Weirdo - Softcover

Cathi Unsworth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846687926 ISBN 13: 9781846687921

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2012

Synopsis

Twenty years ago, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl named Corrine Woodrow was convicted of murdering one of her classmates.

But now new forensic evidence indicates that Corrine didn't act alone, and Sean Ward - a private investigator whose promising career in the Met was cut short by a teenage drug dealer with an automatic weapon - travels to the seaside town of Ernemouth, to try to discover what really happened all those years ago. But he quickly realises that what's ultimately at stake is not Corrine's reputation, but those of the people who ran the place then - and still run it now.

In order to get to the truth, he has to take on not just retired Detective Inspector Len Rivett - the man who headed up the original case and wants to keep it firmly closed -- but also the mindset of an entire town that has always known how to look after its own.

About this title

Review:

A great, page-turning read. The construction is effortlessly managed. The sense of place - I remember that Yarmouth / Lowestoft area very well from my book-trawling days - is spot on. I think the whole package works beautifully: memory traces, bad magic, sounds, smells. So thank you again for letting me have an early taste. (Iain Sinclair)

Fans of Cathi Unsworth's potent brand of period noir have come to expect her trademark fluid writing, tense plotting and believable characters but in Weirdo, she has added an extra dimension of intensity. Set partly in the 1980s and partly in the early 2000s, the bang-on and powerful evocation of being a Punk in the provinces twists round the switchback central story of madness and murder like a perfect riff. Satisfying and beautifully done, Weirdo is a brilliant read, by a brilliant author. (Joolz Denby Pre-publication quote 2012-04-05)

A must for fans of crime fiction. (Anne Sexton Hot Press 2012-05-19)

Cathi Unsworth, follows up her masterly noir Bad Penny Blues with another fine crime novel, Weirdo, as a private detective travels to Norfolk to try and unravel the mystery of a schoolgirl's murder. (Simon Evans Choice 2012-06-01)

Another fine crime novel from Cathi Unsworth after her masterly noir, Bad Penny Blues (Simon Evans Choice 2012-06-01)

Unsworth's best yet, as sharp as vinegar on chips (Christopher Fowler FT 2012-06-30)

A serious talent... An unusually gifted writer of heartfelt noir... she has brilliantly captured that desperate sense of teenage boredom, isolation, danger and mayhem. (Henry Sutton Daily Mirror 2012-07-13)

Cathi Unsworth has carved out an idiosyncratic niche writing unsettling, subcultural British noir . . . a creepy, credible page-turner that delights and disturbs. (Metro 2012-07-11)

An absorbing mystery, an extraordinarily powerful evocation of time and place and a cast of characters whose every breath feels real - Unsworth gets better with every book. (Laura Wilson Guardian 2012-07-14)

Bad Penny Blues marked out Cathi Unsworth as a writer of rare talent. Weirdo proves she is no one-hit wonder... Demonstrating once again a fine sense of place and period (1983 and 2003), Unsworth creates a gripping tale of adolescent angst and genuine evil. (Julia Handford Sunday Telegraph 2012-07-15)

Book Description:

The new novel from 'the First Lady of Noir Fiction' (David Peace)

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1846687926
• ISBN 13: 9781846687921
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288