Site last updated 27/11/23
Cover image: Crypt Style Cathi 88 by Mark Webb
Cover image: Crypt Style Cathi 88 by Mark Webb
A WATERSTONES BEST MUSIC BOOK OF 2023
A TIMES BEST MUSIC BOOK OF 2023
A MOJO BOOK OF 2023
NEW! LISTEN TO THE SEASON OF THE WITCH PLAYLIST
Take Cathi's aural tour through the book, courtesy of GothShop.co by clicking HERE
OUT NOW!:
SEASON OF THE WITCH
THE BOOK OF GOTH
"A masterpiece meticulously detailing the people, places and politics that defied and defined an era." –
LYDIA LUNCH
"As monumental as its subject, a real temple of love" – VICTORIA SEGAL, MOJO
"Brilliantly written and contextualised. I couldn't put it down" –
MARTYN WARE, HEAVEN 17/BEF/HUMAN LEAGUE
CATHI's horrible history of Goth is here! You can buy a copy HERE, HERE, HERE or HERE!
Season of the Witch is a panoramic view of the musical culture of the UK in the 1980s and its search for a voice to capture —a voice sometimes captured by —a nation seized by traumas of displacement, dispossession, depression, powerlessness, and silencing. What both grounds it, and opens a period of time now in the past as a gaping hole waiting as the future, is the constant underpinning of the greater Goth forces at work in the land.…"
GREIL MARCUS
"Cathi Unsworth brings darkness to light" –
JON SAVAGE
"An utterly compelling social history filled with passion, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. This is the essential account of all things Goth, the epic and intimate story of a great tribe that emerged from Thatcher’s Dark Ages." –
JAKE ARNOTT
"Season Of The Witch is to Goth what Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming was to Punk… a magnificent, wild dissection of the music, the madness, and social dysfunction of the era that spawned it. Hail Unsworth." –
BILLY CHAINSAW,
former assistant, Siouxsie and The Banshees
"The First Lady of Noir seamlessly stitches politics, psychogeography and secret history into the most mesmerising musical tapestry of the Eighties, to create a Gothic masterpiece. I was spellbound." –
ANN SCANLON, author of The Pogues: The Lost Decade
FEATURING: Joy Division, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Magazine, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, The Cramps, The Gun Club, Lydia Lunch, JG Thirlwell, The Birthday Party, Soft Cell, Sisters of Mercy, Southern/Death/Cult, Theatre of Hate, New Model Army, Joolz, Marc & The Mambas, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, These Immortal Souls, Crime & The City Solution, Diamanda Galàs, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Virgin Prunes, Cocteau Twins, Danielle Dax, Cardiacs and more family favourites…
It opens 40 years ago, in the Winter of Discontent…
When months of industrial action have left the dead unburied and mountains of rubbish piling up in the streets. After ten brutal homicides and the biggest police hunt in history, the Yorkshire Ripper is still at large and preparing to strike again. Punk has reached its bleak climax with the fatal overdose of Sid Vicious while awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, from a hot dose supplied by his mother.
Unlikely alliances of outsiders prepare to seize power, set the political agenda and write the soundtrack for the years to come. Their figureheads are two very different kinds of dominatrices...
As Margaret Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street, four bands born of punk – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure, and Magazine – find a way to distil the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Pushing at the taboos the Sex Pistols had unlocked and dancing with the fetishistic, all will become global stars of Goth.
By the time Thatcher is cast out of office in 1990, the arrival of Goth will have imprinted its will on the cultural landscape as deeply as the Iron Lady herself.
This is the story of how Goth was shaped by the politics of an era – from the Cold War, the Miners' Strike, privatisation, The Troubles and AIDS – and how its outlaw imagery and innovative, atmospheric music spoke to a generation of alienated youths.
A fascinating social history, SEASON OF THE WITCH tells the tale of an enduring counter-culture, one that steadfastly refuses to give up the ghost.
"Drawing on both her novelistic skills as well as her years as a music journalist, Unsworth's account of Goth and its origins is rich and absorbing, establishing its political and historical context. She shows that the dark matter of Goth amounts to more than mere Addams family cosplay but has deep cultural roots in literature and cinema, as well as magnificent precursors such as The Doors, Nico, Suicide, David Bowie, who helped breed giants such as Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division and Magazine…" –
DAVID STUBBS, author of ‘Mars By 1980’
“Cathi Unsworth not only succeeds in conjuring her personal history and dark tastes into a book of immense and lucid insight, but in doing so has crafted a rich reflection – picking up every stitch– on the signs and sigils of the times, featuring a cast of the lost, the damned, the beautiful and the bizarre; the possessed and dispossessed. All with the best possible sense of glacial cool.” –
RICHARD CABUT, author of Looking For A Kiss
“Cathi Unsworth’s book is as fascinating as it is fearless. This deep, illuminating, and informative book with delicious sidebars (have a Mortician’s Martini while you’re there) employs creative sources that aren’t just a lineup of the usual suspects plus plenty of original thinking. Season of the Witch is surely one for the (not just dark) ages.” –
SUSAN COMPO, author of Earthbound: David Bowie and ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’
'An extraordinary compendium, stuffed with choice and abstruse fragments of Goth lore. I was wildly entertained.' –
DJ TAYLOR
PRESS ENQUIRIES CONTACT:
Elinor Fewster at Nine Eight:
elinor.fewster@bonnierbooks.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3770 8888
Read Sylvia Patterson's sneak preview in The Guardian HERE
LYDIA LUNCH
"As monumental as its subject, a real temple of love" – VICTORIA SEGAL, MOJO
"Brilliantly written and contextualised. I couldn't put it down" –
MARTYN WARE, HEAVEN 17/BEF/HUMAN LEAGUE
CATHI's horrible history of Goth is here! You can buy a copy HERE, HERE, HERE or HERE!
Season of the Witch is a panoramic view of the musical culture of the UK in the 1980s and its search for a voice to capture —a voice sometimes captured by —a nation seized by traumas of displacement, dispossession, depression, powerlessness, and silencing. What both grounds it, and opens a period of time now in the past as a gaping hole waiting as the future, is the constant underpinning of the greater Goth forces at work in the land.…"
GREIL MARCUS
"Cathi Unsworth brings darkness to light" –
JON SAVAGE
"An utterly compelling social history filled with passion, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. This is the essential account of all things Goth, the epic and intimate story of a great tribe that emerged from Thatcher’s Dark Ages." –
JAKE ARNOTT
"Season Of The Witch is to Goth what Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming was to Punk… a magnificent, wild dissection of the music, the madness, and social dysfunction of the era that spawned it. Hail Unsworth." –
BILLY CHAINSAW,
former assistant, Siouxsie and The Banshees
"The First Lady of Noir seamlessly stitches politics, psychogeography and secret history into the most mesmerising musical tapestry of the Eighties, to create a Gothic masterpiece. I was spellbound." –
ANN SCANLON, author of The Pogues: The Lost Decade
FEATURING: Joy Division, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Magazine, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, The Cramps, The Gun Club, Lydia Lunch, JG Thirlwell, The Birthday Party, Soft Cell, Sisters of Mercy, Southern/Death/Cult, Theatre of Hate, New Model Army, Joolz, Marc & The Mambas, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, These Immortal Souls, Crime & The City Solution, Diamanda Galàs, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Virgin Prunes, Cocteau Twins, Danielle Dax, Cardiacs and more family favourites…
It opens 40 years ago, in the Winter of Discontent…
When months of industrial action have left the dead unburied and mountains of rubbish piling up in the streets. After ten brutal homicides and the biggest police hunt in history, the Yorkshire Ripper is still at large and preparing to strike again. Punk has reached its bleak climax with the fatal overdose of Sid Vicious while awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, from a hot dose supplied by his mother.
Unlikely alliances of outsiders prepare to seize power, set the political agenda and write the soundtrack for the years to come. Their figureheads are two very different kinds of dominatrices...
As Margaret Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street, four bands born of punk – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure, and Magazine – find a way to distil the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Pushing at the taboos the Sex Pistols had unlocked and dancing with the fetishistic, all will become global stars of Goth.
By the time Thatcher is cast out of office in 1990, the arrival of Goth will have imprinted its will on the cultural landscape as deeply as the Iron Lady herself.
This is the story of how Goth was shaped by the politics of an era – from the Cold War, the Miners' Strike, privatisation, The Troubles and AIDS – and how its outlaw imagery and innovative, atmospheric music spoke to a generation of alienated youths.
A fascinating social history, SEASON OF THE WITCH tells the tale of an enduring counter-culture, one that steadfastly refuses to give up the ghost.
"Drawing on both her novelistic skills as well as her years as a music journalist, Unsworth's account of Goth and its origins is rich and absorbing, establishing its political and historical context. She shows that the dark matter of Goth amounts to more than mere Addams family cosplay but has deep cultural roots in literature and cinema, as well as magnificent precursors such as The Doors, Nico, Suicide, David Bowie, who helped breed giants such as Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division and Magazine…" –
DAVID STUBBS, author of ‘Mars By 1980’
“Cathi Unsworth not only succeeds in conjuring her personal history and dark tastes into a book of immense and lucid insight, but in doing so has crafted a rich reflection – picking up every stitch– on the signs and sigils of the times, featuring a cast of the lost, the damned, the beautiful and the bizarre; the possessed and dispossessed. All with the best possible sense of glacial cool.” –
RICHARD CABUT, author of Looking For A Kiss
“Cathi Unsworth’s book is as fascinating as it is fearless. This deep, illuminating, and informative book with delicious sidebars (have a Mortician’s Martini while you’re there) employs creative sources that aren’t just a lineup of the usual suspects plus plenty of original thinking. Season of the Witch is surely one for the (not just dark) ages.” –
SUSAN COMPO, author of Earthbound: David Bowie and ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’
'An extraordinary compendium, stuffed with choice and abstruse fragments of Goth lore. I was wildly entertained.' –
DJ TAYLOR
PRESS ENQUIRIES CONTACT:
Elinor Fewster at Nine Eight:
elinor.fewster@bonnierbooks.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3770 8888
Read Sylvia Patterson's sneak preview in The Guardian HERE
NEW AUDIO: CATHI ON THE JAMES McMAHON MUSIC PODCAST
Cathi talks to host JAMES McMAHON about Dennis Wheatley and Margaret Thatcher, Aleister Crowley and Arthur Daley, The Rendlesham Incident and The Cramps and many more fertile Goth Leylines. Tune in HERE
NEW FEATURE: REFLECTIONS ON SOTW IN TOXIC GRAFITY
TOXIC GRAFITY's MIKE DIBOLL gets his motor running and takes an epic ride around SEASON OF THE WITCH: THE BOOK OF GOTH HERE
Illustration by HYD
Illustration by HYD
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON DRESS: FANCY
Cathi was delighted to be asked by host LUCY CLAYTON to talk all things GOTH for her HALLOWEEN SPECIAL! Pull up a pumpkin and join us HERE
NEW AUDIO! CATHI AND MAX DÉCHARNÉ AT CONVIVIAL RABBIT FRINGE FESTIVAL
Hear Cathi and KING'S ROAD author MAX discuss Goths, Teds, Punks and the heroic deeds of Bram Stoker at the recent Convivial Rabbit Fring Festival in Dorchester HERE
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON WORD IN YOUR EAR LIVE
Cathi was delighted to be a guest on WORD IN YOUR EAR LIVE at 21Soho on 25 September. You can hear her conversation with hosts MARK ELLEN and DAVID HEPWORTH on all matters Goth HERE
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON BETTER KNOWN PODCAST
IVAN WISE invited Cathi onto his incredibly interesting Better Known podcast. All Ivan's guests get to talk about six people or things that should be better known – Cathi chose:
The magazine Fortean Times
Getting to know London's secrets by going for long walks
The noir writer Derek Raymond
The pop artist Pauline Boty
The publisher London Books
The musician Tim Smith
Listen in HERE
Photo by Travis Elborough
The magazine Fortean Times
Getting to know London's secrets by going for long walks
The noir writer Derek Raymond
The pop artist Pauline Boty
The publisher London Books
The musician Tim Smith
Listen in HERE
Photo by Travis Elborough
NEW! CATHI IN THE IRISH TIMES, SATURDAY 23 SEPT
NEW! CATHI IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY 23 SEPT
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON FOXY RADIO
Cathi talks Goth with Peter Fox and plays ten classics from the crypt. Listen again HERE
NEW FEATURE! CATHI IN UAL SUBCULTURES
Cathi is interviewed by London College of Fashion's KEVIN QUINN about SEASON OF THE WITCH in this in-depth feature, with photos by DEREK RIDGERS (above) and DAVID ARNOFF. Read all about it HERE
NEW AUDIO!
CATHI ON SUZI'S BOOK BAG
Cathi talks to host SUZI FEAY – who served her own Goth apprenticeship in Leeds during the glory years of 1981-3 – about SEASON OF THE WITCH: THE BOOK OF GOTH. And all matters pertaining to it. Tune in, turn on, burn out HERE
NEW AUDIO!
CATHI ON THE BOOKS PODCAST
Cathi talks to host TIM HAIGH about SEASON OF THE WITCH and how the turbulent reign of Margaret Thatcher shaped Goth's musical response. Tune in HERE
NEW FEATURE! CATHI AT GOTHSHOP
Goth Shop talks to CATHI about SEASON OF THE WITCH, a chronicle of UK Goth, capturing the bands, performers and political forces that drove and defined Gothic ideology. ♥︎
Interview by DAVE DARCY EDMOND and featuring photography by David Arnoff, Caroline Bonarde, Tony Bock, George Dubous, Kevin Haskins, Dino Ignani, Richard Kern, @no.one.studio.london, Derek Ridgers, Ray Stevenson, Mick Mercer, Innes Reekie, and Gena Tuso
Click HERE for the Goth Goods From The Gate!
Interview by DAVE DARCY EDMOND and featuring photography by David Arnoff, Caroline Bonarde, Tony Bock, George Dubous, Kevin Haskins, Dino Ignani, Richard Kern, @no.one.studio.london, Derek Ridgers, Ray Stevenson, Mick Mercer, Innes Reekie, and Gena Tuso
Click HERE for the Goth Goods From The Gate!
NEW FEATURE!
CATHI IN THE HERALD
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON
WORD IN YOUR EAR
Cathi joins hosts MARK ELLEN and DAVID HEPWORTH to talk cider and black, hanging round in graveyards, using orange juice to spike up your hair and much more HERE
NEW AUDIO:
CATHI ON BRITFLICKS PODCAST
Cathi joins host STUART WRIGHT to select Three Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life: NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Charles Laughton, 1955), WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (Bryan Forbes, 1961) and GOODFELLAS (Martin Scorsese, 1990). Find out what these cinematic gems have to do with SEASON OF THE WITCH: THE BOOK OF GOTH HERE
NEW AUDIO:
CATHI ON C86
Cathi joins host David Eastlaugh in his Time Tunnel to the Eighties to talk about the dark psychic weather of SEASON OF THE WITCH and Goth's response to the Thatcher reign. Tune in, turn on, burn out HERE
NEW! CATHI IN THE WIRE
NEW! SEASON OF THE WITCH REVIEWED IN 3AM
Read Nicky Charlish's in-depth review HERE
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON RADIO 4 FRONT ROW
Listen to Cathi talking Goth with Samira Ahmed HERE
NEW AUDIO! CATHI ON THE LYDIAN SPIN
Cathi discusses SEASON OF THE WITCH: THE BOOK OF GOTH with her very own Gothmother LYDIA LUNCH HERE
NEW! CATHI IN OUTSIDELEFT MUSIC
Thanks to Alan Rider for his thoughtful review of SEASON OF THE WITCH: THE BOOK OF GOTH HERE
And full interview with Cathi HERE
And full interview with Cathi HERE
NEW!: CATHI IN THE IDLER
Read Cathi's article on Goth in the new edition of The Idler, available online HERE. Photo of Nick and Lydia by David Arnoff, from his new book SHOT IN THE DARK.
NEW REVIEW: SEASON OF THE WITCH IN MOONBUILDING
NEW REVIEW: SEASON OF THE WITCH IN CLASSIC POP
NEW FEATURE: IT'S GOTH OF THE POPS WITH CATHI IN 3AM MAGAZINE
It’s Thursday night, it’s seven o’clock, it’s Goth of the Pops! Cathi Unsworth is in the Videodrome with Andrew Stevens revisiting five Eighties Goth classics, ahead of her Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth, out May 11 (Nine Eight Books).
DEFYING GRAVITY
New paperback edition
out now
"IF YOU'VE NEVER READ A BOOK ABOUT PUNK, THIS IS THE ONLY ONE YOU'LL EVER NEED"
– Julie Burchill, The New Statesman
The image of Jordan with her white shards of beehive and Mondrian make-up is one of the most iconic in pop cylture. From the counter of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's taboo-busting shop on 240 King's Road, she helped shape a revolution.
But who was the woman behind it all? How did a ballet-mad girl from sleepy Sussex make her way, via the clandestine gay clubs of Brighton and London, to the eye of punk's storm? What happened after all her hair-raising adventures with The Sex Pistols, Adam and The Ants, Derek Jarman and Andy Warhol when she just disappeared?
With commetary from key players and close friends including Vivienne Westwood, Paul Cook, Marco Pirroni, Holly Johnson, and her partner behind the SEX counter, Michael Collins – plus a wealth of never-before-seen images from Simon Barker, Sheila Rock and Harri Peccinotti and a specially commissioned cover by Graham Humphreys – Jordan reveals her outrageous life story. Buckle up for a masterclass in true punk spirit.
To order one, go HERE
Limited edition Slipcase and Boxed Set editions of Defying Gravity signed by Jordan are still available.
For the Slipcase edition, go HERE
For the Boxed Set, go HERE
See more of our previous adventures on our DEFYING GRAVITY page
– Julie Burchill, The New Statesman
The image of Jordan with her white shards of beehive and Mondrian make-up is one of the most iconic in pop cylture. From the counter of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's taboo-busting shop on 240 King's Road, she helped shape a revolution.
But who was the woman behind it all? How did a ballet-mad girl from sleepy Sussex make her way, via the clandestine gay clubs of Brighton and London, to the eye of punk's storm? What happened after all her hair-raising adventures with The Sex Pistols, Adam and The Ants, Derek Jarman and Andy Warhol when she just disappeared?
With commetary from key players and close friends including Vivienne Westwood, Paul Cook, Marco Pirroni, Holly Johnson, and her partner behind the SEX counter, Michael Collins – plus a wealth of never-before-seen images from Simon Barker, Sheila Rock and Harri Peccinotti and a specially commissioned cover by Graham Humphreys – Jordan reveals her outrageous life story. Buckle up for a masterclass in true punk spirit.
To order one, go HERE
Limited edition Slipcase and Boxed Set editions of Defying Gravity signed by Jordan are still available.
For the Slipcase edition, go HERE
For the Boxed Set, go HERE
See more of our previous adventures on our DEFYING GRAVITY page
BAD PENNY BLUES
New edition out now
London 1959: Police Constable Pete Bradley has done one year in the force and dreams of moving up. His destiny arrives when the body of a young woman is dumped on the banks of the Thames. She’s the first in a series of murders whose naked victims are left in and along the river. Pete’s search for the phantom killer will lead him deep into London’s underbelly as the 1960s start to swing.
Meanwhile Stella Reade, an art student living in bohemian Ladbroke Grove, is woken by terrifying nightmares that echo the last hours of the murdered women – all of whom have been plucked from the streets around her home. Streets where fascists and Teddy boys, migrants and anarchists chase illicit thrills with gangsters and lords.
Bad Penny Blues is based on the Thames Towpath case of 1959-65, which sparked the biggest manhunt in Metropolitan Police history but was never solved.
“Cathi Unsworth has been compared to cult noirist Derek Raymond. Here she enters a pantheon of writers exploring London lowlife that extends from Patrick Hamilton and Colin MacInnes” Christopher Fowler, Financial Times
To order a copy go HERE
To hear Cathi discussing the book with Travis Elborough go HERE
Meanwhile Stella Reade, an art student living in bohemian Ladbroke Grove, is woken by terrifying nightmares that echo the last hours of the murdered women – all of whom have been plucked from the streets around her home. Streets where fascists and Teddy boys, migrants and anarchists chase illicit thrills with gangsters and lords.
Bad Penny Blues is based on the Thames Towpath case of 1959-65, which sparked the biggest manhunt in Metropolitan Police history but was never solved.
“Cathi Unsworth has been compared to cult noirist Derek Raymond. Here she enters a pantheon of writers exploring London lowlife that extends from Patrick Hamilton and Colin MacInnes” Christopher Fowler, Financial Times
To order a copy go HERE
To hear Cathi discussing the book with Travis Elborough go HERE
NEW VIDEO:
LYDIA LUNCH TALKS TO CATHI ABOUT THE WAR IS NEVER OVER
From Sheffield Documentary Festival 2021, Lydia talks to Cathi about Beth B's documentary about her life's work, THE WAR IS NEVER OVER. Go HERE to view.
CATHI "TOO GOOD NOT TO BE CRAZY FAMOUS"
Cathi joins a list of 12 noir writers from around the globe who are considered by Criminal Element's GREG LEVIN: "Too good not to be crazy famous." You can read the whole story – and pick up some more top tips for your noir reading pleasure HERE
WATCH OUR TED TALK WITH DAVID PEACE, MARTYN WAITES, NICK TRIPLOW AND CATHI HERE
Cathi joined David Peace, Martyn Waites and Ted Lewis' biographer Nick Triplow to pay tribute to the life and influence of Ted Lewis in this Crowdcast event from No Exit Press and Crime Time UK. You can see it HERE
CATHI SAYS:
I LOVE LIBRARIES!
WESTMINSTER LIBRARIES – my local group of libraries in Ladbroke Grove, Paddington and West End Central – asked me to make a short video explaining how libraries have helped inspire and inform me my whole life. You can watch the video HERE via Facebook and HERE via Twitter. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
A TRIBUTE TO TIM SMITH
A mighty oak crashed down in the magic musical kingdom of my life with the passing of Tim Smith. Some years ago 3AM let me write about Cardiacs when The Leader of the Starry Skies album came out. My thanks to Andrew Stevens for restoring the feature with new links to some of Tim's most incredible songs that mean the most to me. I would also just like to send love and deepest sympathy to the entire Cardiacs family: Jim, Billiam Dee, Kavus, Sarah, Dominic, Tim Quy, Alan James, Bic Haynes and Jo Spratley who helped me so much with this feature. Everything I want to say is written HERE
THE SINGER MAKES THE INDEPENDENT'S TOP 25 CRIME NOVELS TO READ DURING LOCKDOWN
The Independent's Sarah Hughes has put The Singer in her 25 lesser-known crime titles to read during Lockdown, in a fantastic list that begins with Alexander Baron's King Dido. Get the full SP HERE
WEIRDO NAMED IN
THE TIMES TOP TEN
CRIME NOVELS OF
THE PAST DECADE!
Many thanks to MARK SANDERSON for elevating Weirdo to the upper echelons of the past decade's crime novels The Times. His review reads:
Cathi Unsworth is a brilliant writer who would be far better known were it not for her refusal to repeat herself. Her fourth and best novel is set in a seaside town not unlike her native Great Yarmouth. Swinging between the Eighties and the Noughties, it is essentially a game of cat-and-mouse between a private eye and a retired cop responsible for more than one miscarriage of justie. Teenage angst, police corruption and witchcraft combine in a full-blooded neo- noir.
The other writers in the Top Ten are Peter Temple (Truth), Ruth Rendell (The Vault), Ruth Dudley Edwards (Killing The Emperors), Karin Slaughter (Cop Town), Ian Rankin (Even Dogs In The Wild), Fred Vargas (A Climate of Fear), Denise Mina (The Long Drop), George Pelecanos (The Man Who Came Down) and Jo Nesbo (Knife) – so the little oddball is in good company!
Cathi Unsworth is a brilliant writer who would be far better known were it not for her refusal to repeat herself. Her fourth and best novel is set in a seaside town not unlike her native Great Yarmouth. Swinging between the Eighties and the Noughties, it is essentially a game of cat-and-mouse between a private eye and a retired cop responsible for more than one miscarriage of justie. Teenage angst, police corruption and witchcraft combine in a full-blooded neo- noir.
The other writers in the Top Ten are Peter Temple (Truth), Ruth Rendell (The Vault), Ruth Dudley Edwards (Killing The Emperors), Karin Slaughter (Cop Town), Ian Rankin (Even Dogs In The Wild), Fred Vargas (A Climate of Fear), Denise Mina (The Long Drop), George Pelecanos (The Man Who Came Down) and Jo Nesbo (Knife) – so the little oddball is in good company!
