Brighton

by Michael Harvey

Overview

An extraordinary thriller—gripping, haunting, and marvelously told—about two friends growing up in a rapidly changing Boston, who must face the sins of their past in the midst of a series of brutal murders.

“You came back here to bury your past. . . . Thing is, you gotta kill it first.”

Kevin Pearce—baseball star, honor student, the pride of Brighton—was fifteen when he left town in the back of his uncle’s cab. He and his buddy Bobby Scales had just committed heinous violence for what they thought were the best of reasons. Kevin didn’t want a pass, but he was getting it anyway. Bobby would stay and face the music; Kevin’s future would remain bright as ever. At least that was the way things were supposed to work, except in Brighton things never work the way they’re supposed to.

Twenty-six years later, Kevin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Boston Globe. He’s never been back to his old block, having avoided his family and, especially, Bobby Scales. Then he learns his old friend is the prime suspect in a string of local murders. Suddenly, Kevin’s headed home—to protect a friend and the secret they share. To report this story to the end and protect those he loves, he must face not only an elusive, slippery killer, but his own corrupted conscience.

A powerhouse of a thriller, Brighton is a riveting and elegiac exploration of promises broken, debts owed, and old wrongs made right . . . no matter what the cost.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062443014
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,131,822
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Michael Harvey is the author of seven previous novels, including Brighton and The Chicago Way. He’s also a journalist and documentarian whose work has won multiple News & Documentary Emmys, two Primetime Emmy nominations, and an Academy Award nomination. Raised in Boston, he now lives in Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

BRIGHTON is the f***king bomb! I loved it.” — Stephen King

“I have enjoyed all of Michael Harvey’s books, but his latest, BRIGHTON, is his best. I couldn’t stop reading.” — John Grisham

“The story is boldly told, from so many angles and points of view that the moral center keeps shifting. Even the characters who die won’t go away in this fiercely felt lament for a neighborhood and a youth that never was.” — New York Times Book Review

“A tale of murder and old friends-and a paean to the dark, gritty streets of Boston.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Harvey’s unfussy prose propels the plot.” — Chicago Magazine

“Sharp as the blades used to gut the guilty and innocent alike, Harvey’s fierce stand-alone is a blood-soaked tribute to finding your past and living with the consequences.” — Kirkus (Starred Review)

“Riveting. . . . Harvey’s gritty tribute to the working-class neighborhoods of his youth is as authentically captured as the best of Dennis Lehane. Fans of Martin Scorsese’s film The Departed will love the violent twists and turns of the novel’s final chapters.” — Library Journal, Starred Review

“Gritty. . . . Harvey crisply evokes the dark side of the Boston underclass. . . . Intense, twist-filled.” — Publishers Weekly

“The comparisons to Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, and Richard Price are all apt. . . .Brighton is a chilling tale. You’ll come up for air, at the end, shivering and in need of a drink.” — New York Journal of Books

“A superb crime thriller with all the hallmarks of high-end literary fiction, Brighton . . . will exhaust you and fool you, astonish you and hold you in its clutches. You may wish you could close your eyes, but they’ll be stuck wide open.” — Washington Independent Review of Books

“…[Put] this dark, gritty and beautiful novel at the top of your must-read list.” — Bookreporter

“Harvey, who usually writes Chicago-based thrillers . . .ventures further afield to Boston, where a journalist returns to the rough neighborhood where he grew up to save an old friend from murder charges.” — Chicago Reader

“Masterful. . . . With a gritty atmosphere, extraordinary characters, and several stunning twists. . . . Strongly recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane.” — Booklist, Starred Review

“Brighton is an excellent thriller about two friends growing up in a rapidly changing Boston, who must face the sins of their past in the midst of a series of brutal murders.” — Omnivoracious

“I may (or may not) be the first to compare Michael Harvey’s Brighton to Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, but I won’t be the last. . . . both books approach Thomas Wolfe or Pat Conroy levels of writing. . . . [Harvey] has seriously upped his game with Brighton.” — Bookpage Top Pick

“…this is Lehane territory… the writing is smooth and the people feel real. Surprising twists.” — Chicago Business

“This engrossing page-turner, which has been sold to the movies, brings to mind classics of the genre, like The Departed, which was set in a similar Boston underbelly.” — National Book Review

“I can’t think of a better way to describe this book than a gritty look at what life was like on the tougher side of Boston. . . . Each character was well written and Michael Harvey definitely knows what he’s doing.” — San Francisco Book Review

“Creating characters vulnerable and brave is Harvey’s artistry. He’ll win prizes for this beauty. His characters are real, and the atmosphere is electric, oppressive and virulent.” — Durango Telegraph

“A compelling tale of mystery and suspense, a piercing examination of poverty and bigotry in Boston’s underbelly . . . and a psychological drama of Kevin’s confrontation with his own past. Brighton emerges as one of this year’s major works in the crime genre.” — PCA Mystery and Detective Fiction

“A superb crime thriller with all the hallmarks of high-end literary fiction, Michael Harvey’s Brighton employs—and brilliantly handles—the two-timeline structure.” — Washington Independent Review of Books

“Harvey has taken the elements of a classic crime novel and heightened them with race and class tensions, as well as the story of a remarkable friendship and an unforgettable family drama. The result is a novel that crackles with energy and makes you hold on until the final page.” — Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street

“Harvey has taken the elements of a classic crime novel and heightened them with race and class tensions, as well as the story of a remarkable friendship and an unforgettable family drama. The result is a novel that crackles with energy and makes you hold on until the final page.” — Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expats

From the Publisher

I have enjoyed all of Michael Harvey’s books, but his latest, BRIGHTON, is his best. I couldn’t stop reading.

John Grisham

A superb crime thriller with all the hallmarks of high-end literary fiction, Brighton . . . will exhaust you and fool you, astonish you and hold you in its clutches. You may wish you could close your eyes, but they’ll be stuck wide open.

Washington Independent Review of Books

The story is boldly told, from so many angles and points of view that the moral center keeps shifting. Even the characters who die won’t go away in this fiercely felt lament for a neighborhood and a youth that never was.

New York Times Book Review

I can’t think of a better way to describe this book than a gritty look at what life was like on the tougher side of Boston. . . . Each character was well written and Michael Harvey definitely knows what he’s doing.

San Francisco Book Review

Harvey, who usually writes Chicago-based thrillers . . .ventures further afield to Boston, where a journalist returns to the rough neighborhood where he grew up to save an old friend from murder charges.

Chicago Reader

Harvey has taken the elements of a classic crime novel and heightened them with race and class tensions, as well as the story of a remarkable friendship and an unforgettable family drama. The result is a novel that crackles with energy and makes you hold on until the final page.

Ivy Pochoda

I may (or may not) be the first to compare Michael Harvey’s Brighton to Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, but I won’t be the last. . . . both books approach Thomas Wolfe or Pat Conroy levels of writing. . . . [Harvey] has seriously upped his game with Brighton.

Bookpage Top Pick

Masterful. . . . With a gritty atmosphere, extraordinary characters, and several stunning twists. . . . Strongly recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane.

Starred Review Booklist

…this is Lehane territory… the writing is smooth and the people feel real. Surprising twists.

Chicago Business

A compelling tale of mystery and suspense, a piercing examination of poverty and bigotry in Boston’s underbelly . . . and a psychological drama of Kevin’s confrontation with his own past. Brighton emerges as one of this year’s major works in the crime genre.

PCA Mystery and Detective Fiction

This engrossing page-turner, which has been sold to the movies, brings to mind classics of the genre, like The Departed, which was set in a similar Boston underbelly.

National Book Review

Creating characters vulnerable and brave is Harvey’s artistry. He’ll win prizes for this beauty. His characters are real, and the atmosphere is electric, oppressive and virulent.

Durango Telegraph

Masterful. . . . With a gritty atmosphere, extraordinary characters, and several stunning twists. . . . Strongly recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane.

Starred Review Booklist

Harvey has taken the elements of a classic crime novel and heightened them with race and class tensions, as well as the story of a remarkable friendship and an unforgettable family drama. The result is a novel that crackles with energy and makes you hold on until the final page.

Chris Pavone

The comparisons to Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, and Richard Price are all apt. . . .Brighton is a chilling tale. You’ll come up for air, at the end, shivering and in need of a drink.

New York Journal of Books

Brighton is an excellent thriller about two friends growing up in a rapidly changing Boston, who must face the sins of their past in the midst of a series of brutal murders.

Omnivoracious

…[Put] this dark, gritty and beautiful novel at the top of your must-read list.

Bookreporter

BRIGHTON is the f***king bomb! I loved it.

Stephen King

Harvey’s unfussy prose propels the plot.

Chicago Magazine

A tale of murder and old friends-and a paean to the dark, gritty streets of Boston.

Entertainment Weekly

The story is boldly told, from so many angles and points of view that the moral center keeps shifting. Even the characters who die won't go away in this fiercely felt lament for a neighborhood and a youth that never was.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

04/18/2016
This gritty standalone from Harvey (The Innocence Game) focuses on two childhood friends who have gone in dramatically different directions as adults. Kevin Pearce starts life as an intelligent young man born into poverty and a brutal home life in 1970s Brighton, a hard-bitten section of Boston. Kevin’s best friend, Bobby Scales, is a violent urban Huck Finn who’s also capable and loyal. After Kevin’s grandmother is murdered in a grisly home invasion, Kevin and Bobby ambush and slay the killer. Twenty-seven years later, Kevin, now a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, discovers that the gun Bobby used to shoot his grandmother’s killer is the same gun used in the recent murder of an undercover policewoman. Kevin searches for the connection, which reunites him with Bobby, now a tough Brighton bookie. Harvey crisply evokes the dark side of the Boston urban underclass inhabiting a fractured neighborhood in a constant state of casual violence and brutality. An intense, twist-filled climax caps the unremittingly gloomy but moving story. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (June)

Publishers Weekly

★ 04/15/2016
After a series of novels featuring Chicago-based private investigator Michael Kelly (most recently The Governor's Wife), Harvey sets this riveting stand-alone in his native Boston. Reporter Kevin Pearce, who has just won a Pulitzer Prize with the Boston Globe, returns to his hometown of Brighton for the first time since a teenage act of violence forced him to flee. In 1975, he and his friend Bobby Scales tracked down and killed a man Kevin saw running from the scene of a gruesome robbery that left his grandmother dead and his younger sister badly injured. Bobby took the heat and became the neighborhood's most feared bookie, allowing Kevin to embark on the path of career respectability. But a quarter-century later, Bobby is now the prime suspect in a rash of murders involving Brighton's seedy underworld, and Kevin will have to reckon with his long-buried past in a way that will test his allegiances—to his childhood friend, to his prosecutor girlfriend, and even to his sister, who is harboring secrets of her own. VERDICT Harvey's gritty tribute to the working-class neighborhoods of his youth is as authentically captured as the best of Dennis Lehane. Fans of Martin Scorsese's film The Departed will love the violent twists and turns of the novel's final chapters.[See Prepub Alert, 12/21/15.]—Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Library Journal

★ 2016-03-17
A reporter returns to the violent Boston suburb of his youth when a series of murders appears linked to his past. Harvey (The Governor's Wife, 2015, etc.) leaves the Chicago of his series work behind and returns to the Brighton, Massachusetts, of his own youth, lending its crime-ridden streets to the fictional Kevin Pearce and Bobby Scales, childhood friends bound by a secret act of violence that forced Kevin to leave the neighborhood at 15. Now an investigative reporter for the Boston Globe who just won a Pulitzer Prize for a series he did on a black man unfairly convicted of the murder of a local woman named Rosie Tallent, Kevin hasn't been back to Brighton in 25 years. But thanks to the inside scoop from his DA girlfriend, he hears about the murder of an undercover cop in the old neighborhood and evidence that ties her murder both to the crime that drove Kevin away over two decades ago and to Bobby. Everything and nothing has changed in racially charged Brighton as Kevin revisits old haunts, looking for his friend, who's become the neighborhood's most successful—and ruthless—bookie. Harvey changes points of view as easily as his characters load clips into their guns, and we see the story unfold from multiple angles, blurring the definition of criminal from the get-go. The members of the Pearce family—from Kevin's avaricious sister, Bridget, to the memory of their murdered grandmother—haunt the narrative and are as much forces as the present-day murders and Kevin's drive to uncover Bobby's possible involvement. Sharp as the blades used to gut the guilty and innocent alike, Harvey's fierce stand-alone is a blood-soaked tribute to finding your past and living with the consequences.

Kirkus Reviews