BRIGHTON

MICHAEL HARVEY

I will quote Stephen King, “Brighton is the f**king bomb.” I started this outstanding and superb novel yesterday and finished it this afternoon. Brighton reminds me of Dennis Lehane at his best, which is the highest praise I can offer. Every page provides subtleties and inferences that ask the reader to keep reading. And believe me, the rewards are worth the effort.

Brighton has it all. Crime, criminals, drugs, scumbags, inveterate gamblers, cops, lawyers, and reporters. This recipe for trouble starts in Boston in the 1970s. Families and friends are doing what they must to survive. So, what if people are shot, strangled, drowned, and stabbed? All part of the fabric of America. The beauty is how the writer seams together all the events and characters to make Brighton one of the most intriguing, fascinating, and time-monopolizing novels I have read.