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This page lists crime related novels and short story collections by John Harvey.

In addition to the books listed on this page John Harvey has written poetry, and plays for stage, television and radio.

In the 1970s and 1980's Harvey produced many western novels, war novels, biker novels, young adults novels and novelisations of films - these were usually published using pen names.

Written by John Harvey:
- novels, story collections

Edited by John Harvey:
- crime anthologies

Amphetamines and Pearls

John Harvey

1976

A Scott Mitchell novel

Subsequently published together with The Geranium Kiss in a single volume.

"Amphetamines and Pearls marked the debut of Scott Mitchell, a down-on-his-luck London PI who ventures to Nottingham for the sake of an old friend, iconic singer Candi Carter. Mitchell finds Carter dead in her living room, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth and a bullet hole in her chest. Her body is still warm. But before he can get out of there, he’s blackjacked, and when he comes to, he’s picked up by a pair of cops who beat him senseless and drag him to the nearest cell. Mitchell is having a hell of a day - and things will only get worse from here."

The Geranium Kiss

John Harvey

1976

A Scott Mitchell novel

Subsequently published together with Amphetamines and Pearls in a single volume.

"In The Geranium Kiss, Mitchell takes a job from Crosby Blake, one of the most powerful men in London—and one of the most dangerous. Blake’s niece, Cathy, has been kidnapped, and he wants Mitchell to handle the ransom payment. The kidnappers want £20,000, and about 20,000 things will go wrong before this case is finished. To bring Cathy home alive, Mitchell will have to untangle a web of deadly lies that threaten to bind him tighter with every question he asks."

Junkyard Angel

John Harvey

1977

A Scott Mitchell novel

Subsequently published together with Neon Madman in a single volume.

"Junkyard Angel starts with Scott Mitchell deciding to sneak into a flat he’s supposed to be watching from across the road to avoid freezing to death. It’s the worst decision he’ll ever make. He’s just stepped inside when a blackjack cracks him across the skull, and he crashes to the floor, unconscious. When he comes to, he finds a photo of a beautiful woman—and a dead girl lying on the bed. Mitchell has fallen face-first into a murder scene, and it won’t be long before he’s wishing he’d frozen instead."

Neon Madman

John Harvey

1977

A Scott Mitchell novel

Subsequently published together with Junkyard Angel in a single volume.

"In Neon Madman, Mitchell is trying to stay out of trouble by doing some safe, sleazy divorce work—so why is somebody trying to kill him? When a West Indian man bursts into his office threatening to tear him apart, Mitchell talks him down before the man is able to breaks any of his limbs—or, God forbid, his camera—but he still hasn’t got a clue who the intruder is, or how he’s tied up in the adultery case. And when this supposedly simple case goes from quick and easy to slow and deadly, Mitchell will have to move fast if he wants to stay alive."

Frame

John Harvey

1979

"One man holds the key to a secret plotto overthrow the British Government."

Blind

John Harvey

1981

Endgame

James Mann (John Harvey)

1982

A spy thriller published using the pen name James Mann.

"They were like chess Grandmasters: the Intelligence chiefs, Russian and American, coldly aloof in their headquarters, probing, placing, threatening, feinting. Field agents, double agents, analysts and controls - men and women - were all pieces, to be used, exposed, sacrificed if needs be. Except that they were also human beings and each might, quite suddenly, refuse to play their masters' game. So when Dimitri Andropov discovered just how he had been used, how the one true love affair of his life had been perverted, he exploded in an outburst of vengeful fury that threatened to overturn the board and end the whole game in bloody chaos."

Dancer Draws a Wild Card

Terry Lennox (John Harvey)

1985

Published using the pen name Terry Lennox.

Lonely Hearts

John Harvey

1989

A Charlie Resnick novel

"Shirley Peters is dead. Murdered. Her body is found twelve hours later in her own home. Just one of the many sordid domestic crimes hitting the city. Tony Macliesh, her rejected boyfriend, is the obvious prime suspect and he’s just been picked off the Aberdeen train and put straight into custody. But then another woman is sexually abused and throttled to death. And suddenly there appears to be one too many connections between these seemingly unrelated crimes. Detective Inspector Resnick is sure that the two murders are the work of one sadistic killer – two lonely hearts broken by one maniac. And it’s up to Resnick to put the record straight – and put the bastard where he belongs."

Rough Treatment

John Harvey

1990

A Charlie Resnick novel

"A kilo of cocaine. Hardly what two small-time crooks were expecting to find when they broke into TV director Harold Roy's shabby mansion. But nor was Harold's frustrated wife expecting to fall in love with one of the intruders. Now she's going to make a deal with him - for both her husband and the drugs. But the precious powder belongs to someone else. And he wants it back. So if he feels he's been double-crossed, there's no telling what might happen. Detective Inspector Resnick has a hunch that there's more to this story than meets the eye. And as his investigations lead him down the mean streets of the TV industry and an inner-city drugs ring, it's obvious that more than one person is dancing on thin ice."

Cutting Edge

John Harvey

1991

A Charlie Resnick novel

"A savage assault with a scalpel leaves Dr Tim Fletcher's body badly slashed in a deserted walkway - the first victim in a series of brutal assaults on hospital staff. As panic grips the city, it's up to Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick to find the killer. Faced with a mass of clues that lead nowhere and a past he cannot forget, it's not long before he's pushed close to breaking point."

Off Minor

John Harvey

1992

A Charlie Resnick novel

"Little Gloria Summers’ body has been found, hidden inside two plastic bin bags in a disused warehouse. Somewhere in the city, a child killer is on the loose, free to strike again. Then Emily Morrison vanishes on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A week later there are still no clues. Inspector Charlie Resnick is as appalled as the media. But years of patient police work have taught him a thing or two – including his conviction that those who jump to easy conclusions are often the last ones to solve a crime."

Wasted Years

John Harvey

1993

A Charlie Resnick novel

"A series of brutal robberies takes Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick back ten years. To a time when a rash of very similar incidents left him face to face with a frenzied sociopath who nearly brought his life to a premature end - and to a time when his wife ran off with her lover, putting paid to their marriage and leaving him with a psychic wound that still hasn't healed. Now with the look-alike robberies escalating in violence, Resnick fights to track the men down before they kill, just as he fights to stem the poignant memories that threaten to overwhelm him."

Cold Light

John Harvey

1994

A Charlie Resnick novel

"A cabbie's just been beaten up, there's a drunk and disorderly in the interview room and a possible child abuser on the way in. Nothing unusual there, then, just a pretty normal Christmas holiday for DI Resnick and his team. Normal, that is, until Dana Matthieson calls to report her flatmate, Nancy, missing. Dana's had a pretty grim Christmas herself: she's been sexually harassed by her boss, and may even have lost her job as well as her friend. Pretty soon the police have proof that Nancy was kidnapped, and then - as the New Year celebrations wind down - the first tape arrives, and Resnick knows they're dealing with a dangerous psychopath."

Living Proof

John Harvey

1995

A Charlie Resnick novel

"When a man is found in the middle of Alfreton Road in the early hours one Sunday morning, stark naked and bleeding heavily from a chest wound, he is the latest in a series of viscous attacks on men. Enquiries in the mean-streets of Nottingham's red-light district have brought the investigations to a dead end. Charlie Resnick is the man for the job. And as if he hasn't had enough to deal with, he now has to provide police protection for a celebrity at the annual crime convention - an author with some very unpleasant 'fan' mail. Chronically short-staffed as he is, it's a guessing game as to when Resnick's lack of manpower will have fatal consequences."

Easy Meat

John Harvey

1996

A Charlie Resnick novel

"Why would a fifteen-year-old boy commit suicide? Mind you, who cares when he's a no-good kid on trial for bludgeoning an elderly couple to death? But when the senior investigating officer is then found brutally murdered, DI Charlie Resnick is put on the case, and uncovers some sinister and startling revelations. It also brings Resnick into contact with Hannah Campbell, with whom he finds himself falling unexpectedly and awkwardly in love."

Still Water

John Harvey

1997

A Charlie Resnick novel

"The battered body of a young woman is found floating in the still water of an inner-city canal. Police suspect a serial killer, which makes it a case for the newly formed Serious Crime Squad. Not DI Charlie Resnick’s case, then; not his worry. But soon another body is found, and this time Charlie has a personal interest. His lover, Hannah, knew the murdered woman, knew too that her husband was fiercely jealous. And very free with his fists. Arguing that her friend was the victim of domestic abuse, not the target of some anonymous killer, Hannah persuades Charlie to take on the case. Investigating the murder, Resnick runs head-on into deeply disturbing questions about the nature of love, about the relationship of abuser and abused, and about our complicity in our own destruction."

Last Rites

John Harvey

1998

A Charlie Resnick novel

"Lorraine Preston's brother, Michael, was sent down for life for the murder of their father - and now he's being allowed out for their mother's funeral. A hardened criminal, Michael Preston is the last person Resnick wants back on his patch, even if it's only for a matter of hours. Heartsore and world-weary, Resnick is struggling to contain an explosive situation on the streets, where the spread of guns has led to a frightening escalation in drug-related crime. The local force, meanwhile, is riven by internal rivalries and rumours of corruption. With his previously stable relationship with Hannah Campbell wavering, Resnick is forced back on his self-belief, his understanding of people. Why - himself included - they do the things they do."

Now's The Time: The Complete Resnick Short Stories

John Harvey

1999

Charlie Resnick short stories

"Gathered together in Now's The Time are twelve short stories featuring Resnick. From old foes to upstart pretenders, the city and the jazz-soaked, night-time world of Charlie Resnick come vividly to life."

In A True Light

John Harvey

2001

"Sloane walks free from prison after taking the rap for a high-profile art scam. A failed painter, he is now a failed forger. Awaiting him are two policemen anxious to remind him of his sins, and a letter from a woman with whom he had a passionate affair in his youth. Now dying, she summons him to tell him that he has a daughter, Connie. Sloane agrees to return to New York, a city of potent memories, to look for his daughter. But Connie is locked in a relationship with a man the police believe has killed once and who will not hesitate to kill again. Sloane has to decide whether to walk away or stay and fight for her. And the deeper the police dig into Vincent Delaney's business affairs, uncovering underworld associations, the more Delaney feels cornered, and the more unpredictable and dangerous he becomes."

Flesh and Blood

John Harvey

2004

A Frank Elder novel

"Fifteen years ago, Susan Blacklock disappeared. Although Detective Inspector Frank Elder has taken early retirement, the case still plagues his mind. Prime suspects, Shane Donald and Alan McKeirnan, were convicted a year later of the brutal rape and murder of a young girl, and now that Shane has been granted parole, Elder feels compelled to revisit the past. Then Shane disappears and another young girl is murdered. Elder's involvement is now crucial. Taunted by postcards from the killer, an increasingly desperate Elder battles to keep his estranged family from being drawn into the very heart of the crime."

Ash and Bone

John Harvey

2005

A Frank Elder novel

"When the take-down of a violent criminal goes badly wrong, something doesn't feel right to Detective Sergeant Maddy Birch. And her uneasiness is compounded by her belief that someone is following her home. Retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder's daughter, Katherine, is running wild. Elder's fears for his daughter are underscored by guilt - it was his involvement in a case that led directly to the abduction and rape which has so unbalanced Katherine's life. Persuaded out of retirement, Elder reopens a cold case which could have devastating repercussions for the crime squad itself. Elder's investigations take place against the backdrop of his increasing concern for his daughter. He must battle his own demons before he can uncover the truth."

Darkness and Light

John Harvey

2006

A Frank Elder novel

"A phone call intrudes on retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder’s solitary life in Cornwall. It’s his estranged wife and she needs a favour. A friend’s sister, Claire Meecham, an unassuming widow in her fifties, has gone missing. Elder agrees to return to Nottingham to try and track her down. Then Claire is found, dead. The killer has arranged her body meticulously, almost lovingly, forcing Elder to remember another dead woman, arranged in an almost identical way. It was his first case with the Serious Crimes Unit. His first case and never solved. It’s clear to Elder that this is the work of the same unbalanced individual and, to find the killer, Elder must shine a light into the darkest recesses of human behaviour, the dark and twisted recesses of a disturbed human mind."

Gone to Ground

John Harvey

2007

"When police detective Will Grayson and his partner, Helen Walker, are called upon to investigate the violent death of Stephen Bryan, a gay Cambridge academic, their first thoughts are off an ill-judged sexual encounter, of rough trade gone wrong. But as their investigation widens, their attention focusses on the biography Bryan was writing about the life and death of fifties film star, Stella Leonard, whose death from drowning, when the car she was driving skidded mysteriously off a lonely Fenland road, uncannily echoed the climax of her most notorious film, Shattered Glass. With Bryan's journalist sister egging them on, and bringing herself into mortal danger as she conducts her own investigation, Will and Helen gradually peel away the secrets of a family blighted by a lust for wealth and power and its own perverted sexuality."

Trouble in Mind

John Harvey

2007

A Jack Kiley / Charlie Resnick novella

"Jack Kiley, a professional footballer turned private investigator, is hired to track down a solider who has gone missing while on leave from Iraq. The soldier's mind is disturbed by what he has seen and done in the war, and he is armed. There are fears both for the man himself and for the safety of his estranged wife and two young children. Kiley's search leads him to Nottingham, where he teams up with D. I. Charlie Resnick. Together they search the house where the soldier's wife and children have been living and find them gone, almost certainly taken against their will ... the only question now is, will they find them before it is too late?"

Cold in Hand

John Harvey

2008

A Charlie Resnick novel

"It's one of a rising number of violent incidents in the city, and DI Charlie Resnick, nearing retirement, is hauled back to the front line to help deal with the fallout. But when the dead girl's father seeks to lay the blame on DI Lynn Kellogg, Resnick's colleague and lover, the line between personal and professional becomes dangerously blurred. As Lynn, shaken by this very public accusation, is forced to question her part in the teenager's death, Resnick struggles against those in the force who disapprove of his maverick ways. But when the unimaginable occurs, an emotional Resnick will need all his strength to see justice done."

Nick's Blues

John Harvey

2008

"Four days after Nick Harman’s seventh birthday, his father climbed onto a bridge high above four lanes of traffic, paused, then threw himself to his death on the road below. That was a little over nine years ago. Today Nick was sixteen. Nick lives with his mother on a tough housing estate in north London. On his sixteenth birthday, his mother gives him a box of things left by his father all those years ago. The contents lead Nick to try and discover what led his father from being a successful blues singer to the point where he took his own life. Against a background of shifting allegiances, involving both the violent gangs on the estate and his first serious involvement with a girl, Nick is forced to come to terms, not only with who his father was but who he is himself."

Minor Key

John Harvey

2009

A collection which includes five previously uncollected short stories, four of them featuring Charlie Resnick, six mostly jazz-related poems and an introduction, Resnick, Nottingham and All That Jazz.

Far Cry

John Harvey

2009

"Ruth and Simon Pierce's rare romantic break is shattered by devastating news: their daughter, Heather, on holiday in Cornwall with a friend's family, has disappeared. The loss is more than they - or their marriage - can bear. But time does heal and slowly Ruth builds a new life for herself. A new husband, Andrew - even a second daughter, Beatrice. The chances that history could repeat itself are next-to-impossible - that is until, years later, a desperate phone call launches DI Will Grayson and his partner, DS Helen Walker, into an investigation which will test their professional and emotional resources to the very limit. Yet as Grayson becomes increasingly obsessed with a recently released child-abuser and Helen is drawn deeper into a destructive love affair with a married colleague, there is a real danger that their most demanding investigation yet will slip fatefully through their hands."

A Darker Shade of Blue

John Harvey

2010

Short stories.

"From the killing fields of the East Midlands to the mean streets of London, from the jazz clubs and clip joints of Soho to the barren fenlands of East Anglia, this is a world of broken families and run-down estates, revenge killings and prostitution, drugs, guns and corruption; a world of overstretched police forces and underpaid detectives, men and women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything, even friendship, has a price. Featuring characters like Frank Elder, who tried to turn his back on police work and failed; Jack Kiley, ex-copper and one-time professional footballer, now a London-based PI; and the renowned jazz loving and much-loved Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, John Harvey's finely-crafted vignettes perfectly encapsulate life in the badlands of modern Britain."

Good Bait

John Harvey

2012

"When a seventeen-year-old Moldovan boy is found dead on Hampstead Heath, the case falls to DCI Karen Shields and her overstretched Homicide & Serious Crime team. Karen knows she needs a result. What she doesn't know is that her new case is tied to a much larger web of gang warfare and organised crime which infiltrates almost every aspect of London society. Several hundred miles away In Cornwall, DI Trevor Cordon is stirred from his day-to-day duties by another tragic London fatality. Travelling to the capital, Cordon becomes entangled in a lethally complex situation of his own. A situation much closer to Karen's case than either of them can imagine."

Darkness, Darkness

John Harvey

2013

A Charlie Resnick novel

"Thirty years ago, the Miners’ Strike threatened to tear the country apart, turning neighbour against neighbour, husband against wife, father against son – enmities which smoulder still. Resnick, recently made up to inspector, and ambivalent at best about some of the police tactics, had run an information gathering unit at the heart of the dispute. Now, in virtual retirement, and still grieving over the violent death of his former partner, the discovery of the body of a young woman who disappeared during the Strike brings Resnick back to the front line to assist in the investigation into the woman’s murder – forcing him to confront his past in what will assuredly be his last case."

Fedora

John Harvey

2014

A Jack Kiley short story published electronically.

"Private investigator Jack Kiley is persuaded to look into an old relationship between a photographer and a model with disastrous results."

Going Down Slow And Other Stories

John Harvey

2017

A short story collection. The originally print edition comprises seven stories. The story Dead Dames Don't Sing was not included in the electronic edition.

Two stories feature Charlie Resnick and three feature Jack Kiley.

The contents are:

• Not Tommy Johnson *
• Second Chance **
• Going Down Slow *
• Fedora **
• Handy Man
• Ask Me Now
• Dead Dames Don't Sing **

Dead Dames Don't Sing

John Harvey

Head Of Zeus/MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

2017

A Jack Kiley short story published electronically.

"Ex–Metropolitan Police Officer Jack Kiley spent his career discerning fact from fiction. Now a private detective, Kiley has agreed to investigate the provenance of a newly discovered manuscript. Lost for decades, Dead Dames Don’t Sing is typical pulp fodder: Hard, fast, and deadly, according to Daniel Pike, the rare book dealer who hires Kiley. What makes it unusual—and potentially valuable—is that the novel appears to have been written by the late poet William Pierce before he made a name for himself. Pierce’s bewitching socialite-cum-model daughter, Alexandra, insists that it’s genuine, but Kiley isn’t so sure. Something doesn’t feel right, but the deeper he digs, the more he wonders if poetry and pulp really are such strange bedfellows."

Body and Soul

John Harvey

2018

A Frank Elder novel

"When his estranged daughter Katherine appears on his doorstep, ex-Detective Frank Elder knows that something is wrong. Katherine has long been troubled, and Elder has always felt powerless to help her. But now Katherine has begun to self-destruct. The breakdown of her affair with a controversial artist has sent her into a tailspin which culminates in murder. And as Elder struggles to protect his daughter and prove her innocence, the terrors of the past threaten them both once more."

Blue Lightning: Stories with Music

Editor: John Harvey

1998

An anthology of stories about music.

"Acclaimed mystery writer and jazz aficionado John Harvey asked some of his British and American friends in the crime/mystery world if they'd like to contribute to a collection of stories about music. Many did, including some new friends in music, and the result is Blue Lightning. Here are eighteen brand new stories inspired by music, all kinds of music -- from rock-bottom blues through jazz and country to gansta rap and Japanese avant-garde -- written by a stellar cast of characters."

• A Flower is a Lovesome Thing (Charlotte Carter)
• John Lennon in the American South (Rosanne Cash)
• Walking Blues (Liza Cody)
• Nocturne (Jeffery Deaver)
• No (Stella Duffy)
• Aja (Kirsty Gunn)
• Cool Blues (John Harvey)
• Backing (Michael Z. Lewin)
• Grace Notes (Bill Moody)
• Blue Lightning (Walter Mosley)
• Stone Cold Killah (Gary Phillips)
• Glimmer (Ian Rankin)
• Memory Lane (Peter Robinson)
• Vocalities (James Sallis)
• Too Mean to Die (Julie Smith)
• Heartache Tonight (Neville Smith)
• Life's Little Mysteries (Brian Thompson)
• Supposed to Be a Funeral (John L. Williams)

Men From Boys

Editor: John Harvey

2003

An anthology of seventeen stories.

"Little is perfect for the men in these seventeen crime stories and nothing is straightforward. The worlds they inhabit are as different as a deprived London housing estate and a rundown jazz joint in Manhattan, but each of them is striving to determine what is right, what will give them dignity, what will earn them self-respect. Some succeed. Others fail."

• Dancing Towards The Blade (Mark Billingham)
• Points (Lawrence Block)
• After Midnight (Michael Connelly)
• The Poker Lesson (Jeffery Deaver)
• Chance (John Harvey)
• The Boy And Man Booker (Reginald Hill)
• Like An Arrangement (Bill James)
• Until Gwen (Dennis Lehane)
• The Resurrection Of Bobo Jones (Bill Moody)
• Plastic Paddy (George P. Pelecanos)
• Shadow on the Water (Peter Robinson)
• Concerto for Violence and Orchestra (James Sallis)
• Life Before the War (John Straley)
• Geezers (Brian Thompson)
• Douggie Doughnuts (Don Winslow)
• Two Things (Daniel Woodrell)
• My Father's Daughter (Andrew Coburn)