IN A MELLOTONE — No.26 Autumn 2007

A John Harvey/Charlie Resnick Newsletter

Past editions (from issue 15 onwards) can be found in the Mellotone archive

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Well, spring duly sprang, birds and grass did whatever it is they do, and my brief moment of glory came and went. Bundled together with some hundred or so of the crime writing community in one of the rooms of the Savoy Hotel, not stompin’ exactly, but certainly quaffing the champagne with enthusiasm and nibbling at those tasty little snacks waiters whisk round at such shindigs, I smiled my way through several speeches [M. Arnaud Bamberger of Cartier, sponsors of the award, was unusually reticent, clocking in at just under the half-hour] before stepping up to accept the 2007 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger. A few quick references to the Scottish play and the evident dangers of over-reaching ambition and seeing daggers before my eyes and it was all over bar the obligatory photographs. The Dagger itself was wheeled back to the safety of Cartier’s vaults and, with my small but beautifully formed lapel pin safely in my pocket, I went forth to work the room and offer thanks.

Receiving an award that has previously gone to some of the great names in the area of fiction where I ply my trade – John le Carré, Eric Ambler, Elmore Leonard, to name but three – is, of course, a considerable honour, a recognition of work done, yet, at the same time that it makes one feel valued, it also makes one aware of one’s inadequacies. A lifetime achievement award can be a grateful signal to shuffle off into the sunset with a good single malt and leave the field to others; but this is different – sustained excellence in the field of crime writing is a bit more present tense. That excellence, if indeed that’s what it is, had better be maintained or else. Must try harder. We’ll be watching …

The bulk of this year so far has been spent working on Cold in Hand – title courtesy of a Bessie Smith blues – a Nottingham-based novel in which we revisit DI Charlie Resnick, now living happily with his former colleague, Lynn Kellogg, herself recently promoted to detective inspector and making most of the running as the book opens, leaving Charlie to brood about impending retirement and the life to follow. Midway, more or less, through the story, they are joined by DCI Karen Shields, who first appeared alongside Frank Elder in Ash & Bone, and is here seconded to Notts from Homicide and Serious Crime Command in the Met.

Assuming things go according to plan, the book will be published [terrific cover, by the way] by William Heinemann on January 31st, 2008. The previous book, Gone to Ground, which saw the full-length debuts of police detectives Will Grayson and Helen Walker, will appear as an Arrow paperback on January 17th.

A small independent Nottingham publisher, Five Leaves Publications, is launching a new imprint next month, Crime Express, which will specialise in short novellas in paperback. Each book will be 160mm by 110mm in size [that’s smaller than the normal paperback, sort of postcard size] and contain 80 to 96 pages. The first three titles are Claws by Stephen Booth, The Mentalist by Rod Duncan and my own Trouble in Mind.

Trouble in Mind [yes, another blues title] begins in north London and moves, predicatably perhaps, to Nottinghamshire, and brings together the fomer soccer playing copper turned private detective Jack Kiley, about whom I’ve written a number of short stories, and Charlie Resnick, as, between them, they go in search of an Iraq War army veteran who has gone AWOL.

The books will be available at the usual shops, a snip at a penny less than five pounds, and also directly from Five Leaves, whose email address is info@fiveleaves.co.uk Another story of mine is included in Paris Noir, which will be published in the UK by Serpent’s Tail on November 1st, and in France by Rivages. Edited by Maxim Jakubowski, the collection features French authors alongside English and American, ranging from Scott Phillips to Sparkle Hayter and Stella Duffy, and from Michael Moorcock to Jerome Charyn. My contribution is a jazz-based piece entitled Minor Key, which is set in Paris during the late 1950s and is another early walk-out for some of the characters I previously introduced in a story called Just Friends, and whom I keep promising myself [and my publisher] I will work up one day into a novel. Just Friends first appeared in Damn Near Dead: an Anthology of Geezer Noir, edited by Duane Swierczynski for Busted Flush Press [Houston, Texas] and recently reprinted in the excellent Penguin Book of Crime Stories selected and introduced by Peter Robinson for Penguin, Canada, and including the likes of George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, Sara Paretsky, and Messrs Rankin, Connelly and Billingham.

A final few words on my favourite crime novel of the last few years, Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore, a terrific book whose virtues I have proclaimed loudly to all and sundry ever since it was first published in Australia. This year at the CWA Duncan Lawrie Awards, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best Crime Novel was awarded to The Broken Shore and Peter, not before a modicum of socialising, flew back to Melbourne with said Dagger and a cheque for £20, 000.

’Nuff said.

John Harvey, September 2007
London, England