Book
Brighton Rock
First published 1938
Seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown takes control of a small Brighton gang after the murder of his leader. When journalist Fred Hale is killed during the holiday crowds, Pinkie tries to remove every witness and piece of evidence that could connect the gang to the crime.
Rose, a vulnerable waitress, becomes both a threat and a possible shield because she can identify one of Pinkie’s associates. He courts and marries her to control her testimony, while the determined Ida Arnold pursues the truth. Catholic ideas of sin, damnation and mercy intensify a crime story rooted in poverty, violence and the commercial gaiety of interwar Brighton.
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