Ash & Bone

by John Harvey

Book Overview

In the depths of his Cornish hideaway, retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder's solitary life is disturbed by a call from his ex-wife, telling him his seventeen-year-old daughter, Katherine, is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151011397
• ISBN13: 9780151011391
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Solid police procedural

This is my first exposure, I think, to John Harvey. The man certainly knows how to tell a story and keep you awake while he does it. Set in England, Frank Elder is a retired Detective Inspector. The rape and near-death of his teenage daughter a year before, a divorce, just the tiredness of the job caught up with Frank and off he went to semi-rural England. Occasionally he, like other retired officers gets a call to help out on cold-cases, but Frank has had enough . . . until a woman officer is brutally raped and murdered. Back into the Fray for Frank as he assists Karen Shields, an up and coming Inspector who feels often picked upon because she is a woman and Afro-Jamaican. Elder actually does act as a mentor, a helper. He doesn't take over the investigation of the murder of Maddy Birch, but rather suggests, prods and calls in favors. Author Harvey hit upon a masterstroke to keep the story going while allowing otherwise lesser characters to have their own believable story. The late Detective Sergeant Birch had been a witness to the fatal shooting of one James Grant by George Mallory, another police officer. The shooting may not have been entirely "righteous" and suspicion falls upon Mallory. Harvey is expert at building backstory as we see when another suspect emerges. Elder's 17 year old daughter becomes part of the story as she gets into a few scrapes of her own, one of which may involve corrupt police officers. Yet one more story added to the mix. There are few more little stories blended in as well and none of them are distracting. All in fact help round out Elder and give this procedural a human quality it might otherwise lack. Like many good police procedurals, "Ash & Bone" conveys the boredom of much police work without becoming boring itself. There are more than enough surprises to keep things moving perkily along. (About 50 or so pages in I thought I knew who the murderer was and asked myself why was I continuing to read: this John Harvey can't write suspense. Boy, was I wrong.) "Ash & Bone" is a fine read. Jerry

Twists and Turns and Plenty of Suspense

Ex police officer and now sometime police consultant Frank Elder is living a quiet life after having surviving his last case, in which almost saw his daughter killed. Now the teenager is hanging around with undesirable types, to say the least and Middy Birch, a woman he cared about, has been murdered, so again he's off to London to try and set things right. Maddy Birch was a police detective, who following a confrontation where her partner shot and killed a man had complained about being followed. Elder and lead investigator Karen Shields are determined to find out what happened to Maddy and as they dig they find that Maddy had enemies she didn't even know about and they wind up in plenty danger indeed as the close in on the truth. This is a terrific police procedural with plenty of characters, who all ring true, and Mr. Harvey is generous in having them share the spotlight with Frank Elder in this story. Elder himself comes across as very human, a flawed man who is easy to identify with. There are twists and turns and suspense and family problems and lots of plain good writing in this book. I really liked it, can't you tell.

A GOLD TROPHY FOR "ASH & BONE"

"Maddy Birch would never see thirty again. Nor forty either." This is what she thought as she frowned into a mirror that revealed wrinkles beginning to show around her mouth and gray sneaking into her hair. The first lines of "Ash & Bone" describe someone growing older. Sounds benign, doesn't it? Here's a woman none too pleased with the signs of aging as she approaches her 44th birthday. She's a British detective sergeant assigned to Serious and Organized Crime. Her bank account's thin and she's making payments on her flat. Maddy doesn't think that's much to show for "half a lifetime on the force." Readers are immediately drawn to this no-nonsense likable woman. She's devoted to her job, doesn't much care for the condescension shown females on the force, and most definitely isn't interested in suggestive leers or clumsy gropes from her fellow officers. When we first meet her she's in a minor state of shock. She had recently accompanied Detective Superintendent Mallory and young Paul Draper on a raid to capture a top criminal, James William Grant. During that foray Grant is shot and killed by Mallory who notes, "Textbook. Head and heart." The killing, Mallory finds, is cause for "A wee celebration." At this point readers are totally hooked, wondering where ace thriller writer John Harvey is going with Maddy and her response to this experience. Thus, it's quite a shocker when she is found dead early on, page 64 to be exact. Leading up to this Harvey has skillfully reintroduced retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder, who has received a disturbing telephone call from his former wife. It seems their teenage daughter, Katherine, is running amok, staying out for all hours, sometimes overnight, keeping company with a drug dealer.. Elder blames himself for Katherine's anti-social behavior, believing it to be trauma caused by her earlier kidnaping and rape - a crime he feels he could have prevented. This is remorse he can't erase even by "the slow but steady application of alcohol to the wound, the plastering over of helplessness and guilt." Thus, we have two parallel stories, Katherine's salvation and the murder of Maddy Birch. Elder, humane, honest, lonely, comes out of retirement to help with the investigation of Maddy's death and at the same time try to reconnect with a daughter he loves. Word master Harvey creates revelatory dialogue that tells you more about the characters than any physical or emotional description could. This author is so adroit that even silences between people speak. His story is, of course, a police procedural, but penned with realism seldom found and respect for the characters he has created. He's devised a fast moving many layered plot that totally absorbs. Suffice it to say that Elder almost meets his match in Detective Karen Shields, smart, black, great looking, and an intimidating six feet tall. Together they begin to unearth evidence that Grant's killing goes far beyond

Masterly

John Harvey is a new writer to me and I'm delighted to find that he writes about characters who could have inhabited the TV series "The Bill" in its' early days, with old fashioned police work and solid, hard working policemen and women. Frank Elder is a retired Detective Inspector, living a lonely, solitary life in Cornwall. His wife has divorced him and remarried, and his teenaged daughter is still bitterly resentful that, through his work connections, she was abducted and raped. When forty something Detective Sergeant Maddy Birch is raped and murdered, Frank is drawn back to the force on a temporary basis as he and Maddy had once worked together and shared a tiny moment. The author draws a very skilful plot with two suspects vying for the role of Maddys' murderer at the same time and more than a hint of some very nasty police corruption. I look forward to reading more in this series as it is written.

Move over Resnick

John Harvey has found his voice again; his new character, Frank Elder, has become as rich and deep as Charlie Resnick. Harvey weaves a number of mysteries in Ash & Bone that intersect in unpredictable and interesting places. As in his first Elder novel, Frank runs into a now retired Resnick well along in the book and for a page or two they make the bridge to the wonderful Resnick series. A very satisfying read!