In a True Light: A Novel of Crime

by John Harvey

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786710535
• ISBN13: 9780786710539
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful period piece; great plot

John Harvey, author of the wonderful Charlie Resnick series, has done himself well here with In a True Light. In it, we get generous mixes of the 1950's NYC art scene, the turn of the last century London art scene, rural Tuscany, and the jazz scene in contemporary NYC. A strong sense of place (it seems you could drive to the rural Tuscan village Harvey describes using just the book as a road map) has always been present in his novels, as well as jazz. What is refreshingly new here is the intimate sense for the art worlds of both 1950's New York and contemporary London. The 'you are there with Jackson Pollack' or 'you are there with another historical figure' is extremely well drawn out. That's not to say there isn't a great plot here as well. The villain is reprehensible, his wiles are considerable, and his perversions are off-putting to say the least. The protagonist, Sloane, is the sort of neer-do-well that Harvey is so fond of, full of doubts. His attempts to connect with the opposite sex after years in prison for art fraud are as awkward as they are painful. However, Sloane has a strong moral core and a heck of a stubborn streak, both of which see him well in the end. If you measure a mystery with an art setting in it by the amount of new art facts you'll learn per page, you'll get more from and Aaron Elkins book. However, Harvey's plotting and sense of place is far stronger than Elkins and the particular details of what life was like for the artistic community in mid century New York makes this book worth picking up ahead of many others.

A Gem

I've read all the Reznick novels and was wondering whether I'd be able to make the leap to Harvey's first stand-alone. What an idiot I was. Harvey has a poet's knack for the elegant, simple detail that never obtrudes but just nails the moment so clearly the reader is constantly engaged with what's on the page. And he does the almost impossible, conveying in words the palpable sense of both music and visual art so that the reader can hear and see what's being described. Others here have recounted the story so I won't repeat, except to say it was the characters I found compelling, portrayed in scenes that managed to be both spare and rich. I too have some quibbles about the ending but they are so minor as to be unworthy of mention. The book earned my undivided interest throughout. I looked forward each evening to my time with it--what more does one want from a novel?

Solid

John Harvey's novel, In a True Light, delivers in most areas: characters, plot, and also, in this case, texturing, which is probably appropriate given the importance of painting and the arts in what is essentially, a noir-like novel. Sloane, the 60 year old artist (and one time forger), is on the brink of old age. But, after getting out of prison, he is willing to give life a new go. Before doing so however, he receives a message from an old love who is dying in Italy. This old love -- Jane Graham, also an artist, and a somewhat famous one, turns out to have been the mother of a child Sloane was unaware of. Apparently Sloane is the father, and he takes on the search for his missing daughter (Connie, now a 40 year old singer in NY), in an attempt to heal the divide between mother, daughter, and to some extent the hole within Sloane himself. But this is also a crime novel, and the sexual thug, Delaney, poses a dangerous threat to both Connie and to others. (This guy is a real creep.) Throughout, Harvey's hand is sure, whether painting the nightclub scene in New York, or when actually discussing abstract painting. On surface, this may seem an oil and water mix (painting? crime?), but it works. Harvey integrates seamlessly the art world with the underbelly of the city. Further, Harvey's research, and depiction, of 1950s New York, with its poets and its painters, rings true within the novel's framework. One ding -- Harvey's neatly tying up (nearly) of all the loose ends to provide a happy ending (except for one character). Not quite noir -- which is why I'm giving it 4 stars. (I'll call it grey noir.) Still, perhaps we need those from time to time, especially when the story is so well crafted. Definitely worth a read.

The Entertaining Mr. Sloane.....

I would like to add a "me, too!" to T. Ross's fine review of "In A True Light." Harvey's Resnick series is such a pleasure, I could not bear to read the last book. (wasn't the death of Morse bad enough for fans of understated and intelligent British crime novels?) Harvey's has once again created a character who at once is extremely likeable and flawed, who after a life of underachieving is given the greatest of gifts, a second chance. In his journey, he finds justice and redemption...and the wisdom to appreciate it. The themes of unfinished business, unsentimental journeys into the past, and the art worlds of today's London and yesterday's New York moves along to a rich and satisfying conclusion. The author's gift for characterization and dialogue is dead on. In a few lines we know enough to to embrace wholeheartedly or loathe to death the people who populate his worlds. I don't know if Sloane will star a new Harvey franchise, but I wouldn't mind meeting him again in his midlife adventure.

Wonderful Page-Turner

After the ten novels and eleven short stories of his Charlie Resnick police procedural series, poet and publisher Harvey leaves the familiar mean streets of Nottingham in his new crime novel, which splits its time between London and New York (with a side trip to Tuscany). The new setting doesn't mean a totally different style though, as Harvey includes NYC cops, builds plenty of jazz into the tale, and features a world-weary protagonist easily imaginable as a good friend of Charlie Resnick.Sloane is a 60ish painter, just out of prison after a several year stretch for art forgery. He worked for a slimy art dealer, who he refused to drop the dime on. Now out, he works to rebuild his lonely life and wrecked studio, making friends with the local Malian café owner. He receives a letter from a lover from his youth-back when he was a bright young thing, and she ran with the big names in modern painting (Pollock, de Kooning, etc.). On her deathbed, the former flame (and one suspects his everlasting regret), reveals the existence of their daughter, stunning him.Sloane ventures to New York to track her down, tasked with delivering her mother's last words. The woman is a jazz singer, under the thumb of a nasty semi-connected mobster type, who is also being investigated by a pair of homicide cops for the brutal murder of another woman. As Sloane searches for his daughter, he runs into old friends and a possible romance starts. The story builds its multiple strands steadily, only to erupt in a terrifying burst of nasty violence in the final chapters. Unlike some crime writers who try to take on settings other than their native ones, Harvey exhibits total command of Manhattan past and present. His clean meditative prose unmasks the fears and desires of his characters and propels the deceptively simple story to its inexorable conclusion. Great stuff, can't wait for the next. BTW, this is a hundred times better than the last art/crime novel I read, David Ramus' vastly overhyped Thief of Light.