Recommendsday: Books set in Brighton

It’s Wednesday again and after our trip to Brighton the other week, I started thinking about books set in the seaside town – and the result is today’s Recommendsday. As I hinted yesterday, I’ve got a whole theme thing going on this week – with Brighton and 90s crime the twin things going on through the week. You’re welcome!

And the first book that features Brighton that springs to mind for me is always Georgette Heyer’s Regency Buck. I actually messaged my mum on the way down because I’d seen a sign for Cuckfield from the train and a key scene in the book takes place there. But proabably half of the book takes place during the summer that Judith Taverner and her brother Perry spend at a house on Marine Parade. We didn’t make it to Marine Parade this trip – but I did make Him Indoors walk to the Old Steine where Judith and Perry’s guardian Lord Worth lived. And of course we went to the Pavillion where there is another important moment in the plot. I first read this during my A-Level exams and I remember vividly sitting on the bus on my way home from school after an exam reading the final section and being open mouthed with shock at one of events towards the end. I can’t remember what the exam was – but I can remember where on the route I was when that happened (if you’re reading mum, I was coming around the corners with the nursery on the A508) It’s probably the book where I was most uncertain about who the heroine was going to end up with when you’re reading it first go around and that sticks with you. And yes the Waterstones in Brighton (of which more at the weekend) did have a copy although it wasn’t in a special books set in Brighton section, just the usual romance one:

It’s been a bit of a month for remembering books that I had forgotten about – which takes me to Sara Sheridan’s Mirabelle Bevan series. In the first book, Brighton Belle, it’s 1951 and Mirabelle moves to Brighton to take a job at a debt collection agency. But when a Hungarian woman the agency made a loan to turns up dead, her instincts scream that there’s more to the death than meets the eye. And things only get more mysterious as Mirabelle and her work colleague and new friend Vesta Churchill (no relation as she says) investigate. This is the first in a series that has nine books (although they aren’t all linked together after the first four if you’re looking at Amazon) and I’ve read three of them – all of which are set in Brighton although that doesn’t stay the same – and this reminded me to try and see if I can get book four – at which point I discovered that although I definitely read book one and two on Kindle (and book three from the library) none of them are on kindle any more. Which is frustrating and also weird. One and two are still on my Kindle though so that’s something.

As you all know I’ve just finished a binge of Elly Griffiths’ Dr Ruth Galloway series, but the first book of hers I read was The Zig Zag Girl which is the first in her Brighton Mysteries series. They’re set in the 1950s and feature a policeman and a magician who worked together during the war in a special unit. I’ve mentioned them before in my books set in theatres and then the quick reviews the other month and I’m four books into the seven book series, with books five and six already on the pile for when I’m ready, but I am trying to be good and space out the Elly Griffiths, not least because I need other authors to write about!

Death on the Pier by Jamie West is a murder mystery set in the theatre (now sadly gone) on Brighton Pier. Our main character is a playwright who is in town to see a production of one of his plays, only for an actress to be killed on stage in the middle of the opening night performance. Luckily the friend he is watching with is a Scotland Yard detective, so Bertie gets to (reluctantly) help with the investigation. I did have the culprit worked out before the end (and they why of it) but it was a good read and I liked the characters and so I went straight on to the sequel! There is also recent BotW The Fan Who Knew Too Much which is largely set in Brighton – including scenes of extras recreating the cult TV series running through the Pavilion Gardens.

And of course although Lizzie never goes there, Brighton is the scene of Lydia’s bad behaviour in Pride and Prejudice – so if you need an excuse for a re-read, here you are!

Happy Humpday!