IN A TRUE LIGHT [Hardcover]

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.

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.

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.