Will Grayson and Helen Walker

Series · 3 books · 2007-2010

By John Harvey

Books in series

#0.5

A Darker Shade of Blue

2010

John Harvey has been described as the master of British crime fiction: From the mean streets of London to the jazz clubs and clip joints of Soho, this is a world of broken families, 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-cop and 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 contemporary Britain.

Gone to Ground

2007

From one of Britain’s leading crime writers—Flesh and Blood, Ash and Bone—comes his new book—sure to go straight to the top of the bestseller lists. Will’s first thought when he saw the man’s face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out. 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 of an ill-judged sexual encounter, of rough trade gone wrong. But as their investigation widens, their attention focuses 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.

Far Cry

2009

The stunning new title from the Cartier Diamond Dagger winner and Sunday Times bestselling author, John Harvey. Ruth and Simon Graham’s rare romantic break is shattered by devastating 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 should repeat itself are next-to-impossible—that is until, years later, a desperate phone call launches D.I. Will Grayson and his partner, D.S. 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 testing investigation yet will slip fatefully through their hands. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Author

John Harvey

Author · 28 books

aka Jon Barton, William S. Brady (with Angus Wells), L.J. Coburn (with Laurence James), J.B. Dancer (with Angus Wells), John B. Harvey, William M. James (with Terry Harknett and Laurence James), Terry Lennox, John J. McLaglen (with Laurence James), James Mann, Thom Ryder, J.D. Sandon (with Angus Wells), Jon Hart John Harvey (born 21 December 1938 in London) is a British author of crime fiction most famous for his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels, based in the City of Nottingham. Harvey has also published over 90 books under various names, and has worked on scripts for TV and radio. He also ran Slow Dancer Press from 1977 to 1999 publishing poetry. The first Resnick novel, Lonely Hearts, was published in 1989, and was named by The Times as one of the 100 Greatest Crime Novels of the Century. Harvey brought the series to an end in 1998 with Last Rites, though Resnick has since made peripheral appearances in Harvey's new Frank Elder series. The protagonist Elder is a retired detective who now lives, as Harvey briefly did, in Cornwall. The first novel in this series, Flesh and Blood, won Harvey the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2004, an accolade many crime fiction critics thought long overdue. In 2007 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for a Lifetime's Contribution to the genre. On 14th July 2009 he received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Nottingham in recognition of his literary eminence and his associations with both the University and Nottingham (particularly in the Charlie Resnick novels). He is also a big Notts County fan.