Brighton Rock

Patrick Hamilton wrote well about small-town England, isolation vs conformity, innocence vs evil. He's from the same era as Greene by the way.

I think Brighton Rock is the worst Greene book. The Quiet American, The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory are all much better. Or try Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes, or his Mr Love and Justice, City of Spades. Or how about Jake Arnotts fabulous The Long Firm - that is awesome. Get Carter by Ted Lewis (of the film fame) this is fab too.

Red Tide by Dashiell Hammet Setting is a mining town in the American West, not England, but otherwise it's similar. You might try his Continental Op short stories as well. They are usually collected in a volume called The Big Knockover, title of one of the stories. Some of these stories, including The Big Knockover, are along the same lines.

try Last Exit to Brooklyn by hubert selby jr. Okay, it's set in the states but you can easily apply it to blighty. Don't bother reading Ant Burgess' version of Last Exit: A Clockwork Orange. Burgess is awful. Another one who's brilliant about the small town mentality, good and evil, is Jim Thomson. Read his novel: Pop 1280. Again, he's a yank so it's set in the states but I think it's what you're after. In fact, run, don't walk, to the nearest bookshop and read whatever you can by Jim Thompson.

Tara! Someone else who's HEARD of Patrick Hamilton, and read him! Brilliant. I read them all. Favourite = either Hangover Square or The Midnight Bell.

Jim Thompson is wonderful. You can probably find a collection somewhere in a used book store or at Oxfam. Well, worth the read. He was as big as Chandler and others in his day, now having a bit of a revival.

Skeeter ... yes I love Hamilton's writing, Slaves of Solitude also great.