John Harvey has been described as the master of British crime & in A Darker Shade of Blue he has collected together some of his very best writing. From the killing fields of the East Midlands to the mean streets of London from the jazz clubs & clip joints of Soho to the barren fenlands of East Anglia this is a world of broken families & run-down estates revenge killings & prostitution drugs guns & corruption; a world of overstretched police forces & underpaid detectives men & women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything even friendship has a price. Featuring characters like Frank Elder who tried to turn his back on police work & failed; Jack Kiley ex-copper & one-time professional footballer now a London-based PI; & the renowned jazz loving & much-loved Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick John Harveys finely-crafted vignettes perfectly encapsulate life in the badlands of modern Britain.