‘The Bridlington Bookshop stood on a main road in Putney, its old-fashioned paned windows crammed from top to bottom with a mixture of new and second-hand books, all stacked horizontally. A bell tinkled as Robin crossed the threshold into a pleasant, mildewed atmosphere.’
Galbraith, Robert. The Silkworm: Cormoran Strike Book 2 (p. 304)
Robin travels to Putney to discover when the owner of The Bridlington Bookshop on the High Street saw Owen Quine – before or after November 5. The shop is a quiet an old-fashioned place, and the windows are crammed with horizontal stacks of new and used books, (a little like the wonderful Hurlingham Books on the other side of the river).
Robin thinks the days might blend seamlessly into each other in the dim, mildewed atmosphere of the bookshop, even when an eccentric writer like Quine appears to buy a handful of recent novels to read while away on a break. Careful probing on her part leads to the bookseller tying Quine’s visit to a sinkhole which opened up on 1 November 2010 in Schmalkaden, Germany. Robin realises his memory of when Quine came in might be inaccurate.
Putney, where the Bridlington Bookshop is situated, is an ancient town and now a prosperous suburb of London. The ferry across the Thames was an important medieval crossing point and Londoners of later centuries would come here to enjoy the green spaces. Still, in spite of its comfortable appearance, it has literary associations which make a suitable place for a gothic author like Quine to shop. The heath was notorious for duels and highwaymen, and the author of Frankenstein, one of the most gothic novels of all time, Mary Shelley, lived in Putney in 1839 while writing her memoirs.
