This is the third book I have read by Cathi Unsworth and Weirdo is even more page-turner-y than The Singer and Bad Penny Blues. I raced through the second half of the book as the story became more tense and exciting. 

In common with both The Singer and Bad Penny Blues, Cathi Unsworth excels at creating a strong sense of place. In the case of Weirdo, this is the Norfolk seaside resort Great Yarmouth (here called Ernemouth). There are two interlinked narrative threads running concurrently, one set in 1983, and the other in 2003.

In common with a lot of Victorian and Edwardian English seaside resorts, Great Yarmouth is a tawdry, deprived and slightly unsettling place. This atmosphere is perfectly evoked, along with a bit of local history. The less you know about the actual story, the better, suffice it to say that the tale revolves around a horrific murder and a reinvestigation following new DNA evidence. 

Some of the narrative takes place at the local school, and the music and fashions of the early 80s are perfectly evoked, along with the dynamics at the school and the different families. 

Ostensibly this is a crime novel, however - and in common with the best genre fiction - there is a lot more going on here than just a thrilling story. It's also an exploration of an era, of local politics, of corruption, Norfolk, alienation, magic, evil, youth culture, fashion, and I still haven't covered it all. 4/5

Read on September 24, 2013

 

My lately favourite genres are southern gothic and its variant,stripped from any kind of spirituality or paranormal motifs, country noir.

 

Weirdo is the great example of the second genre (even if there was some hints of paranormal stuff), only with a much different setting - it's Norfolk, England.

 

The main character, Sam Ward, reinvestigates a cold case, twenty year old Satanic ritualised murder, supposing miscarriage of justice. The guilty one is Corrine Woodrow, imprisoned for life in the mental institution. As he digs, he sinks deeper in deeper in complicated web of small town's connections.

 

The writing is good, the split narrative doesn't confuse the reader (it happens a lot), the plot is very interesting. All of this makes Weirdo a real page turner. I've read it in one sitting.

Review from http://forbookssake.net/2012/06/21/weirdo-by-cathi-unsworth/

It tells the story of private investigator Sean Ward, sent to the seaside town of Ernemouth in Norfolk to investigate a long-cold case, that of fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Corinne Woodrow, convicted for murdering a classmate twenty years ago.

But now, new forensics evidence suggests that there was someone else involved, and Sean is working his way through likely links to the past, including the local press, Corinne’s former classmates, and now-retired DCI Len Rivett, who was in charge of the original case.

What he soon discovers, though, is that more people are complicit than he could have ever suspected, and they’re all invested in ensuring that their secrets stay buried with the past.

While Sean’s new contacts and acquaintances seem to want to help, he still ends up being misled and misdirected at every turn; everyone has a hidden agenda and no-one is quite what they seem.

Like Cathi’s previous novels, Weirdo alternates between past (1984) and present (2003), making it a tense, addictive page-turner. As Sean investigates every available lead in one narrative strand, the other details the events leading up to Corinne’s conviction.

We meet Corinne and her classmates, encounter the corruption behind the bright facade of Ernemouth’s funfair and amusement arcades, and come to a gradual understanding of the powers at play.

Featuring a motley crew of miscreant teens, Ernemouth lowlife, bikers, witches and bitches, Weirdo’s colourful cast, coupled with Cathi’s signature vivid evocations of time, place and subculture, make it a rich and memorable read.

The Norfolk coast, landscape and character is omnipresent, as sinister, stubborn and menacing as Weirdo‘s other villains. And as well as a cleverly-crafted whodunnit, Weirdo has several other important roles.

A love letter to the dark-hearted music and fashion of the eighties, it illustrates the redemptive power of finding your subculture, the comfort that comes with recognising your own, and its uses for finding and defining identity.

It questions the collective small-town mindsets of places like Ernemouth, where Weirdo is set; places whose public image is carefully controlled, where suspicion and superstition are used to trigger trouble or to keep the masses quiet; places that protect their own and have their own brand of justice for when things go awry.

A dark, compelling and original story sure to stop you from sleeping