Disclosures

Harpur & Iles #31

by Bill James

Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, worry about the safety of one of the big-time crooks on their ground, Ralph Ember, sometimes known as Panicking Ralph. Yes, Ralph is a villain, but he s a local villain, and Harpur and Iles feel a kind of bizarre affection for him. And in any case, Ralph helps Iles keep the city reasonably peaceful. But now some awkward repercussions from Ralph s lawless past seem to bring danger. Ralph is aware of this new peril and has installed a bulletproof steel barrier to protect himself in the club he owns but will this be enough to keep him safe? Harpur thinks not. Surely the upcoming party at the club will provide the perfect moment for a gunman to do for Ralph? The only way Harpur can be sure of protecting Ralph is to attend the party himself . . ."

Genres: Mystery

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

Bill James (born 1929) is a pseudonym of James Tucker, a Welsh novelist. He also writes under his own name and the pseudonyms David Craig and Judith Jones. He was a reporter with the Daily Mirror and various other newspapers after serving with the RAF He is married, with four children, and lives in South Wales.

The bulk of his output under the Bill James pseudonym is the Harpur and Iles series. Colin Harpur is a Detective Chief Inspector and Desmond Iles is the Assistant Chief Constable in an unnamed coastal city in southwestern England. Harpur and Iles are complemented by an evolving cast of other recurring characters on both sides of the law. The books are characterized by a grim humour and a bleak view of the relationship between the public, the police force and the criminal element. The first few are designated "A Detective Colin Harpur Novel" but as the series progressed they began to be published with the designation "A Harpur & Iles Mystery".

His best known work, written under the "David Craig" pseudonym and originally titled Whose Little Girl are You, is The Squeeze, which was turned into a film starring Stacy Keach, Edward Fox and David Hemmings. The fourth Harpur & Iles novel, Protection, was televised by the BBC in 1996 as Harpur & Iles, starring Aneirin Hughes as Harpur and Hywel Bennett as Iles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James_(novelist)

Reviews

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the twenty sixth novel which I have read in this long running series. The author died earlier this year (2023) so I have been trying to read all the books I have missed.

The series deals with police and criminals and I suppose became a little formulaic over the years but I do like the black humour. This was first published in 2014 so the author would have been aged about 84 when he wrote this. It's an odd book as most of the book simply consists of Ralph Ember, a career criminal who has featured in many of these books, remembering events of years ago when he was in London. It also features memories of Assistant Chief Constable Esther Davidson from the same period. Indeed Detective Chief Superintendent Harpur does not make an appearance until page 199 and the book is only 263 pages long!

I would imagine that someone new to this series would be baffled as there is no story as such. However I quite liked it as I am a long time fan.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas is approaching and Ralph Ember, serious drug dealer and aspiring pillar of the community, and ACC Esther Davidson, an ambitious senior police officer, are both revisiting an event from their pasts.

Two rival drug gangs came together in an epic shootout on a South London street corner in front of a statue of a Victorian alderman. The police had had a tip off and had been surveilling the area with armed police ready to intervene, but not until the gangs had done each other heavy damage. Davidson was the commander of the police on the case. Ralph, in his mid twenties, a new member of one of the gangs, had an intuition that the police might become involved and stayed away from the fray. People are killed, wounded, arrested, and the surviving members of the game christened him Panicking Ralph.

Now it's the present, and Harpur gets a tip that Ralph in in serious danger. He and Iles separately and unknown to each other decide to intervene to protect him. Davidson happens to be on the scene because her bassoonist husband is attending a post concert party at Ralph's seedy night club.

The series is has been appearing on an almost yearly basis for 30 years. The characters are memorable. The quality of the prose and the dialogue is sublime. James writes in a unique voice, with a rare combinations of snark, smarts and heart. Long may he continue. For a more literary review, see below:

https://opionator.wordpress.com/2014/...

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ralph Ember - local crook and owner of a club called The Monty - is under threat. To find out why he reminisces about how he got his nickname of Panicking Ralph - or Panicking Ralphy if people want to be really insulting. But the events he reflects upon happened years ago and involved a fight between rival gangs in the East End of London - now Ralph is a pillar of his local community and he has a lot to lose.

At the same time as he is reminiscing - ACC Esther Davidson is also reminiscing about the same gang fight and her part in it. More than half the book is taken up with the flashback - alternating between Esther and Ralph. Harpur and Iles feature only in the last third of the book.

I did keep reading and it is clearly a well written crime story but I didn't particularly like the relationship between Harpur and Iles though I accept you probably need to know all their back story to appreciate it's humour fully. On the basis of my own experience I would say you need to read all this series in order of publication and not start with the latest book.

I'm sure the many fans of Harpur and Iles will love this book and it is a good book - which is why I have given it four stars but I didn't find it as enjoyable as I hoped I would. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.

[Herzog · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of my very favorite crime series, but it can be a little uneven as it is here. The first 3/4 of the book is devoted to a reminiscence between Ralph Ember and ACC Davidson regarding a long ago incident in London during which Ralph earned the unflattering sobriquet "Panicking Ralph." Consequently it is only in the final 1/4 of the book that new action takes place involving the inimitable cast of characters - Harpur & Iles and, briefly, Harpur's daughters. There is just a brief bit of the superb dialogue that this series features. If the whole book had been devoted to new action, I would easily have given it 5 stars. As it is, it was like a very enjoyable short story.

[Steven Pilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 31 of the series

If you havent started them yet you can they are not large and the are a perfect example of how to create a world that is part of the real world but distinct.

As always its self contained story although there are a few footnotes referring to previous novels.

The dialogue is cracking and because James has no issue with offing characters even important characters there is a sense of risk in the plot.

Harpur and Iles dont appear until very late but Ember is a fantastic companion, all the tropes are here and its just perfect

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discovering how Panicking Ralph Embry earned his nickname is a poor trade-off for having both Harpur and Isles missing from the first three-quarters of the book. Minor characters are minor for a reason--in the case of Bill James they are one dimensional interesting only when they interact with and illuminate Harpur, Isles, Isles's wife and Harpur's daughters. Besides that, "Panicking Ralph" is a name better left to the imagination of the reader, drawing on the hints from the 30 volumes that came before, that explicitly spelled out.

[Stephen Wahrhaftig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book attempted without Harpur and illes for much of the story. We learn of Ralph Ember's criminal origins and how he got the nickname Panicking Ralph. But the dialogue between Harpur and others is in precious short supply. Let's hope the next book features our favorite characters more prominently.

[David Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining police procedural which wonders whether the police should actively try to prevent criminals from killing each other.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2014/1...

[Stan Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like character driven stories written with economy, Bill James is the author for you. This series is a veritable gem. Bill James is the Anthony Powell of crime fiction.