Brighton rock

by Graham Greene

299 pages

English language

Published Feb. 5, 1993 by Knopf, Distributed by Random House.

ISBN:: 978-0-679-42034-7

(6 reviews)

An atmospheric crime thriller featuring a teenage sociopath intent on becoming the underworld boss of Brighton. Having murdered a man who had betrayed his gang the young gangster Pinky Brown tries to covers his tracks but circumstances never seem to go his way and he becomes ever more desperate, even going so far as to marry a young girl who witnessed the shooting, it being the law at that time that a man’s wife could not be forced to testify against him.

20 editions

WellWorthARead reviewed Brighton rock by Graham Greene (Charnwood large type)

Review of 'Brighton rock' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This anthology is a fun and freaky read full of 1960's nostalgia and dark humor. Even the titles made me smile.
My favorites were Do You Believe In Tragic By Jeff Strand, which is a rock and roll love story that never ends as long as there is someone else to fall in love with.
California Screamin' by Renee Mallett about an aging musician's desperate attempt to make a come back. Daydream Bereaver by Shane Bitterling should be taken as a warning that not all beach babes are what they appear to be, and Eye Can't Get No Satisfaction by Staci Layne Wilson in which a woman tries to get the best out of her deal with the devil. Not to say the other stories aren't groovy too, this whole anthology was a blast.

4 out of 5 stars
I received a complimentary copy for review

dorsalfin reviewed Brighton rock by Graham Greene (Penguin twentieth-century classics)

Bleak and devastating

4 stars

Brutal psychological portraits of people we are not meant to love. A gang war with no glamour or illusions on either side. We begin to sympathize eventually with a somewhat pathetic and naive middle-aged woman, who lives for simple pleasures and takes no shame in lust. If virtue is to found in this world at all, she is the one who possesses it, and it gives her the strength she needs.

I found this a bit inaccessible, full of obscure-to-me midcentury British gangster slang, but well worth the effort.