangs and prostitution and all the other elements of life at the time. I think it is an amazing tour de force in creating atmosphere as it seems visceral and at no point unbelievable. The timeline is more problematic. It starts and finishes in the present and flashes back to the thirties, forties and sixties although not necessarily in date order as the hunt comes back to life. I didn’t always find the timeline clear, perhaps because I was reading an arc, but this is a minor quibble in an engrossing read.

The serial killer plot is a bit of an enigma. Ostensibly it is the novel’s driver, but it gets subsumed by the relationship between Leon, Mark and Billy and Leon’s approach to life in general and policing in particular. It pops up with more bodies, but with no forensics and the police force at large not believing it, it disappears again after bringing collateral damage to Leon. Having said that the opening revelation makes the novel compulsive reading as curiosity drives the reader on and the final twists rewards the reading. It’s amazing.

I can’t do the characters justice. They inhabit their environment naturally and while I don’t understand many of their actions they seem to fit the overarching narrative.

Vine Street is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This book starts in London in the 1930s. In general it concerns the police and crime in London at that time. Rather more particularly we get to meet Leon Geats, Mark Cassar and Willamina better known as Billie. All three are police officers. At the start Geats and Billie are in the "Dirties" otherwise known as Vice. Cassar is in the (notorious) Flying Squad. A woman - apparently a street walker - has been found dead. There are issues about whose jurisdiction the case should come under. You do discover from the introduction that Billie and Mark are married later in their lives.

The book has some quite complex twist and turns in it. It really is one of those books I would far rather people found out about for themselves so I'm reluctant to give anything much away. While this starts as what appears to be a simple story you realise by the end just how multi layered it is. There is an investigation into the death however plenty of other ideas run through this for me. Police behaviour is certainly one as is the attitude to women and prostitutes (& pimps) at that time. The effects of the war come into this and how relationships change. There are secrets and lies.

Initially I found the language - I think it is probably authentic London of the 1930s - rather awkward to read. There were words I simply didn't know and while I could guess at some others I could not. There were also some time switches going on that were not well signposted in my proof copy. These points slowed my reading down and at something under 20% in I was not particularly convinced.

Then things started to change - the book flowed far better for me. I'm not sure what changed really - it might have simply been me however the book became more coherent and compelling. The police are not the only characters in this. Other people appear and play their parts. Nell is definitely one of them as is a cat named Tallulah! Personally I found all the characters convincing and well up to their tasks. Even the minor players are good. I became drawn in and well and truly hooked.

There is real darkness here and it may not be a read for those of a sensitive nature, some violence is part of the story. The tale does have humour however that is often balanced by parts that are powerful. In some senses this can be a "romp" at times but at others it is deadly serious. It did leave me hanging a couple of times wondering just what the hell was going on however that feeling didn't last! I did spot one or two of the twists and turns before they arrived but that did nothing to spoil the book for me.

Possibly this was not the "greatest" read but it became increasingly appealing and chameleon like - just when I thought I knew what sort of book it was it changed!! Deeply powerful and entertainingly shallow :). In the end I simply really enjoyed reading this. I do hope the author can come up with some more like this - I will certainly read them. 4.5/5

Vine Street by Dominic Nolan is set in the Soho area of London,an place only now shaking off a reputation for criminality and sleaze. It's also a place that has always fascinated me and that I've read a lot about,not least the behaviour of some of those supposedly policing the area over the years from books by Dick Kirby and others.

The story spans out over several decades,beginning in the 1930's when,to general police apathy, a murderer appears to be targeting local prostitutes. The exceptions are police officers Leon Geats, a rebel who speaks with his fists too often, "Money" Mark Cassar,suave"dodgy copper" struggling with his sexuality and WPC Billie Massey, their often complex relationship with each other is a big part of the book.
Soho through the ages is brilliantly brought to life by Dominic Nolan, the everyday life and tradespeople going about their business with the backdrop of degeneracy and perversion as a backdrop.
The book reminded me very much of one of James Ellroy's fantastic tales , there are crooked and degenerate cops,murderers, gangsters, drug dealers,prostitutes, spies, traffickers, and a sprinkling of real people and events, It's exciting, brutal and unpredictable,the language goes from lyrical to crude,there are touching scenes,horrific scenes and plenty of humour,most of it very dark.

If you're a fan of James Ellroy and Don Winslow you'll love this. It's not for the squeamish and there is some quite crude language,if those things don't bother you it's an engrossing and involving read.

Unfortunately this wasn’t a book I enjoyed. I like to be sucked into the story from the first couple of pages, but it didn’t happen. I did give it the benefit of the doubt, but as the pages turned that buzz you fine getting from reading a book just did not happen.

A magnificent complex tale centred around Soho over several decades. A serial killer on the loose and the investigation by a conscientious detective aided by an old colleague who has been promoted out of Vine St to the flying squad who attempt to solve the case only to end up blaming an innocent man. The secret service is involved and the story moves on through wartime and into the 60’s leading to a violent ending. The detailed picture of Soho over the years is beautifully described and the various characters inhabiting the clubs and pubs there in are heartwarmingly beautiful. All round a most wonderful story of a time and place long gone but the street names survive as witnesses to all!