Easy Meat [Hardcover]

John Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

In an incisive portrait of juvenile crime and its social implications, fifteen-year-old Nicky Snape, a long-time petty juvenile offender, is picked up for killing Eric Netherfield, only to turn up dead himself two days later where he is being held. 50,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a deeply-textured novel reminiscent of Lynda LaPlante's popular Prime Suspect, John Harvey probes the seamy underside of urban England. A Nottinghamshire police force must move quickly to understand the links between seemingly- unrelated deaths; in the background, the life of a working-class family is changed irrevocably.

From Publishers Weekly

Harvey (Cold Light; Rough Treatment) is a hard-bitten British poet of urban angst. His latest gritty crime novel, set in a provincial English city that is clearly Nottingham, has a particularly tough theme: gay male rape. Young ne'er-do-well Nicky Snape, 15, arrested after bludgeoning an elderly couple during a robbery, mysteriously hangs himself on his first night in juvenile detention. Then seemingly conventional, soon-to-retire police inspector Bill Aston, conducting an investigation into the lad's suicide, is found brutally beaten to death. The central mystery is whether these events are connected, and Harvey's police squad is set to find out. Led by laconic Charlie Resnick, the squad is a beautifully observed bunch of men and women whose profane relationships with each other and their suspects are rendered with unerring accuracy. What makes Harvey's grim world bearable is his compassion: even Nicky's hapless mother is wretchedly human; Resnick himself is allowed a dour little romance with a young teacher; and the most intolerant and racist member of the police squad ultimately gets help from an unexpected quarter. Harvey's taut, fluent style moves easily between idle banter and electrifying violence, and only a slightly over-the-top windup is a flaw in an otherwise haunting and memorable performance. 50,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co; 1st edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805041486
• ISBN-13: 978-0805041484
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN HARVEY is the author of eleven Charlie Resnick novels and the Frank Elder series, and is a recipient of the Silver Dagger Award, the Barry Award, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement, among other honors.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant write pens an unforgettable crime novel, October 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Easy Meat (Paperback)

Nicky Snape was barely fifteen, but already has a résumé filled with misdemeanors and minor crimes. He has even stolen money from his own mother. Today is a typical day in the life of the young English hoodlum. Nicky makes the rounds and steals a purse from Hannah Campbell, later selling her credit cards. He breaks into the home of Eric and Doris Netherfield. Eric sees an intruder enter his bedroom and goes after the culprit with a piece of railing. He strikes the intruder, Nicky, on the shoulder, but eventually loses the bar. Nicky knocks Eric down, demanding money. As Eric holds his chest, Doris comes over to attend to her man. Nicky picks up the bar and splits open Doris' head.

The police arrest Nicky for murder. Two days later, the teenager hangs himself in his cell. To Inspector Charles Resnick, something is not quite right about the lad's death. He begins to investigate what happened at the juvenile detention home where Nicky allegedly hung himself. Charles looks into this case, while the English city rocks from other vicious crimes.

EASY MEAT is a British urban police procedural that is so gritty, it will make American readers reconsider the English cozy. Nicky, who could be any teenager, is a great character and the story line is painfully brilliant. However, it is Charles, surrounded by a growing tide of violence, who still finds love amidst this vicious sea of decadence, who makes John Harvey's novel one of the best police procedurals of the year.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing, February 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Easy Meat (Paperback)

This was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it - it was fast paced and very real. This was actually the first book I read in the series and it encouraged me to read the rest of them ( although I still think this is the best one ). It's just a shame that there will be no more. It's a british book, written in a very british way about british urban life - if people think its depressing, they're simply missing the point.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Harvey Strikes Again, March 31, 2003

By 

Kevin Nelson "kevinandann2" (Orleans, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Easy Meat (Paperback)

John Harvey is arguably one of the crime writers today. Easy Meat is another in his Charlie Resnick series. Each one, it seems, is better than the previous ones. Harvey's stories deal not only with crimes, but also current issues in society, such as racism, sexual harrassment on the job, infidelity, child pronography and others. Many authors chose to ignore these subjects. Not so with John Harvey. In this installment, a youth is accused of murdering an older woman. Convicted of the crime, he is later sent to a youth dtention centre, where he is found hanging in a room. He was only 15 years old. Resnick has to deal with the psyche of the boy and those who drove him to his death. The book is well written, yet at the same tim difficult to read because it does not seem like fiction at all, rather it is true life. It is a pity the Harvey has not written a Resnick novel in a few years. We can only hope that changes.