Suspects in the fatal bludgeoning of lowlife Ian Aston include his criminal pals - and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur's superior officer Desmond Iles, whose wife, Sarah, was having an affair with Aston.
As Harpur appears to take Aston's place in Sarah's affections, local club owner Ralph Ember takes over the dead man's spot in the criminal hierarchy, becoming a reluctant participant in a bank scheme that seems cursed from the start.
'The tortuous private lives of James's policemen are often more savage than the crimes they investigate . . . Mr James is bruisingly good' Sunday Telegraph
- ISBN10 0333548698
- ISBN13 9780333548691
- Publish Date 24 January 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 June 2000
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English