Two Killers in the Fog: A Review of Death in the Air
Two Killers in the Fog: A Review of Death in the Air In Death in the Air , Kate Winkler Dawson revisits London’s deadly winter of 1952, when a suffocating layer of coal smoke and fog settled over the city for five days. The disaster brought transportation to a standstill, overwhelmed hospitals and funeral homes, and contributed to thousands of deaths. At roughly the same time, serial killer John Reginald Christie was concealing a different kind of horror inside his home at 10 Rillington Place. Dawson braids these events together as the stories of two killers. One was a man who preyed upon vulnerable women; the other was a toxic atmosphere created by coal consumption, industrial pollution, unfavorable weather, and political complacency. Both operated behind a screen of obscurity. Christie depended on secrecy and manipulation, while the smog literally prevented Londoners from seeing what surrounded them. The comparison provides Death in the Air with a memorable premise and an appr...