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ladydewinter's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent, if depressing, read.
Yorkshire, 1974. A young girl goes missing, and North of England Crime Correspondent Edward Dunford follows the case with growing interest. Soon he discovers that the girl's disappearance might be linked to the abduction of two other girls, but that, as it turns out, is only the tip of the iceberg.
It's really horribly depressing, but oh so very good. I can't honestly judge how well David Peace did with capturing the "spirit" of the time and place, but it sure feels very real. I love how driven the language is, and I love the mood it creates. And although I'm not sure it's the best way to praise a book I have to say that it contains a torture scene that almost made me throw up. It really got under my skin - not just that scene, but the whole book - and that is something not every book manages to do. I'm definitely going to read the other books of the quartet as well.
Yorkshire, Weihnachten 1974. Ein junges Mädchen ist spurlos verschwunden. Edward Dunford, Gerichts-und Polizeireporter, stößt bei seinen Recherchen auf eine mögliche Verbindung zu zwei weiteren Entführungsfällen, kommt dabei aber den Reichen und Mächtigen von Leeds gefährlich nahe. Wie gefährlich, stellt sich heraus als einer seiner Kollegen bei einem "Unfall" ums Leben kommt...
Ein düsterer Krimi, schockierend und atemberaubend gut.
Yorkshire, 1974. A young girl goes missing, and North of England Crime Correspondent Edward Dunford follows the case with growing interest. Soon he discovers that the girl's disappearance might be linked to the abduction of two other girls, but that, as it turns out, is only the tip of the iceberg.
It's really horribly depressing, but oh so very good. I can't honestly judge how well David Peace did with capturing the "spirit" of the time and place, but it sure feels very real. I love how driven the language is, and I love the mood it creates. And although I'm not sure it's the best way to praise a book I have to say that it contains a torture scene that almost made me throw up. It really got under my skin - not just that scene, but the whole book - and that is something not every book manages to do. I'm definitely going to read the other books of the quartet as well.
Yorkshire, Weihnachten 1974. Ein junges Mädchen ist spurlos verschwunden. Edward Dunford, Gerichts-und Polizeireporter, stößt bei seinen Recherchen auf eine mögliche Verbindung zu zwei weiteren Entführungsfällen, kommt dabei aber den Reichen und Mächtigen von Leeds gefährlich nahe. Wie gefährlich, stellt sich heraus als einer seiner Kollegen bei einem "Unfall" ums Leben kommt...
Ein düsterer Krimi, schockierend und atemberaubend gut.
vitalbeachyeah's review against another edition
4.0
I can see why a lot of people hated this - it's relentlessly misanthropic and cynical, wildly implausible at times, and there's barely a likable character - but hell, it kept me entertained throughout and there was an impressive urgency to the prose, so four stars.
doctoraction's review against another edition
2.0
DNF. Too nasty for me. Thought I'd try out a little more crime fiction but I need it much pulpier and entertaining than this. My brain doesn't know where to put the miserable details.
april_does_feral_sometimes's review against another edition
5.0
I read a lot of noir fiction and this series is the darkest I've ever read. What makes it a necessary addition to the must read stack is the unusual writing style. After I got into it I realized it was similar to British noir graphic novels such as the Sebastion series. It's like a mashup of normal noir genre and comic books. Very cool.
mgibsonsf's review against another edition
2.0
Ugh. I recently abandoned two belletristic contemporary novels mid-way through because they failed to be entertaining or educational, so I thought I'd try some genre fiction. This one starts with a jolt and impressive, gripping style. Oblique storytelling and character development. Staccato sentences with no verbs. A strong sense of place.
I was hooked... and then it slowly goes nowhere interesting. There are dozens of secondary and tertiary characters with similar names who are impossible to tell apart. The style becomes an impediment to telling the story, and the unraveling of the mystery is handled so clumsily that by two-thirds of the way through, nothing is at stake and there is no reason to care. It becomes a confusing, boring read. It's also relentlessly grim and violent, which (without a higher purpose or more artful construction) becomes merely off-putting and cheap. It's also extremely misogynist.
I hear this series gets better, but I am turned off and will likely stop with this one.
I was hooked... and then it slowly goes nowhere interesting. There are dozens of secondary and tertiary characters with similar names who are impossible to tell apart. The style becomes an impediment to telling the story, and the unraveling of the mystery is handled so clumsily that by two-thirds of the way through, nothing is at stake and there is no reason to care. It becomes a confusing, boring read. It's also relentlessly grim and violent, which (without a higher purpose or more artful construction) becomes merely off-putting and cheap. It's also extremely misogynist.
I hear this series gets better, but I am turned off and will likely stop with this one.
danielsdasein's review against another edition
5.0
Mark Fisher recommended this series, I'll have to go back and re-read his commentary on it.
damerian's review against another edition
4.0
Really fast paced and violent. But that is what you expect from a crime novel, really enjoyed it.
tfitoby's review against another edition
4.0
A brilliantly bleak British Christmas noir, told first person from the perspective of an ambitious young crime correspondent as he investigates the seemingly related abduction, rape, torture and murder of young girls in Yorkshire in the early 1970s. Set against police and council corruption and the apparent disintegration of British society, Peace weaves a tale based on actual events and loaded with historical references.
Other than his willingness ta take the reader in to the darkest reaches of what men are capable of Peace's most remarkable feat is the slow disintegration of the mind of his protagonist represented by a lack of cohesion to his narrtion the further down the rabbit hole he goes. Often compared to James Ellroy because of his dark subject matter, sentence structure and pop culture references, 1974 is no different, although he is much more literary than Ellroy's staccato sentences can reach and despite Edward Dunford being a little shit of a protagonist I found myself taking a liking to him in a way that I just couldn't ever imagine doing with Elrroy's men.
Other than his willingness ta take the reader in to the darkest reaches of what men are capable of Peace's most remarkable feat is the slow disintegration of the mind of his protagonist represented by a lack of cohesion to his narrtion the further down the rabbit hole he goes. Often compared to James Ellroy because of his dark subject matter, sentence structure and pop culture references, 1974 is no different, although he is much more literary than Ellroy's staccato sentences can reach and despite Edward Dunford being a little shit of a protagonist I found myself taking a liking to him in a way that I just couldn't ever imagine doing with Elrroy's men.
elovall's review against another edition
3.0
This is a dark story. At first, the machine-gun-fire writing style irritated me, but when I got into the story, I found that it worked. This is the first book in a series. I think I will check out book 2 to see where it goes.