Brighton Rock [Mass Market Paperback]

With this brilliant portrayal of crime and punishment, Greene proved that the thriller need not be pulp fiction. When Pinkie, the tormented Catholic, encounters his unlikely nemesis in Ida, Green means to show that there is justice and vengeance in this life as well as in the world beyond death. (Kirkus UK)

A blend of horror, adventure, mystery and morbid realism for this weird, sometimes original story of murders at Brighton Rock, the London Coney Island. An unprepossessing Londoner on a Bank Holiday is the first victim and his friend of the day investigates the murder, which was done by Pinkie, a boy of 17, heading a gang of racing racketeers, whose rule is threatened by another more powerful gang. Perversed, abnormal, dwarfed, the "Boy" goes from one razor cutting to another in his attempt to cover his initial crime, is forced to marry a young girl who holds the clue to the first killing, though he hates women and despises his own impotency. And in the end - inevitable defeat for the "Boy". For this type of thing, overlong and occasionally repetitive, with some unconvincing elements. But there is a good sense of the tawdry scene and the crowds, and considerable originality with interesting psychological touches to the characterization. Plus sale in the mystery section. (Kirkus Reviews)

Gripping, terrifying, an unputdownable read - Greene's iconic tale of the razor-wielding Pinkie --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the author of THE POWER AND THE GLORY. A story of gang war in the underworld of Brighton. Pinkie, only seventeen, has already brutally killed a man. Now believing he has escaped retribution, he is unprepared for Ida Arnold, who is determined to avenge the death.

A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold.

Graham Greene's gripping thriller was adapted into a British film noir in 1947 starring Richard Attenborough as the razor-wielding Pinkie.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Graham Greene was born in 1904. On coming down from Balliol College, Oxford, he worked for four years as sub-editor on The Times. He established his reputation with his fourth novel, Stamboul Train. In 1935 he made a journey across Liberia, described in Journey Without Maps, and on his return was appointed film critic of the Spectator. In 1926 he had been received into the Roman Catholic Church and visited Mexico in 1938 to report on the religious persecution there. As a result he wrote The Lawless Roads and, later, his famous novel The Power and the Glory. Brighton Rock was published in 1938 and in 1940 he became literary editor of the Spectator. The next year he undertook work for the Foreign Office and was stationed in Sierra Leone from 1941 to 1943. This later produced the novel The Heart of the Matter, set in West Africa.

As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography - A Sort of Life, Ways of Escape and A World of My Own (published posthumously) - two of biography and four books for children. He also contributed hundreds of essays, and film and book reviews, some of which appear in the collections Reflections and Mornings in the Dark. Many of his novels and short stories have been filmed and The Third Man was written as a film treatment. Graham Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. He died in April 1991.

(20040624) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.