Thursday, July 05, 2007

Darkness and Light by John Harvey

I enjoyed Jar City so much, I decided that I needed another dark murder mystery right away, preferably one set in England or elsewhere in Europe. Darkness and Light fit the bill. Well-paced, with some good red herrings, it satisfied my craving, but it wasn't as good as Jar City.

Frank Elder comes out of retirement as a favor to his ex-wife, in order to search for a woman who has disappeared. The police are convinced she’s just off on a trip somewhere, but her sister is sure that something bad has happened. When the missing woman turns up dead, Frank is hired as a consultant to help the local police find her killer, and perhaps also the killer of another woman, similarly murdered several years ago.

John Harvey is the author of the Charlie Resnick crime novels, and Resnick turns up in Darkness and Light in one scene. I read of few of those books several years back, but didn’t like them enough to follow through on more of Harvey’s stuff. Not sure this one was enough to make me go on, either.

(Book 28, 2007)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did like this one, but then I'm a sad crime fic addict. I'd read the previous two Elder books, and I think the back-story helps.

Did I recommend "The Coroner's lunch" by Colin Cotterill? I've been recommending it to everyone, it is brilliant. Do check it out and see if it appeals. I suppose it is crime fiction but it is more than that. Set in Laos, so not quite as cold and grey as UK or Iceland!

syferium said...
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