Nineteen Seventy Four cover art

Nineteen Seventy Four

Red Riding Quartet

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Nineteen Seventy Four

By: David Peace
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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About this listen

*Please note this audiobook contains explicit language.

Jeanette Garland, missing Castleford, July 1969. Susan Ridyard, missing Rochdale, March 1972. Claire Kemplay, missing Morley, since yesterday. It’s winter, 1974, Yorkshire, Christmas bombs, Lord Lucan on the run, the Bay City Rollers, and Eddie Dunford’s got the job he wanted – crime correspondent for the Yorkshire Evening Post. He didn’t know it was going to be a season in hell. A dead little girl with a swan’s wings stitched into her back. A gypsy camp in a ring of fire. Corruption everywhere you look.

In Nineteen Seventy Four, David Peace brings passion and stylistic bravado to this terrifyingly intense journey into a secret history of sexual obsession and greed, and starts a highly acclaimed crime series that has redefined how the genre is approached.

David Peace (born 1967) is an English author. He was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in 2003 and won the 2004 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He is also known for his novels GB84 and The Damned United; the latter was made into a feature film starring Michael Sheen.

©2000 David Peace (P)2010 Audible Crime Winter Scary Thought-Provoking Emotionally Gripping England Christmas

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Critic reviews

" Nineteen Seventy Four is raw and furiously alive, the literary equivalent of a hard right to the jaw. David Peace has delivered the finest crime fiction debut of the year and joined a select group of novelists who are transforming the genre with passion and style." (George Pelecanos)
"Quite simply, this is the future of British crime fiction." ( Time Out)
"The pace is relentless, the style staccato-plus and the morality bleak and forlorn....Peace's voice is powerful and unique." ( Guardian)
"A triumph of sustained narrative energy that reinvigorates the British crime novel" - ( Daily Telegraph)
"This is one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read. As a literary work, it zings with poetry, rhythm and black elegance" – Iain Martin ( WATERSTONES)
"A beautifully written and chilling debut novel that firmly establishes David Peace as a master wordsmith and crime fiction aficionado" – ( eurocrime.co.uk)
"A must-read for fans of gripping fiction" – ( Woman and Home)
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Stunning, Horrible, Gripping, and Awful

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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.

So Dark You Need the Light on!

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I agree that this book is not for the fainthearted, it is extremely dark and uncompromising but that doesn't stop it from also being extremely good. crime in real life is dark and effects peoples lives in profound ways. The book is very real in this sense and I found it totally compelling. the characterisation is excellent and whilst there are some wicked people in the book they are very well constructed wicked people whose actions ring true in the context of the plot. The focus of the book is corruption both personal and institutional and this is portrayed in all its squalor. The harshness of the language reflects the depravity of some of the players and accentuates the powerlessness of the victims.

not your standard crime novel

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'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...

James Ellroy comes to 1970s West Yorkshire

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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.

Powerful performance of a powerful story!

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