Subways, Subways, Subways: Fiction
Public transit is always in the news so I decided to write about Toronto subways in fiction. Using Google Books, I searched for novels that mentioned specific subway stations. It was ridiculously successful. Dear little Bessarion Station has not made it into a novel yet but practically every other station has. A blog post listing all the books that mention subway stations would be unwieldy to say the least.
While I work on the formatting for that monster post, check out these books. Each involves a subway system in some part of the world.
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Toronto
Acceleration by Graham McNee
• eAudiobook
• eBook
Duncan has a summer job cataloguing lost items at the TTC Lost and Found office located at the Bay station. One of the items he finds is a diary apparen'tly written by a serial killer stalking people in the subway system. An award-winning YA novel.
Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig
• eBook
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
After a girl faints on the subway and her friends develop strange rashes, the city of Toronto goes on alert. Is this evidence of a terrorist attack or something else? Photographer Alex is determined to document the city on film and travels around the city on foot and by transit.
Chicago
The Third Rail by Michael Harvey
A sniper is targeting passengers on the Chicago Transit Authority and ex-cop turned private detective Michael Kelly is asked to assist with the investigation.
London
Baptism by Max Kinnings
• eBook
Religious fanatics hijack a London subway with plans to kill everyone on board by flooding the tunnel. It's up to blind hostage negotiator Ed Mallory to avert this tragic outcome.
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The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
• Audiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
Anne Beddington becomes suspicious after witnessing the death of a man at Hyde Corner Station and follows a cryptic note that has fallen out of the dead man's pocket.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
An act of kindness destroys Richard Mayhew's life and forces him into London Below, a hidden world of abandoned subway stations, sewers and bizarre creatures.
Moscow
Metro 2034 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
A nuclear war has forced the surviving population to live underground where subway stations have become miniature countries. When supplies unexpectedly stop, a small group of Sevastopolskya Station citizens is sent through the Metro to investigate.
Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
Arkady Renko investigates when passengers report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin in the Chistye Prudy Metro Station.
New York City
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Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde
A chance meeting on a subway car inspires strangers Sebastian and Maria to change their lives.
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
Jack Reacher suspects that one of the passengers on his subway car is a suicide bomber.
Lowboy by John Wray
A schizophrenic teenager on a mission to save the world disappears into the New York subway.
Seoul
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
A family is distraught when its matriarch goes missing at the Seoul Station subway.
Tokyo
All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson
• eBook
A clairvoyant cyberpunk living in a cardboard box in a Tokyo subway station, mobilizes his friends to prevent a world disaster. Although part of Gibson's Bridge Trilogy, this book can be read on its own.
One thought on “Subways, Subways, Subways: Fiction”
SUBWAY MOUSE by Barbara Reid is a great picture book. Never named in the text, the subway is very obviously Toronto’s.