Graham Greene published Brighton Rock as one of his "entertainments," geared towards a popular audience, in 1938. He is reported to have started writing the novel as a simple detective story, but the depth and complexity of spiritual torment felt by the sociopathic teenage mobster, Pinkie, and his cynical love interest, Rose, gave the story a distinctly religious (specifically, Catholic) dimension.
Pinkie, who has murdered the journalist Charles Hale in revenge for the latter's reportage that led to the death of Kite (the leader of the gang Pinkie now commands, and a father figure to the orphaned boy), must deal with a careless associate and an unusually observant waitress (Rose) in order to evade suspicion by the police. Through murder and deception, including the seduction of Rose and a confrontation with his own fear of sex, Pinkie tries to settle all matters and prove himself to the world.
The story, critically well-received though not such a bestseller at its time of publication, has been adapted several times for stage and film, including a 1943 play starring Richard Attenborough as Pinkie, a 1947 starring Attenborough again, and a more recent 2010 film.
