Product Description

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 women 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17968 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 368 pages

GQ
‘John Harvey’s Resnick novels are far and away the finest British police procedurals yet written’

Le Monde
‘One of the leading writers of crime today’

Daily Mail
'If you haven’t already heard of John Harvey, you soon will...'

Customer Reviews

First of one of the best British crime series
Lonely Hearts is a very enjoyable police procedural set in the City of Nottingham. It is the first novel in a series featuring the same likeable detective, Inspector Charlie Resnick who is a lover of women, jazz, cats, and food (the latter of which means he is a bit overweight).

This book is about a serial rapist attacking and later killing a number of women contacted through the lonely hearts pages of the local newspaper. The investigation proceeds without much melodramatic incident - which means that the investigation is portrayed realistically - though it no less suspenseful or exciting for that.

I enjoyed almost everything about this book: the humour (and there is humour even amid horrors on the streets), the slightly down-at-heel grittiness of it, and the characterisation, especially of Resnick and Rachel Chaplin, a young social worker with whom Resnick becomes involved.

Suffice to say that I have already bought other books in the series and am looking forward to reading them too.

Enjoyable but ending was rushed
I would have given this 3.5 stars, had that been an option. This was an enjoyable late 1980s police procedural, in the Rebus/Rankin vein. The book was let down by its rushed ending - I wondered if someone had shouted - John, your dinner's ready in 5 minutes - and Harvey just dashed off the last chapter!
That aside, I enjoyed the story and the sprinkling of humour. I also enjoyed all his social work references - he must have been a social worker or known one, as he was spot on and mentioned some of the big issues of the late 80s. I actually read my first Harvey about 10 years ago, having seen it reviewed in a social work magazine. I now plan to read the rest of the Resnick series in order.

Surprised by Michael Connelly's praise
As an avid Michael Connelly fan I was looking forward to reading Lonely Hearts as he praises John Harvey on the cover. But I'm 200 pages in and I'm waiting for something to happen. It is also described as a "police procedural" which - I assume - means that it realistically portrays the way the police would go about solving a crime. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books definitely create a vivid insight into life as a Los Angeles police detective (how accurate it is I've no idea) but it's a back drop to the more interesting stuff - piecing together the clues, testing hypotheses, and then building up to the moment when it all clicks into place and Harry cracks the problem. Around the 200 page mark the first clue has been introduced - the lonely hearts column of the local newspaper links the killings. As the book is called "Lonely Hearts" I'm not giving much away here but nothing else of any significance had happened up to that point. If it all suddenly perks up and the last 150 pages are brilliant I'll come back and update this.