Alex Hay
COURTESY OF ALEX HAY

Historic heist

Alex Hay’s The Housekeepers is a fast-paced story of revenge

by HOWARD CALVERT

Plotting an intricate heist novel set in London in 1905 can befuddle your brain in more ways than one, as Alex Hay discovered when writing his debut novel, The Housekeepers, about an intricately planned robbery.

“Keeping track of the characters was both wonderful and absolutely agonizing,” he tells the Connection from his house in South London. “To solve the problem, I set up a huge spreadsheet that detailed every scene, who was where, what were they doing and what should they be doing. It was exciting but gruelling at the same time. I learned that planning can only take you so far; sometimes you have to tune into where the story’s going and run with it.”

Two factors make The Housekeepers stand out in the heist genre. The first is the fact that the gang of robbers, led by Mrs. Dinah King, is all-female. “It was an instinctive decision, and, once made, I couldn’t see the story any other way,” Hay says. “I was mindful of the fact that I was writing from the male perspective and wanted to do so in a way that felt right to the story.”

The second standout feature is its setting in Edwardian London in the early 1900s, with all the glamour and extravagance that come with the city’s most coveted address: Park Lane.

“It got me thinking, ‘Who was there at that time? Who are the people in those huge houses?’ ” says Hay. This led him to focus on those who work “behind the green baize door”—the cooks, maids, cleaners and seamstresses running the wealthy owners’ luxurious abodes—and their plan to unite for the ultimate grand robbery.

Hay has always been drawn to historical fiction—he studied history at university and had written three unpublished historical novels before The Housekeepers—and says that he’s fascinated with this particular era.

“As it was the turn of the century, there was a febrile atmosphere where new technologies, powers and fortunes were rising and falling,” he says. “There were all these enterprising characters who were burning with ambition. And from an aesthetic perspective, it’s fun to write about, as there’s all the opulence and glamour you could hope for.”

To make sure the minute details were correct, Hay spent hours poring over old copies of The Illustrated London News, which contain “deliciously” detailed information about Park Lane mansions.

Hay calls the magazines “gold dust, as there were in-depth descriptions of everything inside these houses: paintings, furniture, mirrors, carpets. It meant that I could begin to create what was in that house and what could be stolen.”

He completed the first draft in four months in winter 2020, while the UK was in lockdown: “I wrote during the early mornings and evenings around my full-time job in the charity sector. I perfected the art of turning on my trusty white-noise playlist and quickly diving in.”

The result is a gripping page-turner that’s won praise for its originality, unpredictability and cleverness. “I’m hoping the book finds readers who enjoy a rackety, high-stakes heist and love the same glitz, glamour and dark central mystery that I loved while writing it,” he says. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Mrs. King and the gang do their thing and that people enjoy the story along the way.”

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Howard Calvert is a freelance journalist and author based in Hampshire, England.

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