Synopses & Reviews
For Sloane, the past is never far from the present in this page-turner of a novel from John Harvey, hailed by the London Times as the King of Crime. At sixty, Sloane, a talented if unsuccessful painter, has just finished serving two years for art forgery when he receives a mystifying letter from Jane Graham, the older woman and more celebrated painter with whom he had a passionate affair years before. Summoned to her deathbed, Sloane learns that with her he fathered a child, Connie, from whom Jane has become estranged. Janes last wish is that Sloane find their daughter. Sloane agrees, and his troubles begin when he locates the unhappy Connie, who is wasting her bluesy voice singing in New Yorks low-rent jazz clubs. She is also wasting her life on Vincent Delaney, her mob-connected manager who may have killed his last mistress. Sloane could leave, but an unfamiliar paternal instinct leads him into a maelstrom of criminal violence, a risky police investigation, painful alliances, hard truths, and increasingly dangerous consequences. Harveys writing is beautifully nuanced, his sense of story impeccable, his characters unforgettable.Jonathan Kellerman A pitch-perfect, pulp noir cocktail from a true master.George P. Pelecanos
Synopsis
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.