1977

The story within this book was narrated by Jack Whitehead, a more seasoned reporter working at the same paper as the reporter in the first book of the series. It is interspersed with narration by one of the police officers who was briefly introduced in the first book, Bob Fraser. The ripper murders are in full flow, with 1977 being the most prolific year for his killings. None of the characters were particularly likeable, but that didn't matter. The book was gripping and relentless in its descriptions of the violence and murders of 1977.

Brilliant novel set around the Yorkshire Ripper murders. Very dark, very bleak. Can't wait to read Nineteen Eighty, but at the same time would quite like to read something jolly and lighthearted...

Jack Whitehead is a seasoned journalist haunted by the spectre of a murdered woman. Bob Fraser is a cop married to the daughter of a legendary officer, with a bright future and a clean reputation. He is also involved in an obsessive relationship with a prostitute which may not be entirely consensual. In the flawed and dirty world of the villages and towns near Leeds, in Yorkshire, in Nineteen Seventy-Seven, they are the good guys. A violent sexual murderer, called the Yorkshire Ripper, is hunting down the prostitutes of the region, but there are questions about whether all the dead women were killed by the Ripper and about possible police involvement. The second installment in David Peace's Red Riding Quartet is as violent and relentless as the first. This is Noir in its very darkest and bleakest incarnation. The Yorkshire of Peace's imagination is devoid of hope or even basic human decency, where Blacks and Gypsies are the targets of police brutality as a matter of course and where women are victimized with callous disregard. Whitehead and Fraser have reasons for pursuing their search for the killer, but they have their own demons to fight, which might just prove more formidable than the corrupt and venal system they operate within.One needs a strong stomach to read this series, but they are compelling; the violence is graphic but it never feels gratuitous. After reading the first book in the series, Nineteen Seventy-Four, I rushed right out to get a copy of [Nineteen Seventy-Seven], which I then eyed distrustfully for several months before reading. I'll be doing the same with Nineteen Eighty.

This is the second book in Peace's Red Riding Hood Quartet. It is just as grim and well-written as the first one. Although there are two narrators here, Jack Whitehead and Bobby Fraser, their voices are very similar (and like Nineteen Seventy-Four's Eddie Dunford), that I sometimes had trouble telling them apart. That was my only real problem with Peace's writing, however, as this book only seems to improve on the gory poetry of the first. The violence, corruption, and horror is almost mind numbing, and Peace's unique stream-of-consciousness ramblings, where the comma splices come like bullets and the obscenity pools like piles of blood, contributes to a sense of unreality, despite the realistic details of the setting. It's a nightmare that you can't wake up from, because if you put the book down, you will still be thinking about it, wondering what is truth and what is a dream. A brutal, beautifully styled noir, where there are no real answers (although I'm hoping we may get some by the end of the quartet), no heroes, and no rest for the wicked (the good don't exist). I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. It's like watching a train wreck, where you can't look away, and some perverted part of you doesn't want to. Four and a half stars.

I'll put the same review on all four of them:
Nineteen Seventy-Four
Nineteen Seventy-Seven
Nineteen Eighty
Nineteen Eighty Three
I read them as a challenge - based on camaraderie with coworkers.
Once I started the series, didn't especially want to wimp out, and then was compelled to read thru to the last book to see if I could possibly figure out what the "ending" was.
I'm not faulting the author - it was a unique and compelling writing style and twisted plot with characters jumping back and forth between books.
I did it. I read them all. I think they got weirder and more difficult as they went along, but if you're looking for some intense, darkly challenging books - have at it.
Read in 2011.

These books (1974, 1977, 1980, and 1983)collectively constitute The Red Riding Hood Quartet, a series of crime novels based on the Yorkshire Ripper murders. I had read the first in the series, Nineteen Seventy-four last year, and thought it would be a simple matter to pick up with Nineteen Seventy-seven (which BTW is on the 1001 list) and proceed. However, I soon determined that I needed to reread Nineteen Seventy-four, which I did, and when I finished Nineteen Seventy-seven, I had to immediately go onto Nineteen Eighty and then Nineteen Eighty-three. I can't remember when I've read so many books by the same author in such a concentrated amount of time. (I devoured these over several days). In my view, these four books can only be read as one novel.The first book in the series is narrated by a novice crime reporter, and concerned the solving of a series of child murders, some of which occurred several years before 1974, when the book is set. It is grim and bleak, and about terrible people doing terrible things. In this book, we are introduced to some of the corrupt policemen who are the core of this series.Nineteen Seventy-seven is narrated by Jack Whitehead, a senior crime reporter who had made an appearance in the first book as the arrogant, wisecracking rival of the narrator in the first book. Now that we are in his mind, we can see that he is a psychological wreck, with self-induced demons haunting him.Whitehead's sections alternate with sections narrated by Bobby Fraser, a policeman who made a brief but important appearance in the first book. In that book, he was a rookie, and was ethical with a sense of fair play. Three years later, he is unrecognizable--corrupt and violent.In Nineteen Seventy-seven the Ripper murders begin, but are not solved. As in Nineteen Seventy-four, the narrative flows freely back and forth in time, and is for the most part in stream of consciousness. It is again a novel without a hero, full of terrible people.In Nineteen Eighty the murders continue, and we meet the first character we can like. Peter Hunter, an investigator from another district, is sent to review the Ripper investigation to determine whether the failure to solve the case is due to incompetence, or to some clue that has been overlooked. Again the narrative travels loosely back and forth in time, and more and more of the rampant police corruption becomes known to the reader.Each of these first three novels ends with a huge bang, although we sometimes are not entirely sure what actually happened. It is not until the ensuing book that we are entirely aware of what happened, and the ramifications it has for the characters and the investigation.Nineteen Eight-three is narrated from the pov of three characters. John Piggot, a sleazy solicitor who is trying to prove that the man convicted of the child murders in the first book was framed, narrates his sections in the first person. BJ, a "rent boy" who has made appearances in the first three novels, narrates his sections, referring to himself in the second person. The final sections are told from the point of view of a corrupt police official.Nineteen Eight-three winds and unwinds, not unlike a symphonic exposition, all the threads begun in the first novel. It shifts back and forth in time over nearly twenty years. As in the first three novels, it also ends with a bang, and again we are not quite sure of all of the ramifications. Unfortunately, there will be no succeeding books to enlighten us.These four novels are amazing. They are not, however, for everyone. There are obscenties on every page. Brutality and violence abound, sometimes graphicly described. Everyone is corrupt. The novels are bleak, gritty, cynical and despairing. If this description doesn't bother you, I highly recommend these books. Read as one, they are a masterpiece.

Red Riding quartet (David Peace)1974197719801983A recent reviewer of Peace's book "Occupied City" described it as "unreadable". I bought it and before I started was somewhat encouraged by a much more positive review by a Jake Kerridge. But even that ended with ".......You will occasionally feel glad as you read that nobody else writes like Peace, but you will put the book down amazed and delighted that at least one person does." Well that proved to be the case as far as the comma.I bought the Red Riding quartet for a song in the Borders sale the last day before it closed for good. The basic subject seemed much more approachable — after all dammit they'd just been made into a TV mini-series. After struggling through I can report that they are also unreadable which is probably why they were still in the sale on the last day, most Borders customers being more savvy about choosing reading material than me. They are set mostly in Yorkshire but Manchester and Preston also appear. Some of the characters are common to all the books but corrupt coppers take the leading parts. There are references to real events such as the hunt for the "Yorkshire Ripper" (Peter Sutcliffe in real life) and perhaps people better informed about the place and the times could pick out more. But it is a work of fiction and even it was written in a more readable style it would be a mistake to try to make the links. Don't buy or even borrow.