Joy Matkowski said:
>Anyway, I've run out of on-hand new-to-me authors,
although I still plan
>to acquire Peace and maybe some others.
David Peace's Nineteen Seventy Four was one UK Noir book I
read during my recent trip to England and Wales. It's the
book a Yorkshire Post reviewer wrote, "If there were never
such a genre as Yorkshire noir, there is now." Written with
almost complete dialogue and little description, it moved at
a terrific pace, but I found the conclusion confusing. But
that may be because I woke up in the middle of a Yorkshire
night and read the last 10-15 pages. The style has been
compared to James Ellroy. I can't go back and read the ending
again because I left my copy for a recent university grad who
is in the middle of the interview process for the South
Yorkshire Police.
I was so impressed with Peace's first novel that I tracked
down copies of the next two, Nineteen Seventy Seven and
Nineteen Eighty, while in Hay-On-Wye. Finished Nineteen
Seventy Seven Saturday. While the first book is told from the
point of view of crime reporter Eddie Dunford, Peace has the
reader learn about the deaths of several prostitutes in '77
through the eyes of Detective Sergeant Bob Fraser and
journalist Jack Whitehead in alternating chapters. There are
no "good guys" in this book that also left me somewhat
confused at the end.
Hopefully, I won't raise the ire of the experts on this list
when I call these books extremely hard-boiled. They should be
read in order and I think I will wait awhile before I take on
Nineteen Eighty.
I found my first editions (two TPBOs and one HC) in Bookends
remainder stores so it might be worthwhile checking out their
webpage if anyone is looking for copies.
Kent Morgan in Winnipeg
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