5 Seaside Noirs for the Holiday Season!
BRIT GRIT, Cathi Unsworth, Graham Greene. recommended reads, Seaside Noir. Black Humour. Ted Lewis. Peter Ord. Seatown
Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside! Well, after a fashion I do, but then I’m from Hartlepool …
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
“Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him”
From its brilliant opening line, Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (1938) grabs you by the throat and almost strangles you with its intensity. The lives of fantastically rich characters, such as big hearted Ida Arnold who is investigating Hale’s murder and Pinkie, the psychotic young gangster, intertwine in a gripping novel that is well-deserved of its classic status.
The seaside town of Brighton itself is also one of the book’s strongest characters, as the glitz and grit collide.
GBH by Ted Lewis
Ted Lewis is probably best known for his 1970 novel Jack’s Return Home and/or its subsequent film versions – Get Carter (1971) starring Michael Caine, Hit Man starring Bernie Casey (1972), and the unfortunate Get Carter (2000) starring Sylvester Stallone.
GBH was Lewis’ final novel – publi…
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