The Dead Don't Bleed

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Two brothers confront each other and themselves to overcome their family legacy, from the doomed coalfields of north-east England to sun-bleached southern Spain

Frank Bridge turned his back on his family’s gangland conflicts in Northumberland decades ago. His brother, Gordon, fled to Spain and has not been heard from since. Frank’s life has taken a different path to the same place: he fell in love with Lorca's poetry and the woman who brought it to him.

But when their gangster father, the head of their savage dynasty, dies, Frank feels he must track down Gordon and tell him that their father’s reign of terror is over. Can Frank’s appearance after twenty-five years prompt a truce – a reconciliation even – will his arrival merely be the catalyst for more turmoil and brutality? Beneath the scorching, pitiless Andalusian sun, the two brothers are finally brought together for one last reckoning.

'Thrilling and brilliantly imagined' SARAH HALL

'Savage, sorrowful, superb' NIALL GRIFFITHS

'Vivid, lyrical and propulsive' MALACHY TALLACK

'A compelling, beautifully written story of male heartbreak' RUTH PADEL

© Neil Rollinson 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026