An honest cop and good man marinates in hopelessness and evil. Best of the series. An incredibly difficult book, but worth it. ( )

Diciembre de 1980. El Destripador ha matado ya a trece mujeres. Ante la inefectividad de la policía de West Yorkshire, el Ministerio del Interior crea una superbrigada para asesorarla, pero en realidad también para vigilarla. Peter Hunter, comisario jefe del Gran Manchester, es enviado a Leeds al frente de un nuevo equipo de investigadores. No puede decirse que reciban una cordial bienvenida. Hunter ya había estado en West Yorkshire en dos ocasiones, para esclarecer –sin éxito– algunos casos en los que estaban involucrados algunos miembros de la policía. La matanza del pub Strafford (1974) y la red de pornografía y corrupción policial de Bradford (1977) reaparecen aquí extrañamente conectadas con los asesinatos del Destripador… y son causa de nuevos y horrendos crímenes.

Fortsatt blött, smutsigt och allmänt djävligt. Nya försök att förstå helheten om The Yorkshire Ripper. Det är kompakt och hårt skrivet med ett väldigt bra driv i berättelsen. Inte alltid så lätt att förstå och hänga med, men det är lite av tjusningen med David Peace böcker. ( )

Improves on 1977 in one way with a fully sympathetic protagonist but gets much worse in another as the prose poetry becomes more repetitive and intrusive to the point that it's just tiring to read.

The same phrases, sentences and paragraphs repeated again and again. Up to a point, it's effective but in the latter parts of the book I found myself skipping whole paragraphs because it was the second or third time I'd read that same paragraph on the same page and I'd read it a dozen or more times before. If the device is used to the extent that the reader is skipping passages then it has been over-used.

The ending is somewhat confusing but will presumably be made slightly clearer in the final book (the semi-spoiler question being "who pulled the trigger?"), and the last minute reveal about one character's past involvement in a sleazy business left me asking what were the chances that this person got picked for the team in the first place? If they hadn't (and the conspirators who used it against them had no control over that) then it would have been totally irrelevant. Coincidence at the beginning of a story is okay but right at the end asks for a bit of a leap of faith on the part of the reader.

Whilst the TV adaptations leave out a lot of stuff (including the entire 1977 installment) they feel somehow more complete and satisfying than this re-read is showing the books to be. ( )

I'll put the same review on all four of them:
Nineteen Seventy-Four
Nineteen Seventy-Seven
Nineteen Eighty
Nineteen Eighty Three
I read them as a challenge - based on camaraderie with coworkers.
Once I started the series, didn't especially want to wimp out, and then was compelled to read thru to the last book to see if I could possibly figure out what the "ending" was.
I'm not faulting the author - it was a unique and compelling writing style and twisted plot with characters jumping back and forth between books.
I did it. I read them all. I think they got weirder and more difficult as they went along, but if you're looking for some intense, darkly challenging books - have at it.
Read in 2011. ( )