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Guns on the Roof

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It's been ten years since Harvey last published a Charlie Resnick novel, and while his more recent Frank Elder series is OK, it's never grabbed me the way the ten Resnick books did. So it was with great surprise and delight that I stumbled upon this new entry in the Nottingham-set series. It opens with the ever-rumpled and aging copper Resnick shacked up with his much younger colleague Lynn Kellogg, who is rising quickly in the homicide division. On her way home one evening, she tries to break up a fight between teenage girls and ends up in the middle of a messy shooting, unable to prevent the death of one of the girls. Resnick, who has been marking time in the robbery unit, gets brought in to help investigate this murder.

Unfortunately, much of the story has a certain familiarity to it. The dead girl is black, and the cops are accused of dragging their feet as a result, and covering up for Lynn. Hardly a new theme in British crime fiction and TV, and Harvey does little to bring anything fresh to it. The story also becomes a vehicle for noting the increase in gun-related violence in Britain as well as painting a picture of the huge different in policework over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, the other main plotline involves a murder Lynn is investigating, and how it intertwines with a higher level customs investigation. All of these themes feel a little late to the party at this point, as any number of crime novels and TV shows have covered the same ground. Which is not to say the book is bad -- but simply that these elements are very familiar ones.

However -- halfway through, something rather spectacularly shocking occurs, and the story shifts away from Resnick, over to a female DCI from London. She has brought in to lead the investigation on this shocking act, and her no nonsense attitude invigorates the book and helps to ratchet up the tension. Along for the ride is her rather stock-figure deputy, a rough-hewn old-school headbanger who's there to provide the anti-PC commentary. As the story rolls along, one gets the sense that this odd couple is being set up as the protagonists for a new series. As they race around pursuing one angle, Resnick, after lurching around like a fool for a whole, slowly puts the pieces together on a different angle, and everything comes together in a rather grim conclusion. In tone and writing, the book is very much in keeping with the rest of the Resnick series (right down to the requisite jazz citations and itemized accounts of the contents of Resnick's refrigerator). However, it feels about ten years behind the times in terms of topicality, at least to me.

Hopefully we'll be seeing more of Harvey's new dynamic duo, and it seems pretty clear from the book's final pages that Resnick has at least a few more adventures to come.

Disappointed

Customer Rating:
I had previously read and enjoyed the Charlie Resnik series by John Harvey and own all the books in hardback. I thought the series was over. Thus I was very happy to see a new entry after many years. In a series, I feel the author and the readers have a certain understanding. Events that might be OK in a stand-alone novel may violate the trust a loyal follower has in a series. Traumatic events early in a series such as the death of Joanna Brady's trooper husband in the J.A. Jance series may be a necessary prequel to future developments; that is not so for a mature series such as this. The gratuitous violence in the present book was not necessary for the plot in any way. It did not contribute clues to the solving of any of the crimes to be solved. Given the age of the main character, it seems unlikely that future plot lines required this development. Therefore, I feel my trust in this author has been misplaced. I did not expect a detective "cozy" when I bought this book, The Resnik novels have been gritty and tough. But I think John Harvey went out of his way to disappoint his loyal readers. Perhaps Mr. Harvey's current views are those of one of the peripheral detectives in the current book who sees hopeless, meaningless ever-increasing crime and violence everywhere. I won't be purchasing his next book lest someone break into Resnik's house and torture all his cats to death.

"Used my detective as a shield. A human shield."

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Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick returns in Harvey's new thriller, albeit perhaps a more domesticated man, having entered a satisfying relationship Detective Inspector of the Homicide Unit and Hostage Negotiator Lynn Kellogg. With his favorite blues and jazz playing in the background, Resnick and Kellogg have reached a comfortable accommodation with their work and their private lives. Charlie, nearing his thirty and retirement, isn't questioning his good fortune in attracting the younger Kellogg, as bright an effective in her chosen career as the more seasoned detective. Intervening in a knife fight between two teenagers in a gang-infested Nottingham neighborhood, Kellogg is involved in an unfortunate incident: a gun is discharged, hitting Kellogg and another victim. Since English officers don't usually carry firearms, the situation is particularly ominous, leading to concerns of an infusion of illegal weapons into the city, a city already compromised by poverty, unemployment and rampant drug abuse.

Indeed, through the complicated plotting of a skillful author, the unlikely connections between petty street crime and drug use yields more frightening connotations- the rising influence of the Eastern European mob, Nottingham a seething cauldron of illegal activities and the threat of mob control. The city suffers as well from international gun running, human trafficking and a tidal wave of illegal drugs that have overwhelmed agencies, police facing enormous challenges in every arena. While Charlie is assigned to the neighborhood shooting, Lynn recovers, thanks to her bullet-proof vest, returning to one of her own troubling cases, protecting a fragile witness in a gruesome murder, the mob threatening to annihilate or terrify any potential witnesses. Focusing on her witness, Lynn is frustrated by the interference of SOCA, the Serious and Organized Crime Agency, that seeks to swallow her case with their broad-based, arguably more high-impact investigation.

These two characters, the very sympathetic Resnick and Kellogg, illustrate the difficulties of modern police work, the seasoned, dedicated investigative style of a veteran cop and the younger face of the agency, a capable, likeable woman whose skills reach beyond the common wisdom of the old fraternity. That they do so with such grace and efficiency adds to the pleasure of this novel, in spite of the real world problems that flood the pages. And there are other challenges: the diminishing of small cases in favor of the high-profile, headline-grabbing busts that allow the police to celebrate their few triumphs against accelerating crime, the neighborhood tensions and racial inequities that beleaguer even the most dedicated departments, an influx of illegal weapons, human trafficking and rampant drug abuse. All of this is daunting; Kellogg and Resnick are tested on every level, personal and career. In a thoughtful, troubling novel, Harvey delves into the very heart of city police work, frustrated, occasionally hopeful and tempered by the human condition. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

Welcome back Charlie!!

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First Sentence: It was the curious time, neither day nor night, not even properly dusk, the light beginning to shorten and fade, the headlights of a few overcautious drivers raising a quick, pale reflection from the slick surface of the road, the main route back into the city.

DI Lynn Kellogg has been shot while breaking up a fight between girls in two rival gangs. One girl was badly injured, while the other girl, attacking Lynn at the time, was mortally shot. Lynn's lover, DI Charlie Resnick is nearly retired but brought in to lead the investigation for the shooter while the dead girl's father blames Lynn.

Meanwhile, once Lynn is back at work, she is investigating a case which links to one being worked by the Serious and Organized Crime Agency. The case goes from dangerous to tragic.

I was so excited to see a new Charlie Resnick book and I wasn't disappointed. Harvey knows how to tell a story. He draws you in, gets you involved in the characters and the plot, hits your emotions, builds the suspense and brings it to resolution in a satisfying, realistic manner.

Charlie is a great character and Harvey gives you a real feel for his life and the people in it. Lynn, being much younger than Charlie, is a perfect balance and foil for him.

I've read all the books in the series but, with each new one, I want to go back and read them again. Not because I don't remember them, but because they are so good and this was the icing on the cake. I hope this isn't the last time we see Charlie Resnick.