Nineteen Eighty-Three by David Peace

(hb; 2002: Book Four of the Yorkshire Quartet, aka the Riding Red Quartet)

From the back cover

"Nineteen Eighty-Three's three intertwining storylines see the quartet's central themes of corruption and perversion of justice come to a head: BJ the rent boy from 1974, the lawyer Big John Pigott, who's as near as you get to a hero in Peace's world, and Maurice Jobson, the senior cop whose career of corruption and brutality has set all this in motion, find themselves on a collision course that can only end in a terrible vengeance. . ."


Review

Compelling, noir- and series-veracious completion of the Yorkshire puzzle: Peace fills in the murder-mystery blanks, with surprising and logical a-ha-from-the-reader-inducing connections, and characters who once again are seen in different lights. The finish, as always is (mostly) a self-destructive go-out-with-a-shotgun-blast affair, with distinctive, newer elements thrown into the end-mix.

Superb conclusion to a superb series. Check these novels out.

Red Riding: 1983, the resulting movie, is set for stateside release in 2009. Anand Tucker directed, from a script by Tony Grisoni (who also penned the first two Red Riding films).

David Morrissey reprised his role of Maurice Jobson. Robert Sheehan reprised his role of BJ (aka, Barry James Anderson). Mark Addy played John Piggott. Lisa Howard played Judith Jobson. Shaun Dooley once again played Dick Alderman. Warren Clarke reprised his role of Bill "Badger" Molloy. Sean Bean reprised his role of John Dawson (from Red Riding: 1974). Steven Robertson once again played Bob Fraser. Michelle Dockery reprised her role of Kathryn Tyler (from Red Riding: 1974). Sean Harris reprised his role of Bob Craven.

Nineteen Eighty, by David Peace

(hb; 2001: Book Three of the Yorkshire Quartet, aka the Riding Red Quartet)

From the inside flap:

"People are frightened. People are angry. Yorkshire police havent' laid a glove on him. Someone's got to take the blame. And someone's got to police the police.

"Step forward Peter Hunter. The honest copper. Hunter digs deep into West Yorkshire police. Hunter finds corruption, murder and cover-up. Hunter digs too deep. West Yorkshire police look after their own. . ."

Review:

Possible spoilers in this review.

Hunter, mentioned by never shown in Nineteen Seventy-Seven, is the main character here. Fresh twists and Hunter's clean-cut character set this apart, tone-wise, from the first two Yorkshire Quartet novels. The bloody end, keeping with otherwise grim, series-true form, doesn't come off as powerfully as those in the first two books, but it's not a complete 'what the f**k' moment, either.

Throughout this puzzle-like series, Peace uses his characters well: e.g., Reverend Martin Laws, who's barely mentioned in Nineteen Seventy-Four, becomes a prime mover in Nineteen Seventy-Seven. In this third book, Nineteen Eighty, Laws is pivotal again, in a seen-from-a-different-viewpoint way. And so it goes with the rest of the many characters in the Yorkshire Quartet, whether they be major or minor (which depends on which book you're reading).

Therein lies much of the power of this series. The characters, often recurring, are never entirely good or bad, though most are corrupted one way or another, whether it be through love, power, sex or money -- or a combination of the four motivations. That, and the way Peace keeps shuffling facts/puzzle pieces around, revealing more (often disturbing) character links as the books progress, make this, easily one of the more note-worthy crime series I've read. The characters and plotlines are so multi-layered that it becomes almost impossible to keep straight 'who's doing what to whom and why,' without writing down characters' names, their links to each other, and plot points.

Excellent, genre-shaking series, this. Check it out.

Followed by Nineteen Eighty-Three.

The novel Nineteen Eighty has also been filmed, under the title Red Riding: 1980. It's scheduled for stateside release in 2009. Tony Grisoni scripted. James Marsh directed the second part of the Grisoni-scripted Red Riding trilogy.

Warren Clarke played Bill Molloy. Paddy Considine played Peter Hunter. James Fox played Philip Evans. Ron Cook played Clement Smith. Maxine Peake played Helen Marshall. David Morrissey played Maurice Jobson. Eddie Marsan once again played Jack Whitehead. Sean Harris played Bob Craven. Shaun Dooley played Dick Alderman. Lesley Sharp played Joan Hunter. Peter Mullan played Martin Laws. Robert Sheehan once again played BJ. Kelly Freemantle once again played Clare Strachan. Joseph Mawle played The Ripper. Andrew Garfield once again played Eddie Dunford.

Nineteen Seventy-Seven, by David Peace

(hb; 2000: Book Two of the Yorkshire Quartet, aka the Riding Red Quartet)

From the back cover:

"1977 -- the year two sevens clash; the year of punk; the year of the Yorkshire Ripper and the Silver Jubilee.

". . . Nineteen Seventy-Seven, the second part of [David Peace's] Yorkshire Quartet is one long noir nightmare. Its heroes -- the half-way decent copper Bob Fraser and the burnt-out hack Jack Whitehead -- would be considered villains in most people's books. Fraser and Whitehead have one thing in common though, they're both desperate men dangerously in love with Chapeltown whores. And as the summer moves remorselessly towards the bonfires of Jubilee Night, the killings accelerate and it seems as if Fraser and Whitehead are the only men who suspect or care that there may be more than one killer at large. . ."

Review:

As in Nineteen Seventy-Four, a nihlistic, self-destructive bent runs through Peace's characters. For the most part, it's not as intense as Nineteen Seventy-Four, but it's still intense, with a finish that is at once thrilling and shocking.

Followed by Nineteen Eighty.

Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace

(hb; 1999: Book One of the Yorkshire Quartet, aka the Riding Red Quartet)

From the back cover:

"Jeanette Garland, missing Castleford, July 1969.
"Susan Ridyard, missing Rochdale, March 1972.
"Clare Kempley, missing Morley, since yesterday.

"Christmas bombs and Lucky on the run, Leeds United and the Bay City Rollers, The Exorcist and It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

"It's winter, 1974, Yorkshire, and Ed Dunford's got the job he wanted. Crime correspondent for the Evening Post. He didn't know it was going to be a season in hell. A dead little girl with a swan's wings stitched to her back. A gypsy camp in a ring of fire. Corruption everywhere you look. . ."

Review:

This is a fictionalized account of the "Yorkshire Ripper" killings, which took place between 1975 and 1981.

Raw, riveting, twist-laden, and damn near impossible to put down, this is one of the best crime novels I've read this year. Peace has written a novel that's reminiscent of the finer crime works of Elmore Leonard, Mickey Spillane and James Ellroy (his L.A. Noir trilogy seems to be a heavy influence, stylistically, structurally and character-wise).

No one is innocent here. Everybody's running some sort of game, whether it be emotional, financial, criminal, political, or a variation of the aforestated -- even Dunford comes off as a heel: a heel with a conscience, but still a heel.

Nineteen Seventy-Four gripped me from the first word to the last, with a finish that's as explosive as anything Spillane put on the page.

Followed by Nineteen Seventy-Seven.

Nineteen Seventy-Four is now a film, titled Red Riding: 1974. Set to be released stateside in 2009, and scripted by Tony Grisoni, Julian Jarrold directed the first part of the Grisoni-scripted Red Riding trilogy.

Andrew Garfield played Eddie Dunford. Anthony Flanagan played Barry Gannon. Sean Bean played John Dawson. Cathryn Bradshaw played Marjorie Dawson. Michelle Dockery played Kathryn Tyler. Kelly Freemantle played Clare Strachan. Rebecca Hall played Paula Garland. Eddie Marsan played Jack Whitehead. Daniel Mays played Michael Myshkin. Robert Sheehan played BJ.