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 Organised 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" (Sue Grafton) in another heart-stopping procedural.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. 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. (Sept.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
John Harvey has developed a formidable reputation over the years for delivering some of the best police procedural novels in Britain. Cold in Hand continues that legacy as Harvey brings back beloved detective Charles Resnick and once again paints a realistic portrait of the bleak situation facing Britain's police departments—not to mention its cities—today. The author's talent fortunately extends beyond a mere familiarity with the crime world and into his carefully crafted characters. Harvey's understated prose and sensibility do wonders to show readers what Resnick and Kellogg experience as they traverse this dystopian vision of Nottingham. Cold in Hand , a heartbreaking portrait of contemporary English affairs, will rivet readers until the end.
Copyright 2008 Bookmarks Publishing LLC