Good Bait

I once wrote that Harvey was as good a chronicler of modern British life as the Ten O’Clock News. He still is. The trouble is, I’m fed up with the news - weary of the low-lifes that Harvey now concentrates on; weary of his seemingly chippy take on the world, his relentless political correctness and oh so weary of the gratuitous, ‘I’m so knowledgeable about obscure music’ references. It was fine when Harvey’s Charlie Resnick (those were the days) listened to jazz, but it’s stretching the imagination to believe that all DCIs have arcane knowledge of music. Frank Elder was next,  and now we have the new, uninspiring DCI Karen Shields listening to Cry, Baby, Cry and then Good Night from Ramsey Lewis’s version of the Beatles’ White Album as she removes her make-up. There are two main strands to the story. One is the discovery of a dead young immigrant in a London park. The other is a missing drug addict’s daughter in Cornwall. Just like the Ten O’Clock News, in fact.