In a True Light

by John Harvey

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.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

aka Jon Barton, William S. Brady (with Angus Wells), L.J. Coburn (with Laurence James), J.B. Dancer (with Angus Wells), John B. Harvey, William M. James (with Terry Harknett and Laurence James), Terry Lennox, John J. McLaglen (with Laurence James), James Mann, Thom Ryder, J.D. Sandon (with Angus Wells), Jon Hart

John Harvey (born 21 December 1938 in London) is a British author of crime fiction most famous for his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels, based in the City of Nottingham. Harvey has also published over 90 books under various names, and has worked on scripts for TV and radio. He also ran Slow Dancer Press from 1977 to 1999 publishing poetry. The first Resnick novel, Lonely Hearts, was published in 1989, and was named by The Times as one of the 100 Greatest Crime Novels of the Century. Harvey brought the series to an end in 1998 with Last Rites, though Resnick has since made peripheral appearances in Harvey's new Frank Elder series. The protagonist Elder is a retired detective who now lives, as Harvey briefly did, in Cornwall. The first novel in this series, Flesh and Blood, won Harvey the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2004, an accolade many crime fiction critics thought long overdue. In 2007 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for a Lifetime's Contribution to the genre. On 14th July 2009 he received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Nottingham in recognition of his literary eminence and his associations with both the University and Nottingham (particularly in the Charlie Resnick novels). He is also a big Notts County fan.

Reviews

[Patrick Sherriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this literary thriller of a mystery a lot despite my ex-library copy having been defaced by a pedantic reader who had gone through and crossed out every usage of American English and written the British equivalent in pencil. Which was infuriating because Harvey had set half the novel in New York and had (correctly) used US vernacular accurately (characters would "go to the bathroom" while my pedantic previous reader had crossed that out and written "toilet/loo." Arrggh! Thank you dear pedant, I could have worked that out for myself by the context... but anyway, hopefully you'll get a chance to read an undefiled copy and if you do, you'll be treated to a fairly conventional thriller that becomes unputdownable if you are into jazz or, like me, painting. Also, it was nice to see a protagonist in his 60s, an age usually treated by storytellers as comic, or tragic, but rarely heroic. Good stuff.

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[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow, melancholy crime novel. There's detective work done, but it mostly goes to waste and its a corrupt world out there, especially true for the business of high end art sales (not fiction!). The artist and art forger Sloane pushes through to the end and finds a bit of peace and happiness at the end. The use of an artist, and not a detective was an interesting mashup, I think a more conventional approach would have been too dark and boring.

I'm not that familiar with most of the painters of the period mentioned, I did spend some time looking at the women artists mentioned by Harvey in the acknowledgements, some work was nice but it was mostly abstracts which I don't care for.

An interesting read once for me, but I don't think I can read this sort of thing too often.

[Anirban · Rating 3 out of 5]

IN A TRUE LIGHT by John Harvey is a standalone thriller from the writer who is better known for his series of jazz influenced police procedurals featuring Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick . Sloane, a painter, after being released from prison, where he spent time in relation to a forgery case, gets called to Italy to meet his former partner, a famous painter herself. There he is informed that he has a daughter, and that it���s his partners last wish(she is dying of cancer) that he finds that daughter, who has gone off to USA, and has no contact whatsoever with the mother, and tells her that her mother is dead, and that Sloane is her father. He agrees, and finds out that the daughter in question is a singer, and she has hooked up with a shady person called Delaney, with mob connections and a violent streak which makes him aggressive towards women.

The plot was believable, though it was a bit too short. The sequence of the events were well placed and helped in the continuity of the book, but they were in my opinion a bit too short and always felt like a summary of a long scene. But, that didn���t stop the book from being fast. I normally have an aversion towards crime novels where the outcome is known from the first page. Either these books are filled with over detailing, which in my opinion is way of compensating the lack of plot and twist on part of the author, or they are so obvious that trudging through them becomes an ordeal. But in this case, though it felt a bit hurried, the book never felt being over detailed nor was it too obvious to make me yawn.

Coming to the characters, Sloane was believable, and got the required number pages needed to show that behind the bohemian facade he is a caring man. Delaney was frightening, but in a comic way, not funny but it felt that he came out of a comic book where the villains are pretty scary but are never well developed as characters. He needed a few more pages dedicated to his character. Same with Connie, the daughter. Apart from being a jazz singer, and a daughter disconnected with her mother, she remains undeveloped as a character. Again a few extra pages wouldn���t have hurt.

But lastly, a short, fast crime novel filled with a bit underdeveloped characters is far better than an over detailed, richly characterised yet a boring one.

[Zora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps a shade under five stars, but near enough.

This mystery is mostly a procedural and a literary novel. We know who the bad guy is from early on, but we can watch an amateur sleuth and a police team converge upon the solution (and stumble into several disasters on the way to solution).

(Minor spoilers) Plot: A sixty year old artist, who has never made it big, gets out of prison for art forgery and comes home to find a letter from an old girlfriend (who did make it big as an artist and is now dying) who springs the news on him: he has a forty-year-old daughter. He sets out to find her and fulfill the dying wish, and he gets pulled back into the NYC art community where he came of age and into the life of his daughter and the criminal.

What's so very good about this writing is how well observed the characters are. Without editorializing at all, Harvey gives us carefully selected details that tell us a lot about the nature of the story's people. The prose is clean and lean. His ability to give sensory detail in a very few words left me hungry every time he mentioned a meal.

I know very little about the 50's world of New York artists and bohemians, but I'm convinced he knows a lot about it, as he flashes back to that time briefly. He also manages several locations, times, and viewpoint characters in one of the slickest ways I've ever read. I generally don't like multiple viewpoint novels, but I slid across the transitions here painlessly.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his books now. Thanks to goodreads or a friend here--I forget exactly who but someone/the system here recommended the author to me and I'm glad they did.

[J.L. Whitaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't read any of John Harvey's books before, but this is a good one. An artist/art forger is recently released from prison and has to decide how to get his life back on track. Amidst the stack of junk mail, he finds a letter from a woman from his distant past, summoning him to her in France. At her deathbed he finds out he has a daughter somewhere, and promises her mother he will find her. From there, the short term of his life has a purpose. He returns to New York City and the haunts of his early life in the art and jazz community of the great city where daughter Connie is a club singer involved with an unsavoury club owner.

A well-written book, full of colourful descriptions of life in the 70s and now.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Sloane arrives at his London home on his release from prison, he finds a letter from an ex lover asking him to visit her because she is ill, and needs to tell him something. This information takes Sloane to America in search of something which will involve him in danger and heartbreak.

I always enjoy John Harvey's stand alone novels just as much as his detective series . This one has more emotional depth, and is rather more gritty. The action mostly takes place in the US which he describes very well.

And by a strange quirk of fate , my copy is now off to the USA, courtesy of Bookmooch !

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

IN A TRUE LIGHT – VG
John Harvey – stand alone
When art forger Sloane is released from prison he finds a letter from a woman he loved when he was young. Dying from cancer, she tells him they had a daughter and asks that he find her.

Harvey has an almost understated quality to his writing. His characters are flawed, but likable and his dialogue is excellent. Being a big fan of his Charlie Resnick series, I was a bit hesitant beginning this stand alone, but his writing holds true.

[Emma Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book was a drink it would be like a cognac, smooth and sophisticated on the palette but not too aged as to be too complexed. A thriller noir set in the art galleries and second rate jazz clubs of London and New York.

[Mark Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great crime novel with a heavy dose of art. I'm not an artist but Harvey's descriptions of certain paintings and the craft and creation of paintings were scintillating to me and inspiring. This book is one I never wanted to put down.

[Alan Korolenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is like two separate stories. There is the personal story of artist and ex con Sloan's search for a woman in New York City that he has been told by a long ago lover is their daughter. This brings his thoughts back to his past in 1950s Greenwich Village, his love affair with Jane Graham and the jazz and art of the times. Then there is the brutal crime story of Delaney, a sadistic killer and brutalizer of women, who is in a controlling relationship with Sloan's daughter Connie, a club jazz singer. Two NYC police detectives are hot on his trail while investigating a murder. These two parts come together and Harvey is certainly the master of crime, suspense and violence which leads to a tense climax. But it's Sloan's personal story and all it's atmosphere that most resonated with me.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first John Harvey and I'm glad he's got lots. This one's art fraud theme fits nicely with the other modernist culture shifts of the 50s-80s. Good observant eye for detail and def a good mystery/thriller but clearly written by a male so don't expect too much more than moody, thoughtful silence and introspection.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘In a True Light’ delineates between hard boiled pulp whose villain is a truly nasty piece of work, and a reflective literary novel about guilt, regret, family, memory and the redemptive power of art. Harvey fuses the disparate elements with skill, brevity and confidence.

[Chai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice read, Harvey has an easy way to his storytelling that becomes more familiar by the page. The detective's ending was rather disappointing, seeing that she didn't deserve it but life isn't fair so i kind of get it.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

The action doesn't kick in till the last 15 pages, don't waste your time.

[A.N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing at times but well constructed.

[Kally Sheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a lukewarm story. Take out all the ramblings about arts and jazz, and lead-no-where treads, you will probably get thirty some pages of story that contains some mediocre actions. The climactic scene of this 300+ page book is staged in one chapter, 3 pages, the penultimate chapter, and then an epilogue to conclude the story.

[Robert Hellenga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story line, but loses forward momentum.

[Philip Skeldon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings

As usual, elegant and stylish writing, but meandered a lot. Harvey obviously likes his jazz, but does he go on about it. A gripping climax at the end. Improbable story unlike the gritty realism of the Resnick novels, more of a literary exercise.

[George Rolph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can only review the first 29 pages because I was unable to bare going any further into it. No, in fact, I will not bother reviewing those either. It is not worth the pain it would cause me.

The rambling style of the authors writing was the first thing to grate on the nerves. The pointless detail that does little to push the plot along (Read pages 26 and 27 at the opening of Chapter Five for an example) soon begins to bore the discerning reader to death.

One gets the feeling that this was only published because it carries the authors name. Had anyone else submitted this to a publisher it would have found its way to the slush pile very quickly.

My advice? Avoid it. Its the literary equivalent of piles mixed with barbed wire toilet paper.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This stand alone book was not as good as the series I have read by John Harvey. Sloane,sixty, is being released from a two year sentence in jail for art forgery.While going through his mail, he recognizes the handwriting of Jane Graham, an older artist he'd had an affair with forty years ago. He is summoned to her bedside in Pisa where she is dying. She tells Sloane he had fathered her daughter, now estranged. She requests him to go to New York and locate her. He finds her in a low-class jazz club deeply involved with gangster Vincebt Delaney. Vargas and Cherry are two DIs trying to solve a woman's murder and are soon caught up in Delaney's crimes.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

An art forger walks from prison and finds a letter waiting for him from a dying former lover telling him has a daughter.

There are many good plot points but they are lost in an underdeveloped storyline and poor writing.

My overall feeling about this book was the multiple strands of story are not tied together properly, so it doesn’t add up to much - with a really good edit (of both the writing and wandering plot) this could have been a good book.

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a mystery reader but this one was very good

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: 3.5

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this author's characters.

[Béatrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mélange de thriller et de psychologie (un sexagénaire qui découvre qu'il a une fille de 40 ans)