In a True Light: A Novel of Crime (Otto Penzler Books) [Hardcover]

John Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2002 | Series: Otto Penzler Books

Sloane’s past in New York’s bohemian 1950s is never far from the slippery surface of his present in this stylish noir tale from John Harvey, the award-winning novelist touted by the London Times as “the King of Crime.” Nearing sixty, Sloane has just finished serving two years in an English prison for art forgery, when he’s summoned to Pisa by Jane Graham, the celebrated artist with whom he had an affair four decades before, in New York. Now on her deathbed, Jane reveals that Sloane fathered a child with her. Jane’s last wish is that he find their missing daughter. Sloane agrees, but his trouble only begins when he locates the confused, edgy Connie. Let alone that she is wasting her bluesy voice singing in New York’s smalltime jazz clubs; she is wasting her life big-time on Vincent Delaney, her volatile mob-connected manager. An unfamiliar paternal instinct pulls Sloane into Connie’s rescue and a maelstrom of criminal violence, serial murder, police procedures, hard truths, and increasingly dangerous consequences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British author Harvey (Lonely Hearts and others in his Charlie Resnick detective series) offers the stuff noirs are made on in this stand-alone: mean streets and shattered dreams; heartfelt jazz and smoke-filled rooms; lonely people in sleazy bars; the harmless, and the harmful who prey on them; a world in which violence is mindless, brutal and inevitable. On his return home to London after serving two years in prison for art forgery, Sloane, a 60-year-old painter and all-around loser, is surprised to receive a letter from an old flame and far more successful artist, Jane Graham, who's dying of cancer in Italy and wants to see him. In Pisa, Sloane learns that he's the father of Jane's daughter, Connie, whom she hasn't seen in years. Sloane agrees to try to find Connie and soon tracks her to New York, where she's a nightclub singer. The problem is she "belongs" to her manager, mob-tainted Vincent Delaney, who has left a trail of maimed or murdered girlfriends behind him. Two NYPD detectives, Catherine Vargas and John Cherry, are doing their best to nail Delaney, a most formidable villain, for the murder of the last woman who told him good-bye. The reader really comes to care about the tragic and compelling Sloane, whose efforts to fill his unexpected father role lead him into all sorts of trouble. While the plot might have been stronger had Sloane acted without the help of Vargas and Cherry, this dark and dazzling tale of crime and redemption can only enhance Harvey's reputation.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When Harvey published the tenth and last Charlie Resnick mystery (The Last Rites), fans mourned the end of that finely written Nottingham series. Fortunately, Harvey is back, though with a very different setting and protagonist. Sloane, an American just out of British prison at 59 for art forgery, is called to the deathbed of a long-ago lover, who reveals that he is a father. Sloane returns to Manhattan to discover that his daughter is a jazz singer plagued by alcohol and drugs and trapped in a relationship with a manager who seems mob-connected and may have a murderous past. Caught between memories of the 1950s art and music scene and the present, in which his emotional barriers are threatened, Sloane finds himself a reluctant knight. Harvey excels at portraying world-weary people, raw emotions, and no-win situations. This work ends more easily and is less a mystery than a search for human connections. Still, it offers Harvey's trademark command of dialog, vivid sense of place, and ever-present interest in music. Strongly recommended for most popular fiction collections. - Roland C. Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (July 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786710535
• ISBN-13: 978-0786710539
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,484 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Page-Turner, October 28, 2002

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In a True Light: A Novel of Crime (Otto Penzler Books) (Hardcover)

After the ten novels and eleven short stories of his Charlie Resnick police procedural series, poet and publisher Harvey leaves the familiar mean streets of Nottingham in his new crime novel, which splits its time between London and New York (with a side trip to Tuscany). The new setting doesn't mean a totally different style though, as Harvey includes NYC cops, builds plenty of jazz into the tale, and features a world-weary protagonist easily imaginable as a good friend of Charlie Resnick.

Sloane is a 60ish painter, just out of prison after a several year stretch for art forgery. He worked for a slimy art dealer, who he refused to drop the dime on. Now out, he works to rebuild his lonely life and wrecked studio, making friends with the local Malian café owner. He receives a letter from a lover from his youth-back when he was a bright young thing, and she ran with the big names in modern painting (Pollock, de Kooning, etc.). On her deathbed, the former flame (and one suspects his everlasting regret), reveals the existence of their daughter, stunning him.

Sloane ventures to New York to track her down, tasked with delivering her mother's last words. The woman is a jazz singer, under the thumb of a nasty semi-connected mobster type, who is also being investigated by a pair of homicide cops for the brutal murder of another woman. As Sloane searches for his daughter, he runs into old friends and a possible romance starts. The story builds its multiple strands steadily, only to erupt in a terrifying burst of nasty violence in the final chapters.

Unlike some crime writers who try to take on settings other than their native ones, Harvey exhibits total command of Manhattan past and present. His clean meditative prose unmasks the fears and desires of his characters and propels the deceptively simple story to its inexorable conclusion. Great stuff, can't wait for the next. BTW, this is a hundred times better than the last art/crime novel I read, David Ramus' vastly overhyped Thief of Light.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Entertaining Mr. Sloane....., November 17, 2002

By 

N. Richardson "nano" (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In a True Light: A Novel of Crime (Otto Penzler Books) (Hardcover)

I would like to add a "me, too!" to T. Ross's fine review of "In A True Light." Harvey's Resnick series is such a pleasure, I could not bear to read the last book. (wasn't the death of Morse bad enough for fans of understated and intelligent British crime novels?)

Harvey's has once again created a character who at once is extremely likeable and flawed, who after a life of underachieving is given the greatest of gifts, a second chance. In his journey, he finds justice and redemption...and the wisdom to appreciate it.

The themes of unfinished business, unsentimental journeys into the past, and the art worlds of today's London and yesterday's New York moves along to a rich and satisfying conclusion.

The author's gift for characterization and dialogue is dead on. In a few lines we know enough to to embrace wholeheartedly or loathe to death the people who populate his worlds. I don't know if Sloane will star a new Harvey franchise, but I wouldn't mind meeting him again in his midlife adventure.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem, October 5, 2005

By 

David Corbett - See all my reviews

This review is from: In a True Light: A Novel of Crime (Otto Penzler Books) (Hardcover)

I've read all the Reznick novels and was wondering whether I'd be able to make the leap to Harvey's first stand-alone. What an idiot I was. Harvey has a poet's knack for the elegant, simple detail that never obtrudes but just nails the moment so clearly the reader is constantly engaged with what's on the page. And he does the almost impossible, conveying in words the palpable sense of both music and visual art so that the reader can hear and see what's being described. Others here have recounted the story so I won't repeat, except to say it was the characters I found compelling, portrayed in scenes that managed to be both spare and rich. I too have some quibbles about the ending but they are so minor as to be unworthy of mention. The book earned my undivided interest throughout. I looked forward each evening to my time with it--what more does one want from a novel?