When ordinary London businessman Richard Mayhew stops to help an injured young woman named Door, he finds himself erased from the world he knew and pulled down into London Below, a shadow city of forgotten tube stations, sewers, and ancient rituals populated by those who have fallen through the cracks of the world above. Pursued by two unsettling assassins and guided by a duplicitous marquis, Richard and Door search for the reason her family was murdered while Richard tries to find his way back to his old life. Along the way he encounters an earl who holds court in a train carriage, a market that moves nightly, and a beast said to sleep beneath the city, discovering that the London he thought he knew was only ever half the story.
Books mentioned in Neverwhere (4)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton: “I have never been to St John's Wood. I dare not. I should be afraid of the innumerable night of fir trees, afraid to come upon a blood red cup and the beating of the wings of the Eagle. (epigraph, attributed: The Napoleon of Notting Hill, G. K. CHESTERTON)”
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: “Door was sitting on the edge of her bed, reading a copy of Mansfield Park that Richard was certain that the friars had not previously known that they had.”
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: “Richard found himself remembering a theatrical performance of Robinson Crusoe he had been taken to, as a child: this was what Robinson Crusoe might have looked like, if he had been shipwrecked on a rooftop instead of a desert island.”
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe: “"I keep telling you," he said, with the satisfied relish of any true prophet, "it's 'The Masque of the Red Death' all over again. A decadent elite party while civilization crumbles about their ears."”