Powerful performance of a powerful story!

Saul Reichlin is a master narrator and puts his all into this series of books. A shockingly desperate, frustrated and painful look back on a time when things were done very differently. Superb writing, in a league all of his own.

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So Dark You Need the Light on!

Originally I was going to rate this novel 3, but powerful ending changed my mind. This book is not for the squeamish, it is graphic and contains extremely bad language, so much so that one becomes blunted by it. It is a fairly deep novel and very sad on a number of levels. In an interview with the author David Peace at the end of the book, he says that he thought that the TV series Red Riding was better than his book(s). I have to disagree, this is a very powerful novel and stands alone although part of a quartet of stories. If you watched the TV Series it is similar but not the same, so your enjoyment will not be spoilt. Saul Reichlin's narration is brilliant, and like the Millenium Trilogy he brings all the characters to life. I was going to leave a gap of a couple of months before downloading the next book, but cracked and downloaded 1977 directly I had finished listening.

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1 person found this helpful

very good but be careful - Wrexford this ain't

If you are looking for a murder mystery along the whodunnit pattern then look elsewhere. These books are dark and nasty. There are few if any redeeming characters. The grotty underbelly of human nature is exposed in all its horridness. The prose is vicious, the language very very strong and the subject as nasty as the crimes it was influenced by. Listening to them is not likely to cheer you up or even entertain you. However, they are very, very good.

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Saul Reichlin performance brilliant

Better than reading the book or watching the tv series. I've done both. Excellent performance

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Gritty Off-Beat Crime Novel Set In Leeds

David Peace's books can be a bit challenging, but are well worth the extra effort they require of the reader (or listener). This book is the first of the four book 'Red Riding' quartet and I thoroughly enjoyed it, gruesome though it is.
Saul Reichlin, who did a brilliant job, narrating Steig Larsson's 'Millennium' trilogy, has a slightly dodgy west Yorkshire accent, but one soon gets used to it.
I'm looking forward to listening to the next three books.
This is easily a five-star listen.

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Stunning, Horrible, Gripping, and Awful

I'm from Wakefield, grew up in the seventies, and this book captures what it was like to live in that desolate, dying part of of the West Riding during those horrible, dark, dark times.

We've moved on, thankfully, in some ways. Coppers are less likely to be in the pockets of businessmen (I hope), life is not the struggle it was back then, and you and you are not nearly so likely to be beaten up for having the wrong bike/clothes/hairstyle etc. But it's all here, casual violence to strangers because they are different, the nasty men, and nasty times. Eddie is often listening to the radio in his Viva, but no matter what was on, the feeling I had through out this book was the same as the darker parts of the Specials back catalogue. A decade too early, but spot on.

Other reviewers have complained about the use of the F word in it, but in that grotty little bit of West Yorkshire that's certainly how I remember it. Shouted across the street, screamed at each other and used in place of most of the rest of the English language, especially the more emotive parts, the F word was everywhere.

The plot is a slow burner but the finale is excellent. A great listen, let down a little by the frankly very poor accent of Saul Reichlin.

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6 people found this helpful

Amazing

loved this once the story got going. finished it in an insomnia day. just off to buy 1977

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James Ellroy comes to 1970s West Yorkshire

'hard-boiled', 'gritty', 'dark' - the usual descriptions apply. If you like the James Ellroy, Raymond Chandler, James M Cain style of writing then this is a book for you. More tea and chips than coffee and grits but this book delivered me to that dark edge of the criminal world in the same way, this with an even darker edge that made me wince at times. Agatha Christie it ain't!
Best book I've read / listened to for a long time. I'm looking forward to the next one...

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Brilliant Listen Brilliant Book

Cannot believe the slating this is getting! I found David Peace's quadrilogy after watching the shortened trilogy on Channel 4. All four books where very good; as is usually the case books are better. I would never describe them as an easy read (but nothing worthwhile is easy) and also the violence is very brutal to say the least; but that?s what the books are about what do people expect when reading about the Yorkshire Ripper!!!! I remember the news reports from back then and we all now know just how incompetent the investigation was so this spin on things by David Peace is very believable. Also after having read all 4 books previously I was a little bit apprehensive about listening to the Audio versions, but they where I have to say much better then I expected and really glad I did. Something worth mentioning also is that there is an interview with David Peace at the end and this was also very good.

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1 person found this helpful

Darker than the inside of a coal miners wallet

Would you listen to Nineteen Seventy Four again? Why?

Maybe in a few years once I have recovered from the experience

What did you like best about this story?

Unremittingly dark and bleak, I think this is a unique experience but probably not for everyone. If you are tired of standard crime genre fiction, brilliant outsider detective solves serial killer blah blah, this is worth a listen. It is much more in the vein of Jim Thomson, where all the protagonists are flawed and their motivations are unclear. The writing can be a bit experimental in places (not Will Self standard) with some repetition of key phrases and changing of direction mid sentence, occasionally it will be unclear what section of the book is from which characters viewpoint (although you will probably figure this out in the end). I enjoyed this as it adds to whole confusing, claustrophobic, trapped up north atmosphere of the book.

Which character – as performed by Saul Reichlin – was your favourite?

All the characters are memorable (BJ especially), but the one weakness of the recording is the narrators inability to do the regional accents well. Having said that he does a great job of narrating but this is due to the emotional timbre of his voice and investment in the text.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt a bit shell-shocked upon finishing the quartet and have not reacted to a book(s) this strongly for a long time.

Any additional comments?

Not a straightforward listen, but remarkable and very different to anything else out there.

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