Books: Pick Of The Week

Noir Night Thur

Waterstone's, London NW1

A dark night - or a couple of hours, at least - of modern northern noir in Camden on Thursday brings together Nicholas Blincoe and David Peace - and more than your average number of corpses.

Blincoe's third novel, Manchester Slingback, is a hip thriller from one of the country's best new writers in the genre.

Fifteen years ago Jake Powell was a hustler on the fringes of Manchester's gay scene; now he's the owner of a smart London casino. But when the mutilated body of a friend from the past is found dumped on the moors, he travels back again to Manchester, where he finds a changed city full of familiar ghosts.

Peace's 1974, set in Yorkshire in the decade that fashion forgot, is a tale of sexual obsession, greed, sadism, police corruption - and mutilated swans.

Waterstone's, 128 Camden High St, London NW1 (0171-284 4948) Thur, 7pm, free

`1974' by David Peace is published 12 Aug, Serpent's Tail, pounds 8.99