London
Billie’s Penthouse Flat, Canary Wharf
Billie’s penthouse flat high above the Thames represents everything glamorous, dangerous and ultimately hollow about the world Tom is trying to escape. Its glass and steel perfection contrasts sharply with the chaos that unfolds there in the novel’s climax.
Canary Wharf is a spectacular place to visit, with stunning river views, excellent restaurants and an architectural drama that feels genuinely cinematic.
Deptford Market Arches
The Victorian railway arches beneath Deptford station become the setting for one of the novel’s most explosive and chaotic sequences. It is the terrifying stage for the collision of Billie’s world with her Albanian rivals. The combination of industrial grit, dense urban geography and a new nightclub gives the scene a visceral, cinematic quality.
In reality, Deptford Market Yard has become one of South London’s most vibrant independent shopping and eating destinations. The arches house street food vendors, independent boutiques and creative studios.
Battersea, London
The Thames-side area near Battersea Park carries deep significance in Tom’s backstory and appears at several dark points in the London narrative. Its mixture of regenerated wealth and lingering grittiness captures the contradictions of Tom’s world perfectly.
The park itself, with its Peace Pagoda and river views, is one of London’s most underrated green spaces and well worth a visit.
The Tower of Refuge, Douglas Bay
This tiny castle sitting on rocks in Douglas Bay is glimpsed by Tom during a reflective moment and carries quiet symbolic resonance about shelter and survival. Built in the nineteenth century for shipwrecked sailors, it perfectly embodies the novel’s themes of refuge and escape. Visible from the promenade, it’s one of the most romantically atmospheric sights on the island.
Douglas Promenade and The Bee Gees Statue
The sweeping Victorian seafront where several pivotal scenes unfold, including the novel’s first act of violence, it captures the Isle of Man’s particular atmosphere of small-town life meeting wild open sea.
The Bee Gees statue carries emotional weight throughout the story. It’s a lovely walk, especially in winter when the flags are flying and the waves are crashing over the sea wall.
Onchan, Isle of Man
The quiet residential village just outside Douglas where Jen and Michael live becomes the setting for one of the novel’s most memorably tense and darkly comic evenings. Tom spends some time looking down at the glen (pictured) before going back to “the dinner party from Hell.”