Soho Crime to Release GBH by Ted Lewis

When Ted Lewis (1940 - 1982) died at the age of 42 he left behind nine novels and the legacy of having pioneered the British noir school of fiction. Whether it was the work of late noir maverick Derek Raymond or the films of celebrated directors like Guy Ritchie and Martin McDonagh, Lewis's work permanently changed the way in which British crime stories are told. His was an uncompromising vision where the brutalities of the underworld are depicted with no embellishments. There are no heroes in a Lewis novel; no Paladin cops putting the clues together, righting wrongs. They are stories about bad people, hardened criminals, doing anything and everything to maintain their position, or more often than not, cling to some final vestige of self-respect.

The Swan Song of a Hardboiled Master

Most famous for his second novel, Jack's Return Home (later retitled Get Carter after the Mike Hodges film adaptation), it is perhaps his final novel that best exemplifies what Lewis wanted to achieve with fiction. Set in the mid-1970s GBH (Soho Crime |April 21st, 2015) is the twice-told story of the tragic fall of George Fowler, the head of a criminal syndicate controlling the largest blue film empire in the UK. Told in alternating locations, one set in the past where Fowler's descent into alcoholism and paranoia alienate him from the empire he has built, and the second storyline set within the confines of a small English beach town, where Fowler is spending a winter in hiding. It is there that Fowler is biding his time to return to . . . What? Fowler's fate in both timelines is mysterious. Why is he in hiding? Who is he hiding from? Is he safe? Can he regain what he has lost? These questions haunt Fowler's every step, whether in smoggy London or along the misty winter boardwalk of the beach town he is hiding in.

GBH is also a nearly inexplicable achievement. Lewis's previous two novels were among his least inspired outings and after a divorce and his own losing battle with alcoholism, it would have seemed impossible for him to regain top form as a novelist.But GBH represents just that: a crime fiction swan song of startling ability, cunningly plotted and brilliantly drawn. Yet it has existed for decades only in the form of chimerical paperbacks, often fetching hundreds of dollars from collectors. It is not merely a cult classic, but a legitimate noir triumph. Here for the first time in North America, as well as the first time in hardcover and ebook formats anywhere, is Ted Lewis's final novel.

ABOUT TED LEWIS

Born in Manchester, England, Ted Lewis (1940-1982) spent most of his youth in Barton-upon-Humber in the north of England. After graduating from Hull Art School, Lewis moved to London and first worked in advertising before becoming an animation specialist, working on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Lewis' novels pioneered the British noir school. He is the author of nine novels, all of which Syndicate Books will be publishing.

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