Important Streets in Fiction
Streets, avenues, roads…..to stories
All novels have streets and roads in them to be fair – well not those set on the moon and there’s a few set in rural areas and ficitonal places where roads aren’t mentioned much…BUT…most of books have them. That’s what the BookTrail maps depend on after all. BUT there are some streets more important than others. Some are in the titles of the novel themselves, some central to the plot, some where the main character lives or where much of the action lives and others where you leave the novel wishing that you lived there yourself.
The street that does exist but the house in the novel doesn’t
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
Try looking for 44 you won’t find it but have fun trying. It’s a lovely street in Edinburgh and you may well wish you lived there with the characters in this book. I visited the cafes and the art galleries in the story I was that captivated!
The street that really is as grand as it sounds
Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper
I love this book and so went to London to see exactly where it was. Vivien’s house had suffered a fire…like houses in that street do in the novel – how spooky is that! This street is important for the two main characters who live there and the characters who look out of the windows and see things..sometimes things they shouldn’t.
An infamous street
Inside 10 Rillington Place by Peter Thorley
Recent;ly published. This novel looks at the story of the infamous Rillington Place murders but from a very unique voice – a relative of one of the victims. The street’s not there now but has been remodelled and renamed. Most streets and houses with such an infamous reputation are wiped from the map for obvious reasons. This is a fascinating account of that one street which had so many secrets.
A street where you check on the neighbours
The House Across the Street by Lesley Pearse
Twenty-three-year-old Katy Speed has always been fascinated by the house across the street . . . Well aren’t we all guilty of this to some degree? It’s fascinating to watch people – maybe not from your window – but at a cafe, walking along the street..
Turns out the woman in this novel finds out something she might wish she hadn’t.
A street from which there is no escape…well it’s a culdesac..
Dirty Little Secrets by Jo Spain
This street has more nosy neighbours than you can shake a stick at. It’s actually an exclusive gated community called Withered Vale. People’s lives appear as perfect as their beautifully manicured lawns. Apart from one house…there’s a dead body inside that one…
Tons more where these came from. Which is your favourite street in fiction?
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