Ten Great Books set in LIVERPOOL

1st November 2021

Liverpool is the latest destination in our ‘Great books set in…’ series. Ten great books set in Liverpool. It is a maritime city in northwest England, where the River Mersey meets the Irish Sea. A key trade and migration port from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, it’s also, famously, the hometown of The Beatles. Ferries cruise the waterfront, where the iconic mercantile buildings known as the “Three Graces” – Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building – stand on the Pier Head.

‘This city has two great teams – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves’ – Bill Shankly

Day of the Dead by Mark Roberts

A serial killer. A hero to some. A wanted criminal to others.

The man who calls himself Vindici broke out of prison last year. Now he’s filmed himself torturing and killing paedophiles in Liverpool’s affluent suburbs.

Half the city are celebrating: the streets are now safer for their children. But for DCI Eve Clay and her team at the Merseyside Police, it’s a nightmare. Their job is to solve crimes and lock up the killer – hard enough without being despised by the public they are trying to protect.

And now, just when they think they’ve cracked the case, they receive a photo of Vindici at a Day of The Dead parade in Mexico. If Vindici is 5,000 miles away, who are they hunting in Liverpool? DCI Eve Clay must draw on all her cunning to unmask a killer who is somehow always one step ahead.

The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge

Wartime Liverpool is a place of ration books and jobs in munitions factories. Rita, living with her two aunts Nellie and Margo, is emotionally naïve and withdrawn. When she meets Ira, a GI, at a neighbour’s party she falls in love as much with the idea of life as a GI bride as with the man himself. But Nellie and Margo are not so blind…

The darkest sin casts the longest shadow… RUBY FLYNN, set in Ireland and Liverpool, is the enthralling story of a family haunted by ancient wrongs.

The FitzDeanes are wealthy. They have Ballyford Castle in Ireland and a growing shipping business in Liverpool. But Lady FitzDeane is unable to provide an heir. All of her five boys have died in infancy. There are whispers that the family is cursed – punished for a terrible mistake long buried in the past.

When young Ruby Flynn, an orphan reared and educated by nuns, arrives at Ballyford to work as a nursery maid, she cannot shake the feeling that she has been there before. But when?

Soon rumours and strong emotions are swirling around the beautiful girl with red hair, green eyes – and a mysterious past. Who is she really? And what will her arrival mean for this powerful family, riven by tragedy?

Twopence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester

Twopence To Cross The Mersey is the first volume of Helen Forrester’s autobiography. It describes how she and her family (her bankrupted father, her difficult mother and her six siblings) arrive in depression-ridden, pre-World-War-Two Liverpool, in the hope of a better life, only to be plunged into abject poverty. Helen has to stay at home to keep house for the family of nine, yet she is desperate to find a way of finishing her education. But every attempt is thwarted by her shiftless parents and brothers and sisters.

A Tapping At My Door by David Jackson

A deadly game of cat and mouse – and the police aren’t the ones doing the hunting. A gripping new serial killer thriller from the bestselling author of Cry Baby

When police are called to a murder scene in the Liverpool suburbs, even the most jaded officers are disturbed by what they find.

DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case. But the police have no leads, except the body of the bird – and the victim’s missing eyes.

And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn’t to the people of Liverpool after all – it’s to the police.

Body on the Shore by Diane M Dickson

When a body washes up on Crosby Beach in Liverpool Bay, detectives quickly declare foul play. Yet they will struggle to establish the identity of the victim, let alone the killer.

Leading the inquiry on his first murder case, DI Jordan Carr must marshal a somewhat motley team to build a picture of what happened one grim day on the Mersey. Like footprints in the sand, in time the clues will disappear.

With a victim who has clearly concealed her own identity, it will require a journey into Liverpool’s underworld to shake loose the facts.

But once they have their man, the police still need to know why the woman was killed. And answering that question will be DI Carr’s biggest challenge.

Cast-Iron Men by Dominic Kearney

A tense, pacy, violent crime thriller, Cast-Iron Men looks beyond the gloss of Liverpool’s status as City of Culture, as two tough and vulnerable female reporters gun for the big fish who think they run their small pond. Brutal murder and corruption are the norm: power is the prize: truth is the first victim. A native of the city, author Dominic Kearney brings Liverpool to life on every page of this powerful and gripping novel.

Creatures of the Pool by Ramsey Campbell

Gavin Meadows’ is a tour guide in Liverpool, and enjoys taking his tourist clientele through the darker sides of his home town. His life, however, is thrown off kilter when his Father disappears without a trace – shortly after his Father had shared some research ideas with him. Ancient secrets of mystery abound below the terrain of Liverpool. His Mother, too, disappears Gavin is forced to explore territories that may contain dark evil…..

Disappearing Home by Deborah Morgan

Ten-year-old Robyn is the best shoplifter in the Liverpool tenement block she calls home. She’s as tough as they come, but while she puts food on the table and tries to fit in at school, her mum and abusive step-father sleep off their hangovers at home.

As often as she can, Robyn escapes to her nan’s cosy flat on the other side of town, where she reads Anne of Green Gables and nibbles on tea and toast. But she can’t stay there forever. And when her father’s cruelty escalates at home she knows it’s time to disappear. Pushed beyond endurance, Robyn sleeps rough on city backstreets, until help from a stranger offers the first steps to change in her terrorised life.

Ghost Town by Jeff Young

Liverpool is a city of ghosts. Through the centuries, millions have lived here or come to find a new life, and found safe harbour. More than any other city in Britain its history resonates in the buildings, landscapes and stories that have seeped into the lives of its inhabitants.

In Ghost Town, Jeff Young takes us on a journey through the Liverpool of his childhood – down back alleys and through arcades, into vanished tenements and oyster bars, strip tease pubs and theatres. We watch as he turns from schoolboy truant into an artist obsessed with Kafka, Terence Davies and The Fall. Along the way he conjures ghosts and puts hexes on the developers who’ve ruined the city of his dreams.

Layering memoir, history, photography and more this is a highly original approach to this great city.

Lethal Justice by Robert McCracken

A thrilling page-turner full of wicked twists

A body is found, stripped to the waist and stretched out, open arms and open legs across a circular wooden frame, palms and feet nailed to the structure.

Investigating, DI Tara Grogan begins to suspect it could be the work of a secret religious organisation.

What she doesn’t know is that someone she’s had run-ins with in the past has his sights on her, and ultimately murder on his mind.

She’s escaped his clutches before. But this time is different. The wheels of justice turn slowly… will they deliver before the tenacious cop meets an untimely end?

LETHAL JUSTICE is the fifth DI Tara Grogan murder mystery. It can be enjoyed entirely on its own, although some characters in LETHAL DOSE, the previous book in the series, return.

Which titles would you add to the list? Remember there are others to choose from in the Liverpool listings on TripFiction…! Each will transport you to some excellent fiction, travelogues or memoirs set in this fascinating city. Or you may have your own favourites you would like to add. Please leave your thoughts in the Comments box below.

Tony for the TripFiction Team

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