An urbexing thriller set around LONDON

8th September 2022

You Die Next by Stephanie Marland, an urbexing thriller set around London.

#fromourbookshelves

Teufelsberg, Berlin

I have always been fascinated with the concept of urbexing (urban exploration). I am drawn to derelict sites, where nature is taking back control and edifices are crumbling,  a nod to the passage of time and the lack of on-going human care. I have loved looking through titles Jonglez “Abandoned… series” like Spain, Italy  and Abandoned Cinemas of the World – beautiful photographic records of once glorious buildings that are now wracked by decay.

As one of the urbexers in this novel says about urbexing: “It’s about going into forgotten places, buildings stuck in time and capturing their beauty as they evolve”

I have just returned from Berlin where I had the opportunity – after many attempts over the last 4 years – to see the Teufelsberg for myself, the old American Listening Station that was important during the Cold War. It has been covered in art, but the structure is still there and you can climb all over it and admire something that was fundamental to past politics – the tarp cracks in the wind on the domes where it has been shredded by innumerable harsh winters and strong sunshine, the concrete is crumbling in parts, the metal girders are exposed and there are still chairs that were once used in the social club. So, I totally get the urbexing drive.

The novel opens with a group of urbexers stealthily filming, as they make through an abandoned film studio, until they stumble upon something horrific. What they encounter is on film, live streamed and captured for posterity – IF you can find it.

In London a man catapults out of the tube at Holborn, straight into an oncoming taxi, who mows him down, killing him on the spot.His injuries however are multiple and it is clear that something went on below ground prior to his exit and death by taxi.

This is the second outing for DI Dominic Bell and Clementine Starke, who is studying the notion of “obsession” in relation to thrill seekers. She also usefully has pedigree as a crime solver. There are several layers in this novel, to wit relationship issues (a bit of discord), histories and police politics, all enriching  the urbexing theme. I don’t feel you necessarily need to have read the first to find this novel entertaining.

What further made this novel enjoyable is that I read it whilst staying in London, just near Holborn and being at that end of town, I found myself walking past Aldwych tube station, which of course lies unused and abandoned. And as noted in the novel: “Aldwych is a time capsule buried beneath the city“. Fascinating stuff. A good thriller with enough twists and turns to keep the reader engrossed until the end.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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