Nineteen Eighty Three - Five star

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

Nineteen Eighty Three is the final volume of David Peace's titanic Red Riding Quartet, which portrays crime and police brutality in Yorkshire in graphic detail. Using actual events to ground the narrative in reality, Peace hops back and forth through the seventies and early eighties, moving between three main stories. A young girl disappears, just as another child disappeared a decade before, which raises questions about the original police investigation. A solicitor struggles to uncover the truth, fighting against endemic corruption and silence, while a senior policeman suffers pangs of conscience. Meanwhile, the desire for vengeance is building in a traumatised victim of abuse. The tension is sustained right to the end, as the full implications of their shared experiences become apparent. Often described as the British James Ellroy, Peace has written a brilliant, searing novel, whose splintered and allusive style builds up layers of meaning to shattering effect. (Kirkus UK)