Bill James

Page Updated: 21/10/03

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Bill James - Page 2

The Detective is Dead

Paperback - Pan (2000)

Eton Crop

’Tell me this, Colin: why is it that, having for so long opposed undercover operations, Iles suddenly favours them…?

The murder of Raymond Street, while working undercover among the drugs gangs, still haunts DCS Colin Harpur. So it is with great reluctance that he follows the orders of his mentally fragile Chief Constable and prepares a second officer - this time a young girl, Naomi Anstruther - to go undercover.
But while Harpur works to protect Naomi, his superior, the unscrupulous ACC Desmond Iles, considers how to work the situation to his advantage.
Little do they know that the gangs are well aware that someone is going to infiltrate them – and they mean to eliminate her, just as they eliminated Street…
‘Masterly… there is nothing else quite like this series… all delivered in a ferociously poetic voice that is uniquely Bill James’ The Times
'Shrewd, savage, funny enough to give you an injury' Literary Review
‘As a thriller writer, James is in the very top bracket’ Crime Time
‘It’s a cracker’ Peterborough Evening Telegraph

First British Edition Macmillan (1998)

Lovely Mover

’The thought sickened Keith, of course, but he knew he had to kill Eleri ap Vaughan’

It was tragic. There was no other word for it. Eleri ap Vaughan, sixty years old yet still Keith Vine's best dealer, had turned for her supplies to other drugs wholesalers. And now she had to die.
For the threat of invasion by rival syndicates from other cities cannot be ignored, particularly as rumours reach Keith that an elegantly dressed spy from London - nicknamed Lovely Mover - is in the area. Eleri's death must therefore serve as a warning to others to stay loyal.
And it's at times like these that Vine's new partner, DCS Colin Harpur, will prove invaluable. For Harpur can sweep the murder scene for incriminating evidence.
Harpur, though, is playing a very dangerous undercover game, and now finds himself in the precarious position of both covering up a murder and investigating it. Only one person suspects what Harpur is up to - his amoral superior ACC Desmond Iles.
But is Iles really someone he can trust...?
'Bill James has long been one of British crime writing's hidden jewels.' Time Out
'[Reading James] is like listening to Bach - the same disciplines, the same invention, the same magisterial swing' Literary Review

First British Edition Macmillan (1997)

Panicking Ralph
See Review by John Boyles

'He pocketed his Walther, then drove out towards the foreshore again, thinking that Christine might conceivably be alive... This was one of the times when Ember could almost truly believe people were wrong to call him "Panicking Ralph".'

For Ralph Ember, owner of the shady drinking club The Monty, the few snatched hours he can share with Christine Tranter on the lonely foreshore bring relief amid the stresses of his criminal career. But now someone has learnt that Ralph is planning to set up his own drugs syndicate, in the wake of bigtime dealer Kenward Knapp's death. And that someone is not keen on the competition.
So, on their isolated stretch of beach, the couple's romantic afternoon which had started so passionately ends in violence.
But who are Ralph's trade rivals? Cultured villain Mansel Shale and his sidekick Alfie Ivis? Or the young and ambitious Keith Vine, who has become suspiciously friendly with Stan Stansfield? Perhaps even ACC Desmond Iles and DCS Colin Harpur, about whom there are persistent rumours…
And all the while Harpur is developing his own plan - one so secret it could cost him his job, so dangerous it could cost him his life…
'Savagely funny with a plot that lays about it like a samurai. Some villains die; others prosper The game, praise be, goes on.' Literary Review
There is a terrifying credibility about this series that makes so many of its rivals' seem trivial by comparison.' Manchester Evening News
'Powerful and disturbing… a great addition to the series' A Shot in the Dark
'Extraordinary and electrifying' Val McDermid

Paperback - Pan (1997)

Top Banana
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
It was splashed across every newspaper in the county. A thirteen year old girl had been gunned down in the street, caught in the crossfire between two rival drug gangs with whom, it seems, she is inextricably linked. Chief Constable Lane and Iles lock horns. For Lane there is only one option - infiltrate the drug gangs and try to restore peace on his patch. Unfortunately ACC Desmond Iles sees things very differently: let the gangland police itself in return for a few `favours'.
As his superiors battle it out, DCS Harpur looks a little harder into Mandy's death, and discovers some disturbing truths....
'The savviest jokes in crime fiction, with images to match... and a plot that takes corners as if Damon Hill's at the wheel. Let it all happen. You are in the best of hands.' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'A grim, taut, almost poetic narrative… If you aren't a long-time reader - then why not?' Crime Time
'Bill James is a superb chronicler of the relationship between law enforcers and law-breakers... He purveys it with disturbing force.' Marcel Berlins, The Times

Paperback - Pan (1996)

The Detective is Dead
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill

’When someone as grand and profitable as Oliphant Kenward Knapp was suddenly taken out of the business scene, you had to expect a bloody big rush to grab his domain - bloody big meaning big and very bloody...

Caught in the middle of this rush to take over is Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur, who must protect his informant, the young but ambitious Keith Vine and his pregnant girlfriend Becky.
Unfortunately, his amoral superior ACC Desmond Iles is determined to keep the couple in the middle of the danger - as bait for underworld villains…
Can Harpur provide them with the protection they need? Especially when it becomes clear that Keith himself has resorted to murder…?
'With this gripping excursion [James] stakes his justified claim as one of the kings of the dark hill' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'This is an excellent and alarmingly realistic novel, violent but never indulgent, the plot driven by spare, witty dialogue.' Andrew Taylor, The Independent