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A review by ninethreeo
London After Dark by Robert Fabian
3.0
Still working my way through this, but am adding an interim review. This book is divided into four parts. Part 1: London After Dark is a slap about the face to a modern reader. Fabian appears to hate Jews, "Coloureds", women ("Trollops") and "homosexuals". It's peppered with ripe 1950's terms for any of these and is impossible to read without a permanent wince. It's in this section that Fabian describes his own interaction with London's underworld, and his (self described) highly respected position within it. It is uncomfortable reading.
Part 2: The Stop at Nothing Crooks describes the violent criminals that Fabian is aware of due to his work in the police force. From this point on, the book seems to become more and more distanced from Fabian's personal interactions with criminals and becomes more of a collection of crime stories from London before the 1950s. Fabian's voice is not so pronounced from this chapter on, and therefore it becomes a (slightly) easier read, although the subject matter in part 2 is dark.
Part 3: The Gentle Grafters is your light relief chapter. A few tales of cons and trickery. Again, Fabian's voice is distant and it is a series of anecdotes retold. It was in this chapter that I began to notice almost artistic descriptive prose.
Finally, Part 4: Tales of Darkness, of which I am halfway through, is a collection of national and/or celebrated cases from England, in which good detective or forensic work was key to the unravelling of the case. By far the most enjoyable so far. Fabian's voice is almost absent, these cases are not directly related to him at all, and the language is descriptive and interesting, and almost makes up for the bumpy ride so far.
This is an interesting book. I wouldn't be surprised if it had not been entirely written by Fabian. I can't square the self-centred, hateful author of part one, with the descriptive tales of part 4 at all. It's also interesting to note that my (library) copy also contains a collection of contemporary photos of London after dark, some of which are fantastic, and which are entirely uncredited in the book. Fabian actually appears in one, so I assume he is not the photographer.
Finished: would have been a 2, but the last part kinda redeemed it, so, a 3
Part 2: The Stop at Nothing Crooks describes the violent criminals that Fabian is aware of due to his work in the police force. From this point on, the book seems to become more and more distanced from Fabian's personal interactions with criminals and becomes more of a collection of crime stories from London before the 1950s. Fabian's voice is not so pronounced from this chapter on, and therefore it becomes a (slightly) easier read, although the subject matter in part 2 is dark.
Part 3: The Gentle Grafters is your light relief chapter. A few tales of cons and trickery. Again, Fabian's voice is distant and it is a series of anecdotes retold. It was in this chapter that I began to notice almost artistic descriptive prose.
Finally, Part 4: Tales of Darkness, of which I am halfway through, is a collection of national and/or celebrated cases from England, in which good detective or forensic work was key to the unravelling of the case. By far the most enjoyable so far. Fabian's voice is almost absent, these cases are not directly related to him at all, and the language is descriptive and interesting, and almost makes up for the bumpy ride so far.
This is an interesting book. I wouldn't be surprised if it had not been entirely written by Fabian. I can't square the self-centred, hateful author of part one, with the descriptive tales of part 4 at all. It's also interesting to note that my (library) copy also contains a collection of contemporary photos of London after dark, some of which are fantastic, and which are entirely uncredited in the book. Fabian actually appears in one, so I assume he is not the photographer.
Finished: would have been a 2, but the last part kinda redeemed it, so, a 3