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Plender
From the author of Get Carter and GBH comes a tense and psychologically complex tale of revenge and blackmail that rightfully belongs among Ted Lewis’s greatest work.
Two men share a common history. Growing up together in the small town of Barton-Upon-Humber in Lincolnshire, England, Peter Knott is everything that Brian Plender wishes he were. Knott is suave, good-looking, an exemplary student and popular. The friendship they maintain is as important to Plender as it is forgettable to Knott, and eventually leads to a lasting humiliation for Brian.
Years later Brian Plender is a dangerous man. A private investigator who specializes in extortion, blackmail, and intimidation, Plender is a manipulative psychopath capable of anything should it improve his status. Knott meanwhile is a family man adrift, beholden to his wife for money, which he makes photographing catalogs for her father’s large mail order company. His wandering eye and a taste for younger women, lingerie—something his wife doesn’t altogether go for—and access to a parade of girls looking to break into modeling has led Knott through a series of sordid affairs.
When at a bar, which he uses to set up marks, Plender spots Knott with a girl too young to be his wife and he decides to follow the pair and see what happens. At first it's out of curiosity but soon it turns to a darker, more opportunisitic motivation. What follows is an edge-of-your-seat trip into a nightmare that manages to be both incredibly creepy and eerily profound.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
11 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Ted Lewis
16 books63 followersTed Lewis (1940 – 1982) was a British writer born in Manchester, an only child. After World War II the family moved to Barton-upon-Humber in 1947. He had a strict upbringing and his parents did not want their son to go to art school, but Ted's English teacher Henry Treece, recognising his creative talents in writing and art, persuaded them not to stand in his way.
Lewis attended Hull Art School for four years. His first work was in London, in advertising, and then as an animation specialist in television and films (among them the Beatles' Yellow Submarine). His first novel, All the Way Home and All the Night Through was published in 1965, followed by Jack's Return Home, subsequently retitled Get Carter after the success of the film of the same name starring Michael Caine, which created the noir school of British crime writing and pushed Lewis into the best-seller list. After the collapse of his marriage Lewis returned to his home town in the 1970s.
Ted Lewis died in 1982 having published seven more novels and written several episodes for the television series Z-Cars.
Lewis attended Hull Art School for four years. His first work was in London, in advertising, and then as an animation specialist in television and films (among them the Beatles' Yellow Submarine). His first novel, All the Way Home and All the Night Through was published in 1965, followed by Jack's Return Home, subsequently retitled Get Carter after the success of the film of the same name starring Michael Caine, which created the noir school of British crime writing and pushed Lewis into the best-seller list. After the collapse of his marriage Lewis returned to his home town in the 1970s.
Ted Lewis died in 1982 having published seven more novels and written several episodes for the television series Z-Cars.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 19, 2022
Not quite up there with Ted Lewis's two best novels Get Carter and GBH but not far behind. I raced through this gripping story set in 1970s north east England.
Plender is a character who is nasty, manipulative and vengeful. He cynically exploits those who come within his orbit including an old school friend who did not reciprocate his boyhood adoration and treated him casually. Needless to say, revenge ensues...
4/5
Plender is a character who is nasty, manipulative and vengeful. He cynically exploits those who come within his orbit including an old school friend who did not reciprocate his boyhood adoration and treated him casually. Needless to say, revenge ensues...
4/5
May 18, 2020
There’s an appetite at the moment for unearthing 60s / 70s noir-ish British ‘working-class’ thrillers (I am thinking of the likes of Alexander Baron’s The Lowlife and Ann Quinn’s Berg ), and on reading this, it’s easy to see why. It could be it will be better appreciated today than it was on first publication. In the publicity, it’s difficult not to see that this was the Ted Lewis who wrote Get Carter , but in some ways its best not to know that, as it may be spoiled if the reader starts expecting something similar.
Plender inhabits an anaemic and decaying London, grey and wet, a breeding ground for opportunists, people on the make, users. Though a private investigator, it is clear early on that he is an amoral character, working for an extremist political group, at every chance he will screw the next person over.
Into the story comes Peter Knott, a weasely philanderer, posing as a photographer, and leading on a 17 year old girl for supposed ‘catalogue’ work.
It’s a tale of blackmail and of twisted revenge, alternately narrated by the two main characters, with the reader never quite sure who to dislike the most. Though relevant to the time it is set, the late 1950s, if anything it gains something from its 50 year hibernation. Lewis’s style is cynical and unsentimental, describing people pushed to the edge. It’s no-nonsense gritty crime writing with a ‘Made in Britain’ trademark.
Plender inhabits an anaemic and decaying London, grey and wet, a breeding ground for opportunists, people on the make, users. Though a private investigator, it is clear early on that he is an amoral character, working for an extremist political group, at every chance he will screw the next person over.
Into the story comes Peter Knott, a weasely philanderer, posing as a photographer, and leading on a 17 year old girl for supposed ‘catalogue’ work.
It’s a tale of blackmail and of twisted revenge, alternately narrated by the two main characters, with the reader never quite sure who to dislike the most. Though relevant to the time it is set, the late 1950s, if anything it gains something from its 50 year hibernation. Lewis’s style is cynical and unsentimental, describing people pushed to the edge. It’s no-nonsense gritty crime writing with a ‘Made in Britain’ trademark.
June 17, 2009
A nasty, tough and grim little tale of blackmail and revenge from (on three, everybody) the author of "Get Carter." Unlike most most Brit noir, these reads like the home-grown product (e.g., Derek Raymond) instead of the latter day would-be toughies (who shall remain nameless) out to plunder us of our Hammett and Chandler.
February 27, 2020
It's a very clever book that is also quite awful. What people can do to each other is terrible at times, and yet they need each other, even in this novel, to wind around their little finger or, misguidedly, to lean on.
The format is unusual and works well: alternating chapters are told by the two characters that are central to the story, so the whole book is told in the first person albeit by two persons. They are Brian Plender and Peter Knott who know each other from grammar school and now accidentally bump into each other. The old feelings of injustice and class raise their ugly head. Neither character is a wonderful upright citizen, and yet I find it shocking what they do to each other. Not an uplifting read but interesting nonetheless.
The format is unusual and works well: alternating chapters are told by the two characters that are central to the story, so the whole book is told in the first person albeit by two persons. They are Brian Plender and Peter Knott who know each other from grammar school and now accidentally bump into each other. The old feelings of injustice and class raise their ugly head. Neither character is a wonderful upright citizen, and yet I find it shocking what they do to each other. Not an uplifting read but interesting nonetheless.
January 30, 2023
'Plender' is a tense and unpleasant tale of two men with intertwined lives and desires. Imagine if Patricia Highsmith rewrote 'Narcissus and Goldmund', transplanting it to Humberside in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Knott was a golden boy at school, but twenty years on he's a married philanderer who photographs handbags for catalogues. Plender was his stooge back in the day, but now the tables are turned as Plender is a thoroughly corrupt private investigator specialising in blackmail and extortion. He also has links to a shadowy fascist group. When Plender sees Knott out on the town with a drunk teenage girl, he follows them back to Knott's studio. Cue menace, creepiness, homoerotic tension, and a sense that each man is the image of the other. Both are fractured and incomplete, but a meeting between the two will not make either of them whole again.
Written in short chapters, some a mere page long, that alternate between the two men, 'Plender' is a fast-moving story in which you're never quite sure how dark things are going to get. It would adapt very well for film or tv, but Plender himself remains a bit of a cipher. We learn of his childhood angst but Lewis backs away from his damaged adult psyche. Knott is weak, self-hating, and gets through oceans of booze. The women in the narrative are disposable, damaged, or both.
'Plender' deserves its place in the canon of British noir, but it lacks a heart and the ending feels rushed. In some ways, it's more like extended notes for a much deeper and better novel than the finished article. By this stage in his career, Lewis was drinking even more than his characters manage to do, so perhaps that blurriness is unsurprising.
Written in short chapters, some a mere page long, that alternate between the two men, 'Plender' is a fast-moving story in which you're never quite sure how dark things are going to get. It would adapt very well for film or tv, but Plender himself remains a bit of a cipher. We learn of his childhood angst but Lewis backs away from his damaged adult psyche. Knott is weak, self-hating, and gets through oceans of booze. The women in the narrative are disposable, damaged, or both.
'Plender' deserves its place in the canon of British noir, but it lacks a heart and the ending feels rushed. In some ways, it's more like extended notes for a much deeper and better novel than the finished article. By this stage in his career, Lewis was drinking even more than his characters manage to do, so perhaps that blurriness is unsurprising.
March 20, 2021
"I was the way I always was, afterwards. I could hardly speak with the feeling of sickness I had. All I wanted to do was to get rid of this girl and rush back to my wife and sit with her in front of the telly and afterwards kiss the soft cheeks of my two kids as they lay in bed asleep. I wanted to climb into the luxury of a hot bath, the door locked behind me, and lie there and think about absolutely nothing. I wanted to wake up the next morning and lie between the cozy sheets and listen to the church bells and have my kids fall all over me and let them make me forget what an evil bastard I was."
Ahh this is the good stuff. One complete sleazebag getting taken advantage of by another vengeful sleazebag. An all around great thriller.
Ahh this is the good stuff. One complete sleazebag getting taken advantage of by another vengeful sleazebag. An all around great thriller.
June 21, 2016
Awesome thriller.
August 24, 2020
Ted Lewis is most famous for writing the novel that the film Get Carter is based on, but he has a string of other titles to his name, and No Exit Press' reissues of Plender and GBH will hopefully bring him a wider audience.
Brian Plender is a blackmailer, and businesslike about it. He goes to check on a new “client” in a bar, where Peter Knott is meeting a woman who is definitely not his wife. Two unlikeable characters doing unpleasant things. But there’s a twist: Plender recognises Knott in the bar – they were friends at school, though they haven’t seen each other since their last day there 17 years ago.
Their shared history is shown in scenes scattered between episodes in the present as Plender turns the screw on Knott over what happens to the woman in the bar, and it becomes increasingly clear that the pair’s childhood friendship was a toxic relationship rather than a true bond.
With a mounting horror tinged with something shamefully approaching glee, we watch and wait to see what ghastly consequences are on the horizon. A kind of justice is served at the end, but the reader is left with questions all the same.
It's noir in the truest sense of the word – people making bad choices and facing the inevitable, awful consequences – with a distinct north of England atmosphere and a unique voice.
Brian Plender is a blackmailer, and businesslike about it. He goes to check on a new “client” in a bar, where Peter Knott is meeting a woman who is definitely not his wife. Two unlikeable characters doing unpleasant things. But there’s a twist: Plender recognises Knott in the bar – they were friends at school, though they haven’t seen each other since their last day there 17 years ago.
Their shared history is shown in scenes scattered between episodes in the present as Plender turns the screw on Knott over what happens to the woman in the bar, and it becomes increasingly clear that the pair’s childhood friendship was a toxic relationship rather than a true bond.
With a mounting horror tinged with something shamefully approaching glee, we watch and wait to see what ghastly consequences are on the horizon. A kind of justice is served at the end, but the reader is left with questions all the same.
It's noir in the truest sense of the word – people making bad choices and facing the inevitable, awful consequences – with a distinct north of England atmosphere and a unique voice.
September 14, 2022
This was an odd title for a book, I felt, despite it turning out to be the surname of the main character. I’ve been reading a spate of “noir” novels, mostly American, so I’d thought I’d maybe give the creator of Jack Carter a chance to inject some British grit into the genre. This book did, and didn’t, do so, mostly because I didn’t really like the eponymous main character one bit. It also felt a bit dated and a bit forced compared to the excellent “Get Carter” that I remembered well. Brian Plunder is certainly no Jack Carter. The plot is straightforward enough, but the settings, dialogue and main scenes all seem a bit dated in both time and attitude. This is a Britain that, if it existed at all, has faded like decades old wallpaper. Saying that, I still got through the book easily enough and there was no real danger it would be left unfinished because I was interested enough in all that was going on to keep me going. If anything, it felt more like watching an old episode of “The Sweeney” than anything else. “Put your knickers on love, you’re nicked” wasn’t a line in the book, but easily could have been. Will I read any more Ted Lewis? My mental jury is out on that one.
July 8, 2020
Plender isn't my favourite Ted Lewis novel (that's the incomparable GBH), and it isn't as punchy and well plotted as Get Carter (or Jack's Return Home), but it did get under my skin.
Brian Plender is a private investigator of sorts (though this mostly involves intimidation and blackmail for powerful people) who one night sees an old school 'friend' Peter Knott with a woman who is far too young to be his wife. When something happens to the young woman, Plender ingratiates his way back into Knott's life. This mostly involves Plender humiliating and psychologically torturing the man for things that happened during their childhood, leading to a strong and ironic dénouement.
Plender isn't as incident packed as the Jack Carter novels or Billy Rags, but its strength lies in the characters and the way Lewis uses them to build considerable tension. Nobody is particularly likeable, but the quality of the plot and the writing keeps you reading to the end. Lovers of psychological thrillers will enjoy this.
Brian Plender is a private investigator of sorts (though this mostly involves intimidation and blackmail for powerful people) who one night sees an old school 'friend' Peter Knott with a woman who is far too young to be his wife. When something happens to the young woman, Plender ingratiates his way back into Knott's life. This mostly involves Plender humiliating and psychologically torturing the man for things that happened during their childhood, leading to a strong and ironic dénouement.
Plender isn't as incident packed as the Jack Carter novels or Billy Rags, but its strength lies in the characters and the way Lewis uses them to build considerable tension. Nobody is particularly likeable, but the quality of the plot and the writing keeps you reading to the end. Lovers of psychological thrillers will enjoy this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 18, 2020
A very sordid tale, full of people behaving badly, very badly. Not in the same league as his brilliant and ultra brutal GBH, but this one exhibits a few similar traits: simple story structure to and froing between two characters, gossipy queer bar tender, key female character appears first in the bar, whole tale laced with alcohol and cigarettes and sleaze. More than three stars but but not quite four!
December 29, 2023
(4.5*) - A real noir page turner with a distinctly British trademark. Lewis’ alternating narratives of Brian Plender and Peter Knott show the former’s manipulative and sociopathic nature ebbing into the latter’s panic and degeneracy - with both characters ultimately becoming very unlikeable and facing the inevitable consequences of their dire decisions.
The rest of his catalogue definitely deserves more than a ‘shufti’.
The rest of his catalogue definitely deserves more than a ‘shufti’.
February 12, 2024
A gritty noir tale with unlikable yet intensely interesting characters, Plender is told from the perspectives of Brian Plender and Peter Knott, friends from childhood who meet some fifteen years later under unfortunate circumstances.
The dialogue is snappy and full of British slang, the story structure is sound and keeps you on your toes, and it's wickedly dark throughout. Ted Lewis is a master at crime noir with terribly devious protagonists and this is another excellent notch in his belt.
The dialogue is snappy and full of British slang, the story structure is sound and keeps you on your toes, and it's wickedly dark throughout. Ted Lewis is a master at crime noir with terribly devious protagonists and this is another excellent notch in his belt.
March 9, 2021
Old school friends cross paths 17 years later with disastrous consequences. Peter Knott is a photographer with a grubby secret; Brian Plender is a private investigator with a penchant for blackmail and extortion.
Classic Brit Noir, the author Ted Lewis being one of the writers to kick start the genre, which stands up well 50 years later. It covers the seedier aspects of the criminal underworld post 'swinging sixties' and what can happen when unintended consequences lead to paranoia and plans falling apart. There's also a good plot twist towards the end.
Classic Brit Noir, the author Ted Lewis being one of the writers to kick start the genre, which stands up well 50 years later. It covers the seedier aspects of the criminal underworld post 'swinging sixties' and what can happen when unintended consequences lead to paranoia and plans falling apart. There's also a good plot twist towards the end.
September 29, 2022
From the Author of 'Get, Carter', this is another story of revenge set on the seedy side of Britain. Taking a dual-character approach, this is a tale of childhood and what the school system can do to people, class barriers and grudges being settled. It al edges towards a violent and inevitable ending.
January 23, 2021
Welcome to Plender's world just as dark as Jack Carter's sleazy, grimy and seedy. They say its grim up north but Ted Lewis shows you how grim.
I didn't know about this book before reading Lewis' biography "Getting Carter" and its just as good as Get Carter, looking forward to reading GBH.
I didn't know about this book before reading Lewis' biography "Getting Carter" and its just as good as Get Carter, looking forward to reading GBH.
August 24, 2020
35%
I'm finished.
I'm finished.
October 23, 2020
Ted Lewis - the Poet Laureate of 60/70's UK noir
September 15, 2021
A wonderful book from start to finish. The imagery of settings, characters and times are vivid and compelling, drawing you in and wanting more.
July 2, 2024
Pretty good; different from normal books; it’s about extortion, revenge and blackmail told from both of the main character’s points of view. I highly recommend it.
July 19, 2019
“A grey wet wind screamed up the estuary and into the city centre, rocked trolley buses and swept old cabbage leaves along the cobbled docksides. Dirty barges shifted surlily on the greasy swell. Windows of workmen’s cafes were blank with inside steam. Raindrops flicked spitefully into the faces of the Saturday afternoon shoppers...”
Great opening as Brian Plender surveys his bleak Humberside hunting ground from his highrise office eyrie...but after that the writing tails off and we are left with a fairly lacklustre tale of childhood humiliation and adult revenge. The villains are charisma-free, the minor characters fail to raise a smile, and the atmosphere is miserable but not memorably so. Lacks the spark, the love of language, and the keen eye for contemporary detail that fired his first two Jack Carter novels.
Great opening as Brian Plender surveys his bleak Humberside hunting ground from his highrise office eyrie...but after that the writing tails off and we are left with a fairly lacklustre tale of childhood humiliation and adult revenge. The villains are charisma-free, the minor characters fail to raise a smile, and the atmosphere is miserable but not memorably so. Lacks the spark, the love of language, and the keen eye for contemporary detail that fired his first two Jack Carter novels.
August 26, 2014
Simple story, well written. Ted Lewis wrote about fear as an emotion like no other.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews