John Harvey
In 1989, Lonely Hearts, a police procedural by John Harvey, introduced Det. Insp. Charlie Resnick to the world. The book was followed by a series and went on to be named one of the 100 Best Crime Novels of the Last Century by the Times. But how did the sandwich-loving policeman and jazz...
2) Still Water
For Charlie Resnick, the night they found the body in the water was the night that Milt Jackson came to town. Resnick is a jazz fiend and considers Jackson, a contemporary of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, one of the all-time greats....
3) Cold Light
Working at the Nottingham public housing authority is miserable, but Nancy Phelan knows that the tenants she services are worse off than her. Consider Gary James, whose family Nancy recently assigned to a new council flat. He’s got two children, no work,...
4) Easy Meat
Nicky Snape likes robbing old people. The fifteen-year-old snatches shirts from stores, purses from his teachers, and as much money as he can lift from his mother. But for an easy score he knows no better target than the elderly. When he sneaks into the home...
5) Off Minor
Raymond Cooke is looking for revenge, not corpses. It’s been six weeks since the gang of four young punks attacked him, since the one with the knife slit open his belly and left him to die on the street. After that Raymond bought a knife of his own, and has...
6) Cold in Hand
It’s Valentine’s Day, and a dispute between rival gangs leaves a teenage girl dead. Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, nearing retirement, is hauled back to the front line to help deal with...
7) Nick's Blues
Nick lives on a tough estate in north London. On his sixteenth birthday, his mother gives him a box left to him all those years ago. The contents lead Nick to discover what took his father from being a successful blues singer to taking his own life. Against a background of shifting allegiances, involving the violent gangs on the estate and his first serious involvement with a girl, Nick is forced to come to terms, not only with whom his father
...Shirley Peters was murdered in her own home. A directionless young woman with a fondness for cheap red wine and a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, her death is just another in the files of the Nottingham detective’s bureau....
Maria Roy is in the tub, musing on her hatred for her movie producer husband, when Grabianski and Grice break into her house. Though she is fearful at first, something about Jerry Grabianski’s confidence calms her down. Over tall glasses of Scotch, she directs...
10) Last Rites
It has been thirteen years since Michael Preston killed his father, and now his mother is dead too. Halfway through his twenty-four year sentence, Michael is a docile prisoner whom the warden doesn’t mind letting out for an afternoon to pay his respects. Michael goes to...
11) Living Proof
Although the cop who finds the man in Alfreton Road describes him as “absolutely stark bollock naked,” that is not quite true—he is wearing a sock. The naked man is flabby, middle-aged, and bleeding heavily, in no shape...
12) Cutting Edge
Karen Archer understands that women who date doctors should expect tardiness. The last time she invited Tim Fletcher over, he arrived from the emergency room exhausted, and barely had time to say hello before...
13) Far Cry
Ruth and Simon reluctantly agree to let their young teenage daughter, Heather, go off on a camping holiday in Cornwall with her best friend, Kelly, and her family. While on a vacation of their own, they get the news that both girls have gone missing. Kelly is found alive, but, after several days of searching, Heather's body is discovered inside some old mine workings. Although the police detective leading the investigation harbours suspicions of
...14) Gone to Ground
When police detective Will Grayson and his partner, Helen Walker, investigate the violent death of Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, their first thoughts are of an ill-judged sexual encounter or a fatal lovers' quarrel. But they soon shift focus to the book Bryan was writing about the life and mysterious death of fifties film star Stella Leonard. While Bryan's sister puts herself in danger by conducting her own investigation, Grayson and Walker peel
...15) Wasted Years
It starts with five professional thieves. At their first robbery, they press a sawed-off shotgun against a bank manager’s head, and leave with nearly forty thousand pounds. They repeat the trick three times, raking in nearly half a million in cash....
Desire leaves a man destroyed ... A young girl's curiosity reveals secrets better left hidden ... An accidental encounter on a train ends violently ... Ambition leads to a curious exchange ... An uncanny likeness changes two lives forever ... Here is a novel in sixteen chilling parts, linked by a glittering charm bracelet that brings misfortune to everyone who handles it. In Like a Charm, the best of British and American crime writers combine
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