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ROUGH TREATMENT by John Harvey Kirkus Star

ROUGH TREATMENT

By

Pub Date: July 3rd, 1990
Publisher: Henry Holt

A strong second appearance for Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick (Lonely Hearts), his mixed bag of subordinates, his troubled Chief Jack Skelton, and a lively cast of villains, among them a pair of upscale burglars--Trevor Grice and Jerry Grabianski. Grice and Grabianski choose their targets with the help of a corrupt security expert. The current focus is the suburban house of Harold Roy, a frazzled, minor-league TV director who drinks too much, snorts cocaine, and shares a relationship of mutual loathing with his voluptuous wife Maria, who's in the house when the burglars appear. She and Grabianski are instantly and intensely attracted. A kilo of cocaine in the bedroom safe, which Harold was holding as a favor to dealer Alan Stafford, seems like another bonus. Later, the robbery report will ring a bell in Charlie's head, connecting with others from past years, and set him on an involved, sometimes confusing trail that'll end in yet another drug bust. But with this writer it's the getting there that matters. A quick-cut run of quirky settings and characters--Maria and Grabianski making love in her bathtub; Harold being shafted by his TV cohorts; Grabianski giving the kiss of life to one of his robbery victims; a lonely Charlie unable to find comfort in his collection of jazz records. It's all graphic, human, and compelling. A new, 90's breed of British police procedural--and another winner for Harvey.