THE GREAT STINK: CLARE CLARK

A holiday read in 2006

I can’t wait until this is made into a film. It’s a historical thriller set in the sewers of Victorian London. Clare Clark really brings history to life with thorough research and careful choice of words. It’s atmospheric and there is great attention detail. William May, just back from the horrifying experience of the Crimean war, finds work as a surveyor in the rebuilding of the London sewers. When he stumbles across a murder underground he is forced to confront both the corruption at the Municipal Board of Works and his own corruption as an ex-soldier. His story is interwoven with the story of the tosher Tom and his dog.

Published 2005 by Penguin

Clare’s agent Clare Alexander
Clare’s editor Mary Mount ( )

A murder ... in the sewers ... of old London town. Don't rely on the blurb of the back of the book, there is so much more to this book than a simple murder investigation. In fact at one point I wasn't even sure if a murder had taken place! (I've said too much ...)
This was a book club choice and some of the common complaints when we reviewed it were; the pace was too slow, the characters were not believable, it was more of a history book than a novel and (horror of horrors) it could be considerably shortened to get the same effect. I'd disagree (though I concede that there is a lot of history in there, Clare Clark has done a lot of research), the historical aspect of this novel makes it come alive, every detail (and I do mean EVERY detail(!!) - remember this is a book where a lot of the action is set in sewers) is so fully described you feel transported to Victorian London. I also felt the pace to be just right as Clare was concentrating on a small area / number of people within her story, she stayed with them and we build up a wonderful picture of the protagonist William May, a veteran from the Crimean War who escapes to the underground to work (and to cut himself to make himself feel alive again) away from people and the memories of the war. And of 'Long Arm Tom' who makes his living in the sewers collecting rats and ... I'm painting a grim picture here aren't I?
Suffice to say the story builds to the ending with the wrong man imprisoned in a prison barge in scenes very reminiscent of Dickens ... does truth and justice prevail? I'll leave it to you to find out. Fans of historical fiction will love this book about a not widely written about area of London and history. ( )

Novel about corruption and murder in London's sewer system during the 1850s. Takes awhile to set up, but also engrossing (as well as gross!) and the last third becomes an absolute page turner. ( )

A simple enough story, a murder mystery set in the dark and distasteful underbelly - literally - of Victorian London, but the reading of it is made laborious by the slack plot and plodding pace. The characters are vivid and complex enough to illustrate the different strata of society, from Tom the sewer scavenger ('tosher') to William May, an engineer working on the design of Bazalgette's great London sewer network, but none wholly convince; Tom and his cronies verge on Cockney caricatures, whilst May's erratic mental and emotional problems feel unresolved at the close of the story. As a secondary character, Sydney Rose, May's lawyer, is the most genuine and appealing figure in the novel, yet his purpose is solely practical and his absence too sudden and unexplained.

The atmosphere is evocative of nineteenth century London, and the language suitably Victorian, but the setting and the suspense are left too long to fester without progressing the story - a tighter pace would have improved this novel, as would a more satisfactory denouement (eventually explained in retrospect, instead of following through with the building tension of Rose's investigation).

I am tempted to read more about the facts of Bazalgette's great plan, however! Recommended by www.fictionalcities.co.uk ( )

first line: "Where the channel snaked to the right it was no longer possible to stand upright, despite the abrupt drop in the gradient."

This book gets really really dark in places. (Of course, I suppose one should expect that anything titled The Great Stink isn't likely to pull any punches....) The main characters are William (a PTSD-suffering veteran of the Crimean War) and Tom (one of London's poor, who makes his living collecting rats from the sewers and selling them for dog fights), whose paths cross briefly but significantly. There's a sort of Dickensian-Gothic sensibility to this novel, which is often quite disturbing (particularly to anyone sensitive to themes of self-mutilation or animal cruelty) but ultimately satisfying. ( )