Harvey is about to publish the tenth and, he says, final novel featuring Inspector Charlie Risnick. Set in Nottingham, this series has proved to be one of the benchmarks in the new wave of British police procedurals that broke in the late Eighties. Along with Ian Rankin and Bill James, Harvey is concerned with showing the dark and frequently harsh face of contemporary policing in the inner city.
Resnick is a sensitive, intelligent man who loves jazz, complicated sandwiches and his cats. He hides his emotional nature behind an enigmatic and reticent facade. And instead of following the traditional format - the single detective who works with one sidekick - Harvey has opted for an ensemble approach and made Resnick the central focus of a group of characters whose lives the reader becomes familiar with, and whose triumphs and disasters become all the more powerful for that awareness. Titles include Cold Light, Easy Meat and Wasted Years.
Return to 100 Masters of Crime