London Underground Thriller - Suspenseful Mystery for Commuters

London Underground by Chris AngusThis is a novel of suspense, a thriller. It is also a work of history that evokes many of the unsolved, catastrophic events of the past. These go back to the Middle Ages and earlier still, to Roman times, to archaeology. Many of our “historical” events were mysterious and still are. In 1507, during the reign of Henry VI, a disease broke out, then again in 1517, and again in 1551. Originally it was called “the sweating sickness.” Was it the “plague”? There were no skin lesions symptomatic of the plague, according to “London Underground,” perhaps it was an unclear hereditary or Darwinian mechanism. An outbreak occurred during World War II. But records were destroyed during the bombing, and it remains largely unexplained until today. This book is a work of suspense and also a vision of history: its many uncharted catastrophes and sicknesses, its wars and loss of life--these continue to the present moment.A man named Sherwood enters the underground tube: “Riding London’s tube lifts always felt like a thirty-second fall from grace. The ancient machines issued forth a continuous series of ominous sounds, inevitably coming to a halt with a loud clank, as though Lucifer himself were rattling his chains in anticipation of their arrival.” This is the setting for what is to follow.Two young women, Julia and Carmen, work at an archaeological site or “dig” not far from the British Museum. Later they walk toward the underground. After five minutes, it is clear they are going lower than they had been before. They hear the sound of a distant subway, probably headed for Victoria Station: “The silence grew heavy. They were beneath a city of more than eight million people. There was not a sound, except for the distant tinkling of water falling somewhere, and the occasional scurrying of rats. They quickly passed the section of Great Conduit Julia had showed her earlier, bypassed the cistern and continued through a bewildering array of tunnels. ‘You sure you can find your way out of here?’ asked Carmen.”New discoveries are made underground. Bones and whole bodies are found, they are analyzed to find out when they died and, if possible, the causes of death. A new burial ground is discovered. In addition, strange sucking sounds are reported in the underground passageways; a worker hears the sound of something heavy that is moving above them somewhere. At one point singing is heard. A mad woman wanders through, she is not carrying a flashlight.Scurrying rats that produce feelings of revulsion or queasiness. A young colleague, Norman, is asked to explain to Julia the “rat facts”: “There are an estimated three rats for every human in London. There are tens of millions of rats. You are probably never more than three feet from a rat at any time. There are 4000 rats born in London every hour. They are incredibly prolific.” Later, Carmen falls through a crumbling floor that is the ceiling to another tunnel below. There are piles of dead rats and filth, it is a scene of unrelieved horror. Not much later the two young women make a gruesome discovery in an unexplored passageway: it is the body of the dead Norman.This is a thriller, a novel of suspense, but it is also a work of historical fiction with a broad background. Several men investigate the underground tunnels searching for clues to the recent mysterious deaths and disappearances. Near a cistern they find a metal “protrusion” that is black in color, rough, and considerably aged. One of them bangs his flashlight against the metal, and hears a metallic echo; there is a worn but still legible series of numbers on the side of the object. A sudden chill grips his insides. Looking at the distant opening above him he shouts, “It’s the V-2!”An earlier subchapter described events during World War II and Hitler’s obsession with biological warfare. A German outpost was established in a village in the north of occupied Norway, intended to develop biological weapons. These weapons with their “payload” were so lethal that the outpost was constructed far from the German homeland. A group from the Norwegian underground tries to blow up the outpost, or at least steal the weaponized bio-missile. But they are too late. It has been put on a railroad flat-car and bound to the south and Germany.These vignettes are deftly done. The narration of “London Underground” uses a broad range of sub-plots or “slants” in different times and places, some far from London, that involve the unfinished business of World War II. They contribute to the intense suspense of the novel.In the present-- in London-- deaths and disappearances continue. The mysterious infections are increasing. The group that works on archaeological sites tries to alert the British government, but their concerns are met with denial. The Prime Minister asserts there is absolutely no danger of a bio-missile, he brushes them off. However he has already collected his own information attested in London. He is lying.The reader might recall the poisonings that took place in London with radioactive Polonium-210, administered by a hostile government in a pot of tea. The novel also recalls the fast-paced plotting of Dan Brown’s DaVinci code novels or Stieg Larsen’s “Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” The episodes with British politicians and modern technology are quite modern. Unfortunately they are entirely plausible.