Cold in Hand
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A welcome return for Nottingham Inspector Charlie Resnick, who’s been absent from novel-length crime-fighting since Last Rites.”—Kirkus Reviews
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 the fallout. But when the dead girl’s father seeks to lay the blame on Resnick’s partner, DI Lynn Kellogg, Resnick finds the line between the personal and the professional dangerously blurred.
Meanwhile, the Serious and Organized Crime Agency starts to show a keen interest in one of Kellogg’s murder cases—a case the agency is convinced is linked to international gun running and people trafficking. Soon Kellogg is drawn into a web of deceit and betrayal that puts both her and Resnick in mortal danger. In Cold in Hand, John Harvey brings back “one of the most fully realized characters in modern crime fiction” in another heart-stopping procedural (Sue Grafton).
“The book is quite possibly Harvey’s most authoritative in years: visceral, engaged and, yes, unputdownable.”—Independent
“It’s impossible not to greet the return of Resnick in this eleventh, coda-like, deeply melancholy novel with anything but celebration.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Impassioned, at times heartbreaking . . . [Cold in Hand] confirms Harvey as one of our most accomplished writers in any genre.”—Sunday Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 10 novels over 10 years (1989 1998), Charlie Resnick, the jazz-loving police detective, made Nottingham's turf familiar to readers who never came within 1,000 miles of it. Now, after a supporting role in Ash & Bone (2005), an older Charlie on the cusp of retirement makes a welcome and brilliant return. A pair of murder investigations form a knotty tangle, reflecting nasty changes in Nottingham: the first a gang dispute resulting in a fatal shooting, the second the murder of an East European prostitute imported for the sex trade. The latter case collides with a separate inquiry mounted by the SOCA (Serious and Organized Crime Agency). As always, Harvey handles the police procedural aspects with easy competence. But the characterization shines brightest as the thoroughly decent, competent Charlie navigates the treacherous waters of his profession that threaten to swamp his personal life.