The Tottenham Outrage: a new Rex Tracey novel

Haringey's Rex Tracey returns in a new story that leads him from Stamford Hill to Tottenham via Finsbury Park and Wood Green, and ultimately into the heart of a 100 year old Tottenham mystery.

A killing in Finsbury Park is blamed on terrorists but, as Haringey finds itself subjected to a security lockdown, one man, a witness who also happens to be a local reporter, becomes convinced that the answer as to who was responsible for the deaths lies elsewhere

Rex Tracey, troubled journo with the doomed Wood Green Gazette (now morphed into an online news site called North London News), follows a trail with many twists that leads him deep into Stamford Hill's Hasidic community and, finally, to uncover what links it to the Tottenham Outrage of 1909.

I enjoyed Matt Baylis' first book A Death at the Palace a lot. This one is even better. While it is the reader's pleasure to follow Rex around the familiar territory of the neighbourhood, and Matt clearly does meticulous research for his novels, this isn't travelogue. This is Haringey seen through noir-tinted spectacles. The landscape Rex limps through in this investigation is recognisable yet unsettling as secrets and weird truths emerge from behind familiar Edwardian facades. Read it!

To meet Matt and discuss the finer points of Haringey noir go toBig Green Books on July 24th at 7pm