Brighton Rock

A gangland murder draws a seaside town into fear and faith. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown is a murderer. Sharp, devout, and certain of his own righteousness, he believes he can outwit both the police and the consequences of his actions. When Ida Arnold begins questioning the circumstances of a suspicious death, she sets out to uncover the truth behind it. Meanwhile Rose, young and trusting, binds herself to Pinkie in an act of love that pulls her further into danger. Set in 1930s Brighton, this literary crime novel about a teenage gangster examines sin, faith, and moral blindness. Greene's spare prose strips violence of glamour, revealing instead the emptiness at its core. 'I read Brighton Rock when I was about thirteen. One of the first lessons I took from it was that a serious novel could be an exciting novel - that the novel of adventure could also be the novel of ideas' Ian McEwan