----- Original Message ----- From: <
Scatalogic@aol.com>
> Your preliminary reading list for UK
HB/Noir.
> Derek Raymond
absolutely. He Died With His EYes Open, the first of the
Factory series, is his masterpiece I think. And The Crust On
Its Uppers, though very different, is a really entertaining
novel of sixties London as is the much more downbeat Public
parts And Private PLaces.
> Ted Lewis
Jack's Return Home. - Justly his most famous book - GBH has a
demented charm too
David Peace
1977 is an extraordinarily powerful book. Peace is the best
crime novelist currently writing on either side of the
Atlantic, I think.
Others -
Gerald Kersh - Night And the City, of course, and the
recently reissued Fowler's End which begins with an extended
monologue to rival George V. Higgins.
Patrick Hamilton - Hangover Square, absolutely. I read this
book while sitting on the dock in Piraeus waiting for a ferry
which never came. Lord was I depressed by the end of
day.
Ken Bruen - Rilke On Black is, for my money, the best from a
writer who tends to be too prolific for his own good.
Alexander Baron - The Lowlife - also recently reissued, a
fine understated London novel from the great underrated war
novelist.
Jean Rhys - There's no more distinctively female noir voice
than that of the late Ms Rhys. Try starting with Good Morning
Midnight or After Leaving Mr Mackenzie before moving on to
the non-noir but bona fide classic Wide Sargasso Sea.
Chris Petit - The Psalm Killer - Maybe the only worthwhile
serial killer novel of the last decade, what makes the
difference is that Petit's killer is used by British
intelligence to foster the Irish troubles though the
seventies.The crime novel as revisionist history.
Colin Bateman - Try Divorcing Jack or, best, Cycle Of
Violence for a rare comic slant on the Troubles. Later
Bateman to be approached with care.
Niall Griffiths - Kelly & Victor Deeply noir journey into
sexual obsession by the James Joyce of Aberystwyth
Malcolm Pryce - Aberystwyth Mon Amour - wonderfully sustained
Chandler parody set in a Welsh seaside town.
That'll do for now
John
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