John Harvey: Easy Meat, London, W Heinemann, 1996. First edition, proof copy in card covers. 334 pp. Eighth Resnick novel.

John Harvey, creator of Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, is widely regarded as an important writer on the British crime scene. This is because he contributed along with other major writers such as Ruth Rendell and Ian Rankin to the wider acceptance of character and social realism together as motors of the crime novel. He did this firstly through the character of Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, residing in a city that was rapidly changing and coming from a Polish background, and a guy into deli sandwiches and jazz music. In signalling the locus of crimes in a particularly locality, together with Resick’s interest in certain foods and music Harvey was pointing to other influences and textures from across the Channel and the Atlantic. The other characters that Resnick meets are also lovingly portrayed.

In recent years Harvey has completed a trio of novels about retired policeman Frank Elder and a novel set in the Fens. His choice of character and location and his skill at rendering a compelling and socially relevant story take the genre of British noir to new places.

Condition: Nice condition with the faintest of wear.