Red Riding Quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983

Red Riding Quartet: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983

by David Peace

Serpent's Tail, HK$104 each

How do you summarise four books, 1,400 pages, one decade, a vast cast and more plots than a cemetery? The terms 'brilliant', 'challenging' and 'page-turning' spring to my mind. I'll stop there before the words 'clich?' and 'hyperbole' spring to yours. The four Red Riding novels really are something special. Recently adapted for television, they are a hybrid of literary and crime fiction, propelled by the same hot blasts of prose that distinguished Peace's recent novel, The Damned Utd. There is murder: the Yorkshire Ripper casts a pall across the entire series. There is corruption: the cast includes policemen, politicians and journalists - say no more. There is politics: 1983 is set during the miners' strike. And everywhere there are people in crisis: love gone bad, loss here for good. Sounds fun? Well it is. Like James Ellroy, Richard Price and George Pelecanos, Peace has an unerring feeling for time and place, sharp tools to dissect character and supreme assurance. He is also the poet laureate of swearing. 'I'm a man who can hurt you very f***ing quickly and very f***ing now, if you don't stop whining and start answering my f***ing questions.'