A couple of things to declare from the start. firstly, I am not a Leeds fan and secondly I was probably too young and removed from holding a view about whether or not Brian Clough was a genius.
But in the spirit of making declarations it is worth pointing out that after having read the Red Riding quartet by David Peace I was in the mood for another book so came to this with familiarity of the style and the voice.
That voice is one of paranoid violence and in this case comes from the lips and thoughts of Clough as he rambles through 44 days in charge of a club that he hates surrounded by players and staff who despise him. Peace weaves in the back story of how Clough got to the position of being manager at Leeds with the success at Derby and the pivotal relationship with Peter Taylor, who importantly opted to pass on Leeds, but it is the Leeds story that is captivating.
A man with a drink problem, a fragile God complex and a hatred for the methods of others enters a club that has already enjoyed success and simply starts to tear it apart. Clough's aim was to make them better and play more attractive football but the way he went about it was bound to fail. he failed to turn up at training sessions, goaded the players and when they expected his backing as a manager he gave them none.
But Peace is careful to give his Clough depth and although he is a severely flawed character the reasons for his yearning for success and wealth are laid bare with his playing career cut short by injury and his hard upbringing in the North East. You never quite fall for the man but you understand, particularly with even the scantiest knowledge of what happened afterwards at Nottingham Forest, that Clough had something.
The fact that you put the book down with that opinion indicates that this is more than the one-sided hatchet job that some people have made out. Maybe Clough wasn't as aggressive but that's what Peace's Yorkshire is like. Maybe it was always going to be too dangerous taking on such a well known character and well documented events and using them as the ingredients for fiction. But for the neutral, the non fan of anything to do with the book, this is a gritty tale exposing the fragility of luck in sport and the naivety of those involved in the game.
A tough read but far from a defeat. Perhaps to put it in the context of a Clough Leeds result it was one of his better efforts, a draw.
Showing posts with label David Peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Peace. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
book review - 1980
The Yorkshire ripper is still going strong and the failure of the Yorkshire police to catch him is a cause for concern. But of course David Peace is offering much more than that simple synopsis in the dark and poetical world inhabited by corrupt cops and killers.
To sort out the problems of corruption Peter Hunter is sent in from the Manchester force to set up a squad looking into the way that the Ripper enquiry has been handled. His secret brief is to try and discover if the Yorkshire force has been guilty of corruption to the extent that it has compromised its own ability to solve the crime.
Hunter is seen as a trouble shooter unafraid of unpopularity and already aware, from a previous brush with a Post Office raid condoning inspector, about the problems that are waiting for him on the other side of the moors.
But added to the story of foiling corruption that is so long established and so interlinked that it is almost impossible for an outsider to crack the importance of relationships, juxtaposed events and the significance of certain geographies. Hunter does his best but is also haunted by his own failure to have children and his dependent wife.
He finds that he is caught out in a classic suggestive compromise linked to a dodgy businessman and when he starts to get close to a secret, which is not yet fully understood by the reader, he is rewarded with having his home burnt down.
Just as with 1974 certain crimes and places act as a magnet and out of the past comes the character of BJ. Former informer for Dunford and well connected the tortured figure attempts to reach out to Hunter and inform him about the past. He fails not because he comes across as a madman but also because Hunter is simply unable to put it all together and see things for what they really are.
The climax sees Hunter clinging on like so many others not just to his sanity but his life. He has been to hell and back suffering nightmares and visions.
The fact they capture the Ripper is down to a stroke of luck but even then the most contientious crimes are denied leaving them back in doubt. Who really killed them is something that Hunter gets close to but because he doesn’t understand the motive he misses. Likewise those that could spill the beans are haunted by the past and in too deep to reveal the truth.
But what is truth in a world where night brings nightmares and visions that overlap with the horrific events of the day? What is truth in a world where your friend and neighbour can also be a killer and the policeman you trust someone who is worse than a criminal?
It is with those questions buzzing round your head that you step onwards to the conclusion and 1984.
To sort out the problems of corruption Peter Hunter is sent in from the Manchester force to set up a squad looking into the way that the Ripper enquiry has been handled. His secret brief is to try and discover if the Yorkshire force has been guilty of corruption to the extent that it has compromised its own ability to solve the crime.
Hunter is seen as a trouble shooter unafraid of unpopularity and already aware, from a previous brush with a Post Office raid condoning inspector, about the problems that are waiting for him on the other side of the moors.
But added to the story of foiling corruption that is so long established and so interlinked that it is almost impossible for an outsider to crack the importance of relationships, juxtaposed events and the significance of certain geographies. Hunter does his best but is also haunted by his own failure to have children and his dependent wife.
He finds that he is caught out in a classic suggestive compromise linked to a dodgy businessman and when he starts to get close to a secret, which is not yet fully understood by the reader, he is rewarded with having his home burnt down.
Just as with 1974 certain crimes and places act as a magnet and out of the past comes the character of BJ. Former informer for Dunford and well connected the tortured figure attempts to reach out to Hunter and inform him about the past. He fails not because he comes across as a madman but also because Hunter is simply unable to put it all together and see things for what they really are.
The climax sees Hunter clinging on like so many others not just to his sanity but his life. He has been to hell and back suffering nightmares and visions.
The fact they capture the Ripper is down to a stroke of luck but even then the most contientious crimes are denied leaving them back in doubt. Who really killed them is something that Hunter gets close to but because he doesn’t understand the motive he misses. Likewise those that could spill the beans are haunted by the past and in too deep to reveal the truth.
But what is truth in a world where night brings nightmares and visions that overlap with the horrific events of the day? What is truth in a world where your friend and neighbour can also be a killer and the policeman you trust someone who is worse than a criminal?
It is with those questions buzzing round your head that you step onwards to the conclusion and 1984.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
book review - 1977
Where 1974 had a story that you could get to grips with 1977 is more difficult to define. Probably for that reason it was the only one of the books left out of the recent TV adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding books.
If it could be summed up with a theme it would be angels and devils. At the heart of it are two characters that were on the fringes in 1974. The senior crime correspondent who was so hated by Eddie Dunford Jack Whitehead is in one corner and in the other is the priest come exorcist Martin Laws.
Whitehead has suffered watching his wife having a nail hammered into her skull as some sort of primitive attempt to exorcise her of her demons and despite that is drawn to having the same treatment.
Against the background of the beginning of the Yorkshire Ripper’s reign of terror Laws is working on a different plane trying to cajole and manipulate Whitehead among others into taking steps that might not only be fatal but you start to suspect are part of a bigger game. Laws simply keeps turning up having a relationship with too many people.
With a drink problem, a growing cynicism of his colleagues and the police after the Dunford experience Whitehead is drawn back to reporting on the Ripper reluctantly.
He coins the term Ripper and is the one who is visited nightly by ghosts of his ex wife but warnings of the actions of the ripper. As he becomes more detached from reality you get that same sense that existed with 1974 that Leeds is not just a world of the seen but also frighteningly is being driven by forces that few can understand.
Whitehead at least appreciates the forces at work but when he tries to master them he finds himself unable to get anywhere.
Meanwhile a third character Bob Fraser, a connection with Dunford in the first book, comes into his own. As his prostitute lover is threatened by the ripper he starts to lose the battle to balance family and mistress. He then falls on the wrong side of his work colleagues as he starts to find out that his girlfriend is part of a bigger issue.
That collapse of faith in the force and those around him ends with his death but for the reader is provides more pieces of the jigsaw to carry forward to the next book.
The same names, locations and visions keep being repeated like a chant throughout the book. Although it might be difficult to work out what is happening at various points it is possible to feel the mood through immersing yourself in the experience.
That last word ‘experience’ is something that could be applied to the quartet in general because Peace is challenging you to participate. To try and solve the crimes, to work out who is corrupt and corruptible and to try and work out how it has happened and what it means about the state of Britain in the 1970s and the state of Yorkshire.
If it could be summed up with a theme it would be angels and devils. At the heart of it are two characters that were on the fringes in 1974. The senior crime correspondent who was so hated by Eddie Dunford Jack Whitehead is in one corner and in the other is the priest come exorcist Martin Laws.
Whitehead has suffered watching his wife having a nail hammered into her skull as some sort of primitive attempt to exorcise her of her demons and despite that is drawn to having the same treatment.
Against the background of the beginning of the Yorkshire Ripper’s reign of terror Laws is working on a different plane trying to cajole and manipulate Whitehead among others into taking steps that might not only be fatal but you start to suspect are part of a bigger game. Laws simply keeps turning up having a relationship with too many people.
With a drink problem, a growing cynicism of his colleagues and the police after the Dunford experience Whitehead is drawn back to reporting on the Ripper reluctantly.
He coins the term Ripper and is the one who is visited nightly by ghosts of his ex wife but warnings of the actions of the ripper. As he becomes more detached from reality you get that same sense that existed with 1974 that Leeds is not just a world of the seen but also frighteningly is being driven by forces that few can understand.
Whitehead at least appreciates the forces at work but when he tries to master them he finds himself unable to get anywhere.
Meanwhile a third character Bob Fraser, a connection with Dunford in the first book, comes into his own. As his prostitute lover is threatened by the ripper he starts to lose the battle to balance family and mistress. He then falls on the wrong side of his work colleagues as he starts to find out that his girlfriend is part of a bigger issue.
That collapse of faith in the force and those around him ends with his death but for the reader is provides more pieces of the jigsaw to carry forward to the next book.
The same names, locations and visions keep being repeated like a chant throughout the book. Although it might be difficult to work out what is happening at various points it is possible to feel the mood through immersing yourself in the experience.
That last word ‘experience’ is something that could be applied to the quartet in general because Peace is challenging you to participate. To try and solve the crimes, to work out who is corrupt and corruptible and to try and work out how it has happened and what it means about the state of Britain in the 1970s and the state of Yorkshire.
Monday, April 20, 2009
book review - 1974
There are several levels with which you can engage with David Peace. On one it is almost poetic with images and words being repeated and manipulated to support the grim Yorkshire landscape.
On another it is a more traditional narrative charting a journalist’s desperation to make his name and get through the corruption to the truth. He fails to understand at the start just how deep the corruption has spread and just how and why little girls have gone missing and occasionally turned up dead.
The year 1974 is reinforced through references to news events, cars, music and fashions. In that sense it reminds you of Life on Mars but that is where any resemblance ends.
Because this is a story that is written in a gripping adrenaline pumped way it is hard to stop yourself getting dragged into the experience that Peace creates for the reader. This is much more than just a straightforward story about events unwinding against a historical background but is a test of a reader’s ability to grasp geography, character relationships and the significance of events.
As it is the first in a series of four this is also an introduction to the world of Leeds and the surrounding environment where the lines between friend and foe are far from black and white. This Northern world, where rain and the darkness of night play a crucial role, is not the sort of world that has a corner for the innocent to escape into. If you get caught up then you get caught up regardless of your innocence.
At the heart of the story is Eddie Dunford a crime reporter trying to make a name for himself who discovers that not only is he fighting criminals he can’t see but coming up against barriers from the police, his colleagues and his own boss.
By the end he is so far removed from the normal world he inhabited before he became aware of the depth of the problems in West Yorkshire that he resorts to tactics that at first would have seemed out of character but by the end feel almost natural.
Peace has created a dark world of corrupt coppers, smooth talking criminals and complicit journalists in which explodes the kidnapping and murder of little girls. The way that those crimes are solved reveals the true loyalties that exist in the Yorkshire community. They also reveal the cancerous effect that evil can have not just on those directly involved but the community around them.
On another it is a more traditional narrative charting a journalist’s desperation to make his name and get through the corruption to the truth. He fails to understand at the start just how deep the corruption has spread and just how and why little girls have gone missing and occasionally turned up dead.
The year 1974 is reinforced through references to news events, cars, music and fashions. In that sense it reminds you of Life on Mars but that is where any resemblance ends.
Because this is a story that is written in a gripping adrenaline pumped way it is hard to stop yourself getting dragged into the experience that Peace creates for the reader. This is much more than just a straightforward story about events unwinding against a historical background but is a test of a reader’s ability to grasp geography, character relationships and the significance of events.
As it is the first in a series of four this is also an introduction to the world of Leeds and the surrounding environment where the lines between friend and foe are far from black and white. This Northern world, where rain and the darkness of night play a crucial role, is not the sort of world that has a corner for the innocent to escape into. If you get caught up then you get caught up regardless of your innocence.
At the heart of the story is Eddie Dunford a crime reporter trying to make a name for himself who discovers that not only is he fighting criminals he can’t see but coming up against barriers from the police, his colleagues and his own boss.
By the end he is so far removed from the normal world he inhabited before he became aware of the depth of the problems in West Yorkshire that he resorts to tactics that at first would have seemed out of character but by the end feel almost natural.
Peace has created a dark world of corrupt coppers, smooth talking criminals and complicit journalists in which explodes the kidnapping and murder of little girls. The way that those crimes are solved reveals the true loyalties that exist in the Yorkshire community. They also reveal the cancerous effect that evil can have not just on those directly involved but the community around them.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
The Damned United - post V
You knew that things were always going to end one way, because let's face it the ending has not been a secret. But what you are left trying to work out is about the character of Clough the man.
The problem with this, although a post story bibliography makes it clear it is incredibly well researched, you are not quite sure whether or not the Clough presented here is the real thing. There is also a line or two about Forest but nothing really to expand on the most successful years of his career or his pivotal relationship[ with Taylor.
No one really comes out of it with honours with the players as guilty of immaturity as their manager. What seems to have defeated Clough more than the results, the players and the ghost of Don Revie is Leeds itself and that is very much in keeping with Peace's other books. Yorkshire is the real enemy and the only survivor.
A review will come soon...
The problem with this, although a post story bibliography makes it clear it is incredibly well researched, you are not quite sure whether or not the Clough presented here is the real thing. There is also a line or two about Forest but nothing really to expand on the most successful years of his career or his pivotal relationship[ with Taylor.
No one really comes out of it with honours with the players as guilty of immaturity as their manager. What seems to have defeated Clough more than the results, the players and the ghost of Don Revie is Leeds itself and that is very much in keeping with Peace's other books. Yorkshire is the real enemy and the only survivor.
A review will come soon...
Saturday, April 04, 2009
The Damned United - post IV
Clough loses his job at derby and in the present it goes from bad to worse with Leeds. These twin histories provide a glimpse into someone almost unable to appreciate an opposite point if view. You might be able to get away with it when the results are going your way but not when you are losing.
Living in hotels finding hostility everywhere starts to make it almost impossible for clough to settle. He is also haunted by failure and the hated be still feels for don revie. It starts to unhonge him and you can see a collision coming with board and players even before it begins.
This is all against a background of a grim yorkshire sketched out by peace. But he could gave let the landvape talk more like he does in red riding.
More soon...
Living in hotels finding hostility everywhere starts to make it almost impossible for clough to settle. He is also haunted by failure and the hated be still feels for don revie. It starts to unhonge him and you can see a collision coming with board and players even before it begins.
This is all against a background of a grim yorkshire sketched out by peace. But he could gave let the landvape talk more like he does in red riding.
More soon...
Friday, April 03, 2009
The Damned United - post III
In some respects you have to feel sorry for brian clough as he constantly teeters ok the knife edge between success and disaster. Even when derby win the title he is still plagued with doubt and happy to self destruct friendships and good working relationships.
Underneath there is amazing self belief but with a blindness to his drink problem and an unwillingness to accept the true importance of his sidekick peter taylor he is doomed to make mistakes.
One of the biggest as the history if his loathing for Leeds emerges is to happily burn his bridges to settle his own scores. Words and views that come back to haunt him later on.
More tomorrow...
Underneath there is amazing self belief but with a blindness to his drink problem and an unwillingness to accept the true importance of his sidekick peter taylor he is doomed to make mistakes.
One of the biggest as the history if his loathing for Leeds emerges is to happily burn his bridges to settle his own scores. Words and views that come back to haunt him later on.
More tomorrow...
Thursday, April 02, 2009
1983 - post IV
Not planning to give away the ending but it is pretty safe to say that you have to be concentrating right until the last word.
Things never really end the people involved just disappear or die and you are left wondering whether or not the corruption that gripped the police force has ever really left. Those who appeared to have won were plagued by bad dreams and memories and those who lost in a way had an early release from the hell.
The concluding chapters push your ability to remember the names and places from the first three books to the limit but it is worth it and the final pieces of the jigsaw are still slotting together in my mind.
Over the entire series there has been a palpable grimness that is created by the rain, darkness and the bleakness of most of the locations. Even the homes of the wealthy and corrupt are prisons of despair and hotel rooms and bars have all been poisoned by the fear and death from the past.
In the sense of poetically weaving a nightmare landscape where Rippers walks and angels are destroyed Peace brings that off brilliantly.
A review will follow at some point…
Things never really end the people involved just disappear or die and you are left wondering whether or not the corruption that gripped the police force has ever really left. Those who appeared to have won were plagued by bad dreams and memories and those who lost in a way had an early release from the hell.
The concluding chapters push your ability to remember the names and places from the first three books to the limit but it is worth it and the final pieces of the jigsaw are still slotting together in my mind.
Over the entire series there has been a palpable grimness that is created by the rain, darkness and the bleakness of most of the locations. Even the homes of the wealthy and corrupt are prisons of despair and hotel rooms and bars have all been poisoned by the fear and death from the past.
In the sense of poetically weaving a nightmare landscape where Rippers walks and angels are destroyed Peace brings that off brilliantly.
A review will follow at some point…
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
1983 - post III
No jokes today reading 1983.
As the extent and ambition of the police corruption starts to become clear you not only understand why certain things happened in the past but get a brutal insight into why Peter Hunter was never going to be able to get very far in Yorkshire.
You are still undecided as to wether or not Jobson, the Owl, is fully signed up to the corruption but as a third strand of narrative is added to the mix with BJ giving an insight into why him and Claire Strachan were hunted down its obvious that the Owl was not able to stop events.
Meanwhile Piggot is being sucked into a world of bad memories which become even worse when he understands that hand in glove with the police were some members of the legal profession.
His search for the truth, just like Hunter’s, is starting to push him to the edge of sanity. For readers trying to make the connections the idea that Jack Whitehead might have hooked up again with Eddie Dunford seems to linger with the Viva being sighted near the Redbeck but what are dreams and what is reality?
As the extent and ambition of the police corruption starts to become clear you not only understand why certain things happened in the past but get a brutal insight into why Peter Hunter was never going to be able to get very far in Yorkshire.
You are still undecided as to wether or not Jobson, the Owl, is fully signed up to the corruption but as a third strand of narrative is added to the mix with BJ giving an insight into why him and Claire Strachan were hunted down its obvious that the Owl was not able to stop events.
Meanwhile Piggot is being sucked into a world of bad memories which become even worse when he understands that hand in glove with the police were some members of the legal profession.
His search for the truth, just like Hunter’s, is starting to push him to the edge of sanity. For readers trying to make the connections the idea that Jack Whitehead might have hooked up again with Eddie Dunford seems to linger with the Viva being sighted near the Redbeck but what are dreams and what is reality?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
1983 - post II
As things start to unfold the questions that you have been looking for answers to start to get closer. Some of the characters that seemed so important at the start of the four book cycle have almost completely disappeared leaving you to concentrate on a smaller and more important number.
Without slapping you in the face with the facts some of the pennies start to drop about the movers and shakers in the police corruption and how things are connected.
Everything is connected with the same places, people and visions returning time and time again.
Without slapping you in the face with the facts some of the pennies start to drop about the movers and shakers in the police corruption and how things are connected.
Everything is connected with the same places, people and visions returning time and time again.
Monday, March 30, 2009
1983 - post I
One of the immediate challenges for a reader going through books that are set years apart is to find a reference point that makes it clear what has happened in the in between years.
Having gone through 1980 with an alternate character narrative it picks up again this time weaving in the strands of thoughts from John Piggot, a solicitor looking to help with the appeal of the wrongly fitted up child killer from 1974 and Maurice Jobson a senior policeman.
Things start weaving backwards and forwards through time starting to fill in the gaps not just from 1974 but even before that.
The same dreams are there with references to underground kingdoms and wolves but there is from the start a clear indication the story will be told through the latest case of a missing girl.
Having gone through 1980 with an alternate character narrative it picks up again this time weaving in the strands of thoughts from John Piggot, a solicitor looking to help with the appeal of the wrongly fitted up child killer from 1974 and Maurice Jobson a senior policeman.
Things start weaving backwards and forwards through time starting to fill in the gaps not just from 1974 but even before that.
The same dreams are there with references to underground kingdoms and wolves but there is from the start a clear indication the story will be told through the latest case of a missing girl.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Damned United - post II
This is clearly going to be a day one through to 44 but each day uses plenty of historical material to not only sketch out the story of the present but how Clough got to be there.
As Derby become more successful under his management his relationship with Leeds starts to fall apart. The hatred of Don Revie becomes one of the defining relationships of his career and the hatred of Leeds is established early on.
That helps explain just why Clough might not be the right man to take over Leeds but the character of the man is all his own doing and like him or loathe him he does his best to get noticed.
More next week...
As Derby become more successful under his management his relationship with Leeds starts to fall apart. The hatred of Don Revie becomes one of the defining relationships of his career and the hatred of Leeds is established early on.
That helps explain just why Clough might not be the right man to take over Leeds but the character of the man is all his own doing and like him or loathe him he does his best to get noticed.
More next week...
Friday, March 27, 2009
1980 - post V
I am not going to give away the ending but just when you think progress is being made the case is closed on the Ripper but the old wounds reopen and the search for the truth in a corrupt world of policemen and prostitutes re-emerges to take centre stage.
As well as a poetry with the use of visual and textual repetition there is equally a return to places of the past. Most of the crime scenes seem to have remained largely undisturbed, even six years after some of the events. That provides those places with a haunted quality and a power to retain that sense of death, fear and pain with the ability to influence the present.
It puts the psycho back into psycho geography but does so in a clever way that creeps up on you and is sometimes shocking its in unexpectedness.
Having gone forward and suffered the plague of the Ripper the way is now clear to solve the original crime and work out just where the corruption in the West Yorkshire police started and who will finish it.
Onwards to 1983.
A review will follow...
As well as a poetry with the use of visual and textual repetition there is equally a return to places of the past. Most of the crime scenes seem to have remained largely undisturbed, even six years after some of the events. That provides those places with a haunted quality and a power to retain that sense of death, fear and pain with the ability to influence the present.
It puts the psycho back into psycho geography but does so in a clever way that creeps up on you and is sometimes shocking its in unexpectedness.
Having gone forward and suffered the plague of the Ripper the way is now clear to solve the original crime and work out just where the corruption in the West Yorkshire police started and who will finish it.
Onwards to 1983.
A review will follow...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
1980 - post IV
After the trials and tribulations of 1974 and 1977 you put your faith in the main character of Peter Hunter but he is being dragged down by the corruption and the atmosphere.
Dreams plagued with images of black wings and dead children put a unique Lancastrian spin on a Yorkshire hell. Hunter then falls victim to a classic fit-up job and the tables are turned and it is not some much a battle to fight corruption but a battle to fight and save his career.
he knows some major pieces of the jigsaw he just doesn't have enough to out them together. As he walks down a path partly trodden by those before him he not only starts to find out the same things but falls victim to the same sense of altered reality and fear that consumed those before him.
Last chunk tomorrow...
Dreams plagued with images of black wings and dead children put a unique Lancastrian spin on a Yorkshire hell. Hunter then falls victim to a classic fit-up job and the tables are turned and it is not some much a battle to fight corruption but a battle to fight and save his career.
he knows some major pieces of the jigsaw he just doesn't have enough to out them together. As he walks down a path partly trodden by those before him he not only starts to find out the same things but falls victim to the same sense of altered reality and fear that consumed those before him.
Last chunk tomorrow...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
1980 - post III
The lyrical poetical side of this book is becoming more pronounced as the killing continues and the pressure starts to mount on Hunter directly.
Lancashire has its own deep connections with Yorkshire as the Dawson brother illustrates and the connections start to mean that Hunter has to fight fires on both fronts as the blood spills on both sides of the moors.
Against that background the Ripper seems to be waiting for the moment to shatter any remaining confidence that Hunter has. The repetition of phrases and images adds to the almost literal sound of the moment coming nearer when something will give and the landscape will change again.
Can Hunter stop it? It seems highly unlikely that in his current situation he has the ability. But hidden in the files and the hundreds of interviews that have taken place over the years he knows and we do too that the answer is waiting to be found.
The only question is can he find it before the corruption distracts him, the Ripper kills again and Hunter loses his sanity?
More tomorrow...
Lancashire has its own deep connections with Yorkshire as the Dawson brother illustrates and the connections start to mean that Hunter has to fight fires on both fronts as the blood spills on both sides of the moors.
Against that background the Ripper seems to be waiting for the moment to shatter any remaining confidence that Hunter has. The repetition of phrases and images adds to the almost literal sound of the moment coming nearer when something will give and the landscape will change again.
Can Hunter stop it? It seems highly unlikely that in his current situation he has the ability. But hidden in the files and the hundreds of interviews that have taken place over the years he knows and we do too that the answer is waiting to be found.
The only question is can he find it before the corruption distracts him, the Ripper kills again and Hunter loses his sanity?
More tomorrow...
Monday, March 23, 2009
1980 - post II
Hunter and his team start to go through the murders but the madness that is at the fringes of the Ripper hunt starts to infect Hunter himself.
Dreams detailing murders are shared by his wife and by himself. others in his team start to crack up under the strain of the Ripper hunt and the dangers that trapped Whitehead and some of the characters from the first two books start to come out of the shadows for Hunter.
In terms of portraying a pyschological as well as literal thriller this is growing in intensity and someone is going to crack up and make a mistake. You sense that it is a battle between the Ripper and Hunter with the pressure so far all coming on the policeman.
More to come...
Dreams detailing murders are shared by his wife and by himself. others in his team start to crack up under the strain of the Ripper hunt and the dangers that trapped Whitehead and some of the characters from the first two books start to come out of the shadows for Hunter.
In terms of portraying a pyschological as well as literal thriller this is growing in intensity and someone is going to crack up and make a mistake. You sense that it is a battle between the Ripper and Hunter with the pressure so far all coming on the policeman.
More to come...
Sunday, March 22, 2009
1980 - post I
There are always two approaches to a series of books. Either you read them all at once or leave gaps in between. Having taken the decision to read this straight after 1974 and 1977 there are clear benefits.
The story obviously progresses but with the gaps of time. But what remains are the images, dreams and motifs from the first two books. If anything they become even more important here with the Yorkshire Ripper still at large out there.
With 1977 ending with Fraser and Whitehead having run their course for now the focus of the next stage of the story is Peter Hunter. The Manchester thick skinned copper is sent into sort the Ripper investigation out and at the same time try to discover who and what is going on with that force.
he knows he will be unwelcome, he knows that he has to catch the killer but does he know just what sort of screwed up world he is walking into?
more tomorrow...
The story obviously progresses but with the gaps of time. But what remains are the images, dreams and motifs from the first two books. If anything they become even more important here with the Yorkshire Ripper still at large out there.
With 1977 ending with Fraser and Whitehead having run their course for now the focus of the next stage of the story is Peter Hunter. The Manchester thick skinned copper is sent into sort the Ripper investigation out and at the same time try to discover who and what is going on with that force.
he knows he will be unwelcome, he knows that he has to catch the killer but does he know just what sort of screwed up world he is walking into?
more tomorrow...
Friday, March 20, 2009
1977 - post IV
The pace in the book is exhilirating towards the end and even though the ending isn't quite what you expected it is enough of a conclusion to leave you coming to 1980 with fresh expectations.
Without giving away the ending lets just say that the idea of angels that appears obliquely in 1974 via the swan motif is more dangerous here plaguing jack Whitehead the crime reporter.
For Bob Fraser now alienated after his prostitute girlfriend has turned up dead he discovers that on the family front not all is as it seemed anyway.
That sense of wondering who you can trust never leaves the narrative for a second. police follow police and journalists try to outdo each other. Even when you think you can turn to sleep the dreams and memories are there to destroy you.
A review will follow...
Without giving away the ending lets just say that the idea of angels that appears obliquely in 1974 via the swan motif is more dangerous here plaguing jack Whitehead the crime reporter.
For Bob Fraser now alienated after his prostitute girlfriend has turned up dead he discovers that on the family front not all is as it seemed anyway.
That sense of wondering who you can trust never leaves the narrative for a second. police follow police and journalists try to outdo each other. Even when you think you can turn to sleep the dreams and memories are there to destroy you.
A review will follow...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
1977 - post III
The parallel stories of Bob Fraser the policeman and Jack Whitehead the crime reporter are linked in several ways with both sharing a connection with the events of 1974 and both having relationships with prostitutes.
The horrors of the past appear in dreams and visions and the corruption and dissapointment of the present keep them mired in despair.
The trigger for both to consider their lot in life is the emergence of the Yorkshire Ripper. His brutality is something that is more genuione than anything the police themselves can construct and is far more worrying.
Whitehead coins the terms Ripper and Fraser starts to discover not ll crimes are quite what they seem.
more tomorrow...
The horrors of the past appear in dreams and visions and the corruption and dissapointment of the present keep them mired in despair.
The trigger for both to consider their lot in life is the emergence of the Yorkshire Ripper. His brutality is something that is more genuione than anything the police themselves can construct and is far more worrying.
Whitehead coins the terms Ripper and Fraser starts to discover not ll crimes are quite what they seem.
more tomorrow...
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
1977 - post II
You have the twin characters of the policeman Fraser and the crime reporter Whitehead both losing control. Fraser has fallen in love with a prostitute and is watching his marriage fall apart. Whitehead is plagued by dreams of a dead woman and has clearly lost his competitive streak on the paper since Eddie ( from 1974) moved on.
Linking them both is the hunt for the yorkshire Ripper and as the police stumble around with their usual racist and agressibe tactics they display a complete lack of detecting ability. Meanwhile it is the papers that coin the term Ripper and without any real appetite for it Jack Whitehead is following one of the biggest stories ever.
The hunt is not so much for the Ripper but for the resolution of the demons that are tormenting the leading characters.
The problem is those demons are caused and supported by the very society they work and live in.
More tomorrow...
Linking them both is the hunt for the yorkshire Ripper and as the police stumble around with their usual racist and agressibe tactics they display a complete lack of detecting ability. Meanwhile it is the papers that coin the term Ripper and without any real appetite for it Jack Whitehead is following one of the biggest stories ever.
The hunt is not so much for the Ripper but for the resolution of the demons that are tormenting the leading characters.
The problem is those demons are caused and supported by the very society they work and live in.
More tomorrow...
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