Nineteen Seventy Four

An excellent work from a writer with an original voice. I notice there have been a great many complaints about the "swearing and cursing", but the whole point of Peace's gritty realism is surely (as the author has said himself) that violence and death and the circumstances surrounding them should not be sanitized. They are awful things.

As to the grimness, well, this is what life was like in the North of England in 1974. I remember. And when working class people have their backs against the wall there are even more expletives than usual... plus the Brits swear *a lot* in the natural course of things.

Myself, I can't wait for the rest of the series - and Audible... where have Mr Peace's books disappeared to? A lot of us want more... not to have the Quartet shelved (to my dismay I can't even find the first two books - which I've bought - in Audible's listings any more) presumably because a few people say they are "personally offended" by all the swearing, and asking (rather cheekily) if the characters are speaking English?! Rather juvenile criticisms, to say the least.

What happened to free speech? And besides, the rest of the world deals very cheerfully with American accents from all the states in the US - indeed the accents usually enrich the work. I think in fairness that the same courtesy should be extended to the British Isles.

My question now, Audible, is where is the rest of the Red Riding Quartet? Bring it on! Please... It's first class stuff, and some of us are hooked on it.

I am a retired UK police officer, and this novel takes place at a time when I was serving.

When I read policiers, entertaining though they are, the coppers are rarely anything like the smelly, sexist, cussing, fighting fellers I worked with.

The coppers, and the journos in this book, are perfectly drawn. This is exactly what policing was like in those times.

Quite brilliantly written, not a word wasted, and spoken in the vernacular of the time. Chilling, accurate and entertaining.




brendan