Shrines of Gaiety

Ramsay forges a letter from Nellie to her bank, asking the bank to give Ramsay access to Nellie’s safe deposit box. Ramsay takes the letter to the bank and gains access. However, the banker, suspicious of Ramsay, calls Niven, who accosts Ramsay about what he’s done and asks why. Ramsay is defensive and says that he didn’t even take money, “just papers and stuff” (459). It turns out that Ramsay took the title deeds, freeholds, and lease agreements for all of Nellie’s clubs—and handed them over to Azzopardi.

Nellie and Niven meet to discuss the issue. Nellie reveals the truth about how she got her start with the stolen jewels—she still has all of them, except the amethyst she sold to start her club business. Niven delivers the box of the remaining jewels to Azzopardi. Nellie notes that there are other problems ahead, such as Maddox, but tells Niven that she has a plan.

The narrative jumps back in time to Frobisher’s perspective when he’s called to the Sphinx club and Nellie “introduces” him to Gwendolen. Frobisher and Gwendolen pretend not to know each other. Afterward, Frobisher tells Gwendolen about Minnie’s shoe and suggests that the girl was killed in the Sphinx. Gwendolen suggests that it’s a set up and says that “[t]here are people trying to ruin Nellie,” to which Frobisher replies, “I am one of those, may I remind you” (468). Frobisher and Gwendolen discuss Maddox; Frobisher says he doesn’t have enough evidence to arrest Maddox yet.

Freda is walking home when she’s attacked, knocked unconscious, and thrown into the Thames. By coincidence, Frobisher sees her in the water and jumps in. He manages to save Freda and takes her to a hospital. When he asks Freda her name, he’s happy to learn her identity—finally, he’s found a missing girl alive instead of dead: “She was every missing girl in London who haunted his waking hours” (478). The next morning, when Frobisher returns to the hospital to check on Freda, she’s gone. Frobisher feels defeated.

Ramsay is reading the newspaper when he sees a report of Vivian Quinn’s murder. Ramsay goes to Vivian’s flat and convinces the landlady to let him in. He finds Vivian’s manuscript and steals it. At home, he removes the title page of Vivian’s manuscript, with the book’s original title and author, and burns it—and then replaces it with his own title page: The Age of Glitter, with him as the author. He dedicates the book: “For my friend, Vivian Quinn” (484).

Gwendolen comes clean to Nellie, revealing that Gwendolen is employed by Frobisher. Nellie is not surprised; she knew all along. Gwendolen then tells Nellie everything Gwendolen has learned about Maddox. Gwendolen is convinced that Frobisher will bring Maddox to justice. Nellie has her own plans, preferable to “the slow grind of the courts” (490). Next, Gwendolen meets Frobisher and tells him that Nellie knows all. Frobisher tells Gwendolen about finding—and losing—Freda. When Gwendolen and Frobisher part ways, she kisses his cheek.

Maddox is preparing for his final coup against Nellie. He’s worried that Oakes has gone rogue by killing the girl at the Sphinx: “Maddox didn’t kill girls—you didn’t make money out of dead girls. He had daughters himself, three of them, he was no inhuman. Had he allied himself with a madman?” (487). Tonight, Maddox plans to strike a final blow against Nellie: He’s orchestrated a series of attacks at her clubs, one after the other. However, he gets a letter from Edith telling him that they have to meet—it’s urgent—and suggesting that he meet her at the Sphinx before it opens. Maddox goes to the Sphinx. He’s greeted by Edith, Betty, Shirley, and various members of the Forty Thieves. The women stab Maddox to death. The next day, Maddox’s body is left on the steps of the Bow Street Police Station.

Niven arrives at Hanover Terrace to find Azzopardi holding Nellie at gunpoint. It turns out that the jewels returned to Azzopardi were fakes. A scuffle ensues in which Nellie shoots Azzopardi. Landor is called to get rid of the body—into the Thames.

The narrative jumps back to Frobisher’s point of view after Gwendolen kisses his cheek. Frobisher is so distracted by the kiss that he doesn’t see a delivery truck of cabbage heads coming when he crosses the street and gets hit—and dies. Gwendolen sits vigil by his bedside in the hospital before he dies.

The book flashes forward to reveal the characters’ various futures.

Ramsay’s book is accepted by a publisher, and he gains some notoriety as an author, briefly. However, The Age of Glitter is out of print within two years and his subsequent books aren’t popular. Ramsay dies years later, falling out of a third-floor window. His obituary doesn’t mention his book but describes him as “the son of the notorious nightclub owner Nellie Coker” (504).

Freda never returns to the Sphinx. Instead, she starts going to Spielers and winning in gambling. She takes the money and opens a bar. Freda lives a long life; she ends up running a pub in Suffolk and getting married and having a daughter, whom she names Florence.

After Frobisher’s death, Lottie is committed to a psychiatric hospital. Gwendolen pays the fees for Lottie’s upkeep, but never visits her.

Nellie loses most of her money in the 1929 stock crash and dies a few years later. Her children are at her deathbed when she dies. Her last words are, “Oh, look, here’s Maud” (505).

Betty and Shirley marry minor aristocrats, realizing their mother’s dreams of the family gaining aristocratic titles. Nellie dies before they’re divorced. Kitty develops an addiction to alcohol, which ultimately leads to her death. Edith runs Nellie’s remaining clubs until she’s killed, at the Amethyst, by a direct hit in the Blitz.

The book flashes back to the narrative’s present, 1926. Gwendolen is propositioned by Niven. He doesn’t want to marry her but wants to travel the world with her as his companion. Gwendolen asks him if she can think about his offer. He replies: “No. If you think about it you won’t come with me” (507). The chapter concludes without Gwendolen’s answer—just an image of her and Niven standing across from one another: “And there they must remain, suspended between coming and going forever” (507).

Chapter 67 opens the same way as Chapter 1: with the same newspaper boy asking, “Is it a hanging?” (508). Oakes is being hanged; he was charged for Maddox’s murder. The newspaper boy is now given a name—Norman— and it’s revealed that he’ll be killed in World War II.

The book’s final chapter shows Florence coming home to her parents, unscathed. It’s unclear how she got home or what happened to her in the meantime, but she seems unharmed. As for Freda, “Florence had no idea what had happened to her friend, in fact she seemed barely able to remember her” (512).