Harpur & Iles S.
3 primary works • 11 total works
Book 1
Nominated for England's Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award in 1986, You'd Better Believe It introduced Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur to reader in England and the United States. Harpur's domain is a small seaport city south of London. It's not unusual for the big-town criminals to consider such a spot as easy prey. At such times a policeman must rely keenly upon his colleagues, to be sure, and also upon his retinue of narks (tipsters). This time it's a Lloyd's Bank branch that's the target. When the heist is postponed, a policeman is killed. One nark, then another, is murdered. As Harpur becomes driven to his limit, he must bypass regulations and settle things once and for all with a vicious crook named Holly. But not necessarily on his own terms.
Book 2
Five teenage girls have been raped and murdered, and the criminal is still at large. Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, assigned to the case, is a tough hunter, but so is "the Lolita man," watching the schoolyards. Now it looks as if the daughter of Harpur's friend may be the latest victim. Virtually obsessed with the urgency of the matter, and hampered by the bitter police rivalry that is jeopardizing the case, Harpur decides to go it alone.
Book 3
First time in U.S. paperback, the third in Bill James's "standout," "witty," "well above the ordinary" series (starred reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist). When Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur places young policeman Ray Street undercover in a vicious drug gang, the entire department knows the risks. If Street is found out, he will take his place in "the halo parade." Then the killing of a fellow officer will have to be avenged, by whatever means . . .
Underworld boss Bernie Tenderness Mellick is certainly paying a heavy price for maiming Ivor Wright with a blowlamp. For Wright's men have now kidnapped his eleven-year-old son Graham. Senior policemen Colin Harpur and Desmond Iles see their chance to nail a ruthless, sadistic villain.
Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his brilliant, amoral superior ACC Desmond Iles face a dilemma that's both political and personal when they suspect a police officer of taking bribes from underworld criminals Panicking Ralph Ember and Top Banana Mansel Shale. Is Nivette doing some unauthorized undercover work—as Harpur himself often does—or is he really bent? It's a question of intense interest not only to Harpur and Iles but also to Ember and Shale, and searching for the answer entails several break-ins to Nivette's house to look for, take, or plant the evidence.
Meanwhile, the body of a pusher, Victor Goussard ("Slow Victor"), is found trussed up on a deserted boat in the city harbor—and then it disappears. His lover frantically, unwisely, starts to ask questions down at the docks; a snoopy television reporter sees a breaking story; and Ember, terrified of exposure, plots the murder of a man who knows too much. Harpur is fast on the trail to make the connections and prevent another crime, but it's a race against time—and treachery.
Meanwhile, the body of a pusher, Victor Goussard ("Slow Victor"), is found trussed up on a deserted boat in the city harbor—and then it disappears. His lover frantically, unwisely, starts to ask questions down at the docks; a snoopy television reporter sees a breaking story; and Ember, terrified of exposure, plots the murder of a man who knows too much. Harpur is fast on the trail to make the connections and prevent another crime, but it's a race against time—and treachery.
A girl is shot down, caught in the crossfire between two rival drug gangs. For Chief Constable Lane there is only one option - infiltrate the gangs and rid his patch of this menace. Meanwhile, DCS Harpur, investigating Mandy's death, discovers that the bullets were not fired by the warring gangs.
Threatened by the invasion of rival drug syndicates, and a spy, nicknamed Lovely Mover, Keith Vine kills his best dealer as a warning to others that he is in charge. Vine's new partner DCS Harpur finds himself in the position of both covering up a murder at the same time as investigating it.
Pursued from the shadows, Simon Pilgrim fled in terror from the floating restaurant Eton Boating Song. In the bar on the Eton, he had the choice spot, discreetly purveying high-stakes drugs to the Eton's well-to-do patrons. Now he's dead, his throat cut, and the police know that the drug syndicates are in an all-out war, with the Eton as the prize. Naomi Anstruther, a cop, is sent undercover into this turbulent drug world. Right away she becomes an unknowing pawn in the rival criminals' plans-and in the complex struggle between Harpur and his rival, ACC Desmond Iles. When Naomi's cover is threatened, Harpur and Iles must act with lightning speed to salvage the operation and-in an explosion of violence-try to get her out alive. This is Bill James's most brilliantly plotted story yet, and the tension is high-wire to the last minute. "Bill James's Harpur and Iles books are deliciously un-savoury: a brilliant combination of almost Jacobean savagery and sexual betrayal with a tart comedy of contemporary manners."—John Harvey, Guardian "Although each book in the series, which is set in a nameless city north of London, stands on its own, they all add up to a stunning history of how crime has changed the fabric and character of British society."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The detective is dead" because the old process of justice doesn't work any more. No one, including Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, would testify at the trial; Harpur refused to name his informant. The three murderers who were being tried are part of a savage underworld struggle for the lucrative domain of the late drug baron Kenward Knapp. The story opens as the three assemble at Ralph Embers's seedy club "The Monty" to celebrate their acquittal. The key player behind the scenes is ambitious drug dealer Keith Vine, now an informant for Harpur. Vine's partners have been murdered and his life is in danger. Harpur wants to send him (and his smart, beautiful, pregnant girlfriend, Becky) safely abroad, while the coldly plotting ACC Desmond Iles wants to keep him here, to serve as bait for the killers. Part pawn, part murderous player himself, reaching hungrily for the Knapp riches, Vine disappears into a labyrinth of fear and greed, twisting through schemes and alliances that very likely will destroy him.
Ralph Ember, owner of the shady drinking club The Monty, longs to be respectable. The trouble is, his money comes from big-time drug dealing, where reputations are dubious and the risks are truly murderous. No wonder he's nicknamed "Panicking Ralph," because of the terrors that seize him at times of high danger. Right now Ember is out to get his hands on the syndicate of the late Oliphant Kenward Knapp, who ruled what envious competitors called the best cocaine, crack, Ecstasy, and grass operation in Britain. Whom does he dare approach as a partner? In this city, alliances shift quickly, but it's even riskier to set up as an independent. Meanwhile Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, bypassing his jealous superior ACC Desmond Iles, is developing his own dangerous plan. As Harpur enters a dark and sometimes seductive world of greed, betrayal, and vengeance, there is no one who can pull him out if things go wrong. "[A] terrific series.... Get these books; settle into peril and chaos."—Bloomsbury Review "Another rewarding installment in Bill James's richly sardonic series about British cops and robbers."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
Fear grips the drug underworld after two principals in the trade are murdered, and even ACC Desmond Iles is under a cloud of suspicion. Now the chief players start closing in on a fortune, while Iles, Chief Constable Mark Lane, and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur plunge into their own fierce struggle to control the game.