Customer Reviews

Still Water: The 9th Charles Resnick Mystery (A Charles Resnick Mystery)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author's well-documented love for jazz, as well as that of his protagonist, Charlie Resnick, is established on the first page of this, the ninth in the series, when, as he is awaiting the start of a concert featuring the great jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson, he is called out to a murder scene. The victim is a young woman, found in one of the many canals that ringed the area, and the speculation is that she is but the latest in a string of incidents called in the media the Canal Murders

There have been a number of bodies found, "females aged between seventeen and twenty-five; all discovered in or near water with serious injuries to the head or upper body," and this latest one the last of "three murders, no more than months apart, radius of thirty miles," with no clothing, no ID. And it is not, of course, the last one to be found within these pages. Charlie thinks: "How many were there whose deaths still sought proper explanation and resolve? How many women in water, ditch, or hasty grave, their bodies spilled out at the sides of roads or in the stairwells of deserted buildings?"

The Serious Crimes Squad is just being formed as the book begins, an off-shoot of Charlie's CID Unit, to consist of 20 detective constables, four sergeants, a smattering of support staff, one inspector, and a freshly appointed detective chief inspector, whose identity is as yet unknown. Charlie's own lack of ambition keeping him from applying for the position himself, is what he and others in his division are thinking. Charlie's Unit has been fragmented of late - Mark Divine still recovering from the devastating events described in the prior entry in the series, Graham Millington talking about going back into uniform and moving, Lynn Kellogg applying for a transfer to the Family Support Unit [and wanting to get out from under Charlie's shadow]. And there is also Charlie's evolving relationship with Hannah, who he met in that same eighth series entry, "Easy Meat."

There is a constant theme here of violence to women, often but not necessarily including rape, and of domination and submission. There is a secondary story line as well, an often charming one dealing with nuns, art theft and forgery, and possible redemption. And as usual with Mr. Harvey, perfectly evocative descriptions, e.g., "At the table alongside them, four Asian girls from a nearby comprehensive were arguing over their German homework, filling the air around them with tobacco smoke and laughter. A middle-aged woman with the puzzled moon face of a child was sitting with her carer, twisting a narrow length of scarf in and around her fingers in a seemingly endless pattern, tea and toast beside her untouched. Beyond the glass, solitary men and women sat with the dogs or children, and a man wearing padded cycling shorts and a maroon sweatshirt shouted into his mobile phone." As with all the other books from this author, this one is highly recommended.