Book Review

Bad Penny Blues

By Cathi Unsworth

Published by Serpent's Tail

Bad Penny Blues is twisted detective novel set in the seedy underbelly of Soho. Set in the sixties, it explores the bubbling diversity of London’s various niches, with a cast of fascists, Teddy Boys, migrants and hippies living in close proximity.

Police Constable Pete Bradley has one year on the force and dreams of moving up the ladder. He's assigned as an aid to CID and working a routine nightshift with his partner when they stumble across a young woman's body. She was working as a prostitute when she was strangled, her body dumped by a riverbank. His search for her killer brings him deep into Soho's underbelly. Meanwhile Stella, a young fashion designer with a promising career ahead of her, is woken by terrifying nightmares that echo the last hours of the dead women.

This colourful, evocative novel is at times tender and tense with its authentic depiction of London in the Sixties. It moves along at a quick pace, setting up Unsworth as a new talent in crime to watch out for. Through the grime and grit of Soho’s streets, the cigarette smoke and throbbing bass of its bars and clubs, a twisted mystery emerges, signalling an utterly absorbing noir tale.

 

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