What We’re Writing—Debs’ Vanishing London

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have been on a listening project these last couple of months. Last summer I made myself a pledge that I would listen to the audio versions of my books, in order, something I had never done. I had not (admitting shamefacedly) ever really listened to any of the books all the way through, because I would get distracted. I’ve never done a consistent, sequential print reread, for that matter, instead just dipping into the books here and there, checking on a character or a setting or a favorite passage. But I was feeling a real need to experience a sense of flow in the series, to be grounded in it.

Around the middle of August I dug in, starting not at the beginning of the series but about halfway through, with IN A DARK HOUSE, and I am now, ten books later, a couple of hours away from finishing A KILLING OF INNOCENTS. It’s been so interesting, processing the stories this way—it almost feels as if they were written by someone else.

But it’s also been a bittersweet reminder of how much has changed in London. So many of the places featured in the books are gone!

Kitchen and Pantry, the Notting Hill coffee shop where Duncan meets his friend MacKenzie Williams, gone. (And where I had many a lunch and coffee...)

Mr. Christian’s Deli--such a Notting Hill fixture—where Gemma or Duncan could snag wine and cheese for a quick dinner, gone. 

The café across from Earl’s Court tube station where Denis Childs met his handler in GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS, now a Gregg’s.

The piano bar in Kensington High Street, gone. As is the oyster bar in the big Whole Foods there, closed during the pandemic.

The 12 Bar in Denmark Street, where Andy Monahan first plays for Melody in THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS, gone. 

Even Scotland Yard’s iconic building in Victoria Street is gone! (Scotland Yard in now headquartered in the Cecil Green building on the Thames Embankment.) Notting Hill Police Station is closed, as is Lucan Place in Chelsea.

At least some of my stalwart series locations remain! The Duke of Wellington pub in Portobello Road, check. The Jolly Gardeners in Putney, the pub across the street from Doug Cullen's house, check. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Bleeding Heart Yard, check. The Tabernacle, where Toby has his ballet classes, still there, thank goodness. Holborn Police Station, not sold off by the Met, yet. Whew. Oh, and the Bloomsbury Tavern, the pub in the cover of A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, above, is still there!

I’m a little anxious now, however, that featuring a place in my books might jinx it. At least pubs seem to be a safer bet for staying around!

But aside from the nostalgia for places past, I’ve found the listening exercise to be a great writing prompt, because I can just shift from the scene in the book to the scene in my head.

Fellow Reds, have you had favorite locations in your books vanish? (Rhys, I’d ask you the opposite—are favorite locations from your historical novels still there?)

Reds and other authors, especially those of you who write series, have you ever done a sequential reread? I will now go back to the first book in the series, A SHARE IN DEATH, and read forward again.

Readers, have some of your favorite settings disappeared?

 

And now for more current news! Today I’m in Boston, where I’m very flattered to the Guest of Honor at New England Crime Bake 2023, and I’m hoping to see many of our regular Jungle Red readers this weekend!