In this novel Peace raises his work a notch. He has produced one of the finest British crime novels of recent years, and in his quartet of novels looks set to produce one of the finest series since Ellroy's Dudley Smith novels.
The narrative in Nineteen Seventy Seven focuses on two characters, Jack Whitehead, a journalist; and Bob Fraser, a police sergeant. Both characters appeared in Nineteen Seventy Four. Both are haunted by the shocking conclusion to the earlier novel. Their stories are set against the backdrop of the Sutcliffe murders, and the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Each strand is written in first person narrative, and for the most part the plot lines run parallel, although Fraser and Whitehead meet and exchange information. There are some stylistic similarities between the two strands (both have astream of consciousness feel) but for the most part the characters are sufficiently differentiated. While the strands run parallel there are some similarities in their development. For example, both are, or become, involved with prostitutes at a time when those prostitutes in West Yorkshire feared for their lives due to the Sutcliffe murders.
This is where Peace has taken an audacious step. In Nineteen Seventy Seven he begins to work on a fictionalisation of the Sutcliffe murders. However, the salient facts remain accurate. He places his characters in the main regional newspaper, and in the crime squad investigating the murders. At the centre of the novel lie the murders, and Peace - in both strands - is interested in following up the victim's reactions. His characters visit the families. Unlike some of the crossword puzzle mysteries where murder is a game with no consequences here, everyone involved is affected, from the family, to those investigating, to those that are left, living in fear. It is this agenda that underpins the novel and Peace's third novel, Nineteen Eighty, published in the UK in August 2001. And it is this dimension, developing in this novel and still further in Nineteen eighty, that gives Nineteen seventy seven a depth that much contemporary crime and thriller fiction lacks.
Aside from the social dimension, Peace's work has raised a level from his first novel in his characterisation. Neither central character is an archetypal hero, neither wholly amoral. Whitehead and Fraser are both given enough complexity to be credible. There are some powerful (and very disturbing) scenes in which Fraser assaults his lover; coupled with a tenderness between Fraser and his child. Taking mere examples from the novel may make the characterisation sound pat, the usual policeman bending the rules with personal difficulties. It is not easy to convey how unlike the orthodox approach in crime fiction this is. However, differ it does; and this is primarily through the first person narrative.
One further dimension is the series of occasional transcripts from a fictionalised talk radio show where callers talk about the Ripper, the Jubilee, and late seventies Yorkshire. These interludes punctuate the chapters, acting like a Greek chorus on the events in the main narrative.
I should also note the powerful conclusion. In Nineteen seventy four, the conclusion is overblown, excessive. Here, in retrospect, it seems inevitable. Yet, it is all the more shocking for that.
As the second book in the series, I would recommend that this be read after Nineteen seventy four. There are various references, and incidental characters (including BJ , involved in the blackmail of a councillor in Nineteen seventy four) where knowledge from the first novel is presupposed. Without Nineteen seventy four I feel that many references would have passed me by. However, as the subject matter is sufficiently different this novel could be read as stand alone.
Having praised the novel why a rating of four and not five stars? This is based on one consideration central to Peace's agenda. I am uncertain to what extent crime novelists should deal with real events, fresh in the memories. While the novelist expresses concern about those affected - and makes this a central plank of the novel, could one argue that the very action of using the murders is itself potentially exploitative and damaging.
Highly recommended. If you liked this try On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill, or The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy.
Half-decent copper Bob Fraser and burnt-out hack Jack Whitehead would be considered villains in most people's books. They have one thing in common, though. They're both desperate men dangerously in love with Chapeltown whores. And as the summer moves remorselessly towards the bonfires of Jubilee Night, the killings accelerate, and it seems as if Fraser and Whitehead are the only men who suspect or care that there may be more than one killer at large.