Imprint
- Arcadia Books
- Arcadia Books
- Arcadia Books
United Kingdom, Great Britain, London, Greater London, Crime & mystery, Political / legal thriller
A Hackney-set true crime novel charting the rise of Thatcher and the roots of institutional racism, supercharged by the music and counterculture of the 70s and 80s
'Joe Thomas brilliantly recaptures an ugly episode in our recent past. Lest we forget . . .' Val McDermid
'A timely, powerful and gorgeously readable novel that represents everything that is good and important about the crime fiction genre' Irish Times
1978: The National Front is gaining ground in Hackney. To counter their influence, anti-fascist groups launch the Carnival Against Racism in Victoria Park. Observing the event is Detective Constable Patrick Noble, charged with investigating racist attacks in the area and running Spycops in both far-right and left wing groups. As Noble's superiors are drawn further into political meddling, he's inveigled into a plot against the embattled Labour government as the Winter of Discontent begins to bite.
1983: Under a disciplinary cloud after a Spycops op ended in tragedy, Noble is offered a reprieve by an old mentor. He is dispatched in the early hours to Stoke Newington police station, where a young black man has died in suspicious circumstances. This is Thatcher's Britain now, a new world that Noble unwittingly helped to usher in, where racial tensions are weaponised by those in power. His investigation will expose the dark heart of a nation at war with itself.
'Gripping' The Times
'Enthralling' Sunday Times
'A propulsive crime novel' Guardian
'One of our very best contemporary crime writers' David Peace
More books by Joe Thomas
Praise for White Riot: The Sunday Times Thriller of the Month
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A propulsive crime novel. Thomas ably captures local community anger, interracial tensions and especially the foreboding atmosphere . . . This ambitious work on a big canvas is an admirable attempt at portraying a fraught and fracturing nation - Guardian
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A timely, powerful and gorgeously readable novel that represents everything that is good and important about the crime fiction genre - Irish Times
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Captures the searing energy and polarised nature of the capital in the late 1970s and early 1980s . . . Thomas creates a potent drama from the counterculture of a period when Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League were battling prejudice. White Riot adroitly blends fact and fiction. - Independent
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Enthralling - Sunday Times
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Gripping . . . Deeply moving . . . A love letter to London, seething with outrage, that leads you keen to read its planned sequels - The Times
Joe Thomas
JOE THOMAS was born in Hackney in 1977. He is the author of the critically acclaimed SA o Paulo quartet - Paradise City, Gringa, Playboy, and Brazilian Psycho - and Bent, which was a Guardian Best Book of 2020 and an Irish Times pick of the best crime fiction of 2020. His new novel, White Riot, the start of a trilogy set in Hackney in the 1970s and 1980s, is to be published by Arcadia in January 2023, and will be followed by Red Menace and True Blue. Joe lives in London with his partner and son, and teaches at City, University of London.
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