This is Charlie Resnick's final case-and it's Resnick at his finest. Guns and drugs, gang wars and police corruption: seems more like America's inner cities than England's Nottingham, where once the only crime wave was wrought by Robin Hood. This one, alas, has local law enforcement tied up in knots. So when a convicted murderer out on compassionate leave turns up at his mother's funeral and abruptly disappears, the local cops don't have much time to spare for a manhunt. Let the prison authorities do the job. But things aren't quite that simple. They never are when it comes to crime-or to affairs of the heart. Last Rites is a gritty and violent tale of modern-day cops and killers, but at its beating heart, it's about love: obsessive, familial, perverted, tender.
