Books / detective noir
Windrush noir detective novels set in Bristol relaunched
A five-book collection set amongst the corrupt underbelly of 1960s-1980s Bristol has been relaunched for summer 2022. Four of the novels have also been optioned for the screen.
Dubbed the Windrush Noir Detective Series, the acclaimed titles from bestselling crime novelist M. P. Wright are (in order) Heartman, All Through the Night, Restless Coffins, A Sinner’s Prayer, and A Traitor to his Blood.
Barbadian ex-cop Joseph Tremaine ‘JT’ Ellington is the character at the heart of the series.
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After arriving in the UK, he grudgingly becomes a private detective, and soon becomes entangled in a world of deadly conspiracies within Bristol’s nightlife, all the while attempting to distance himself from his own past.
The series has been hugely successful, not only for its thrilling noir literary style, but for its exploration of the lives of the Windrush generation, and the attitudes to race that they faced.
Heartman, by M P Wright, illustrated by Geoffrey Grandfield – image: Black and White Publishing
For Wright, the decision to set the books in Bristol was a crucial one, and is amongst the subjects he is most often asked about by readers.
“Bristol is a big and beautiful city,” he reflects. “It’s also strongly connected to the West Indies in a commercial and commerce sense, most certainly historically for all the wrong reasons; slavery being the foremost.
Windrush Noir Detective Seres, by M P Wright, illustrated by Geoffrey Grandfield – image: Black and White Publishing
“Heartman is set in St Pauls which sits just outside of Bristol city centre. It was ghettoised early on by greedy, white landlords who packed in new immigrants from the West Indies who had travelled thousands of miles to the mother country seeking work and the promise of ‘Streets That Were Paved with Gold’. What they got was far from the truth.”
In researching his narratives, Wright conducted lots of first-hand interviews with residents, past and present, of St Pauls, spending time in the Bristol pubs his protagonist JT goes on to frequent in the novels, and “getting a feel for a specific time and place, the patois, the food and drink”.
“St Pauls is a very special place,” he says. “I love it.”
The Windrush Noir Detective Series has been relaunched for summer 2022, published by Black and White Publishing. For more information, visit www.blackandwhitepublishing.com.
Main photo: Geoffrey Grandfield
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