First Fix Your Alibi

Harpur & Iles #33

by Bill James

When a major drugs dealer seeks vengeance for the death of his family, policemen Harpur and Iles must do all they can to prevent a bloodbath"
Following the murder of his wife and son, tycoon drugs dealer Mansel Shale is determined to get vengeance and he wants another drugs baron, Ralph Ember, to help him. Having heard of the movie Strangers on a Train, in which two men agree to undertake each other s murders as a way of preventing detection, Shale suggests he and Ralph should have a similar arrangement and Ralph is in no position to refuse.
When he learns of the plan, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles fears that if things go wrong, the hard-won peace he and Harpur have established in the city will be seriously threatened. The two top policemen find they have their work cut out to limit the damage and restore tranquillity.

Genres: Procedural, Mystery

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2016

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 seventh 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 2016 so the author would have been aged about 86 when he wrote this and would only manage to write two more books.

The plot is straightforward. Criminal Mansel Shale believes he has identified the person who gave the tip off which led to the death of Shale's wife and son in a previous book and tries to arrange for this person's execution. Needless to say things do not go as planned and there are some neat twists and turns. This is one of the more satisfying of the author's later books.

[M. O'Gannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Fix Your Alibi – A Harpur and Iles Mystery – 2016 - *** - This is my first Harpur and Iles book. Two non-competing drug lords have a pact to kill for each other. Harpur and Isle seem to know what is going on, but do they? The story is old by multiple points of view. And each point of view has to go on ad nauseam about their thoughts and feelings and actions. Not a whole lot of action and not my kind of read. Skimmed many pages of the last half of the book once I caught the flavor. For those that like deep personality analysis of many characters, it can be a great read. But not for me.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generous 3 stars. It was a terrific book until the end, when there was really no end. It seems to require reading the next in the series to find out who done it. Before that it was terrific: the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, with the characters being so un-self-aware and trying so hard. Really fun, then all of a sudden it was over. Grrrr....

[Stan Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love the Harpur & Iles series that Bill James has spun out for years now.

[Elite Group · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’ll Take More Than an Alibi to Fix This

I have one star to give and one word to say – “NO!” But I’m guessing I’m not going to get away with just that, officer, am I?

Okay.

It must be a conundrum for any writer who has a series of books under their belt and continues to write novels in the series. Do you assume that every reader is a first time reader of your work? Or do you continue writing for all those who have been following the series? It must be hard, the characters must become like old friends to writer and readers alike. I guess that people who have been following this series would enjoy this book. There were many footnotes directing the virgin reader to previous fictions presumably so they had a chance to try and fully understand the references. So I can only decide that this book was aimed at an existing following.


This is about a couple of drug criminals sharing the same turf and attempting to forge a Strangers on the Train type pact to so one of them can have a potential murderer eliminated. I’m not saying anymore because I don’t want to spoil it.


I believe that it was supposed to humorous. I may offend and transcend that which is politically correct but I fear the biggest stumbling block to my deriving any enjoyment from First Fix Your Alibi is the fact that I lack the correct genitalia. I suspect that after a few pints and a vindaloo this is hilarious but during shredded wheat and a cup of coffee it left me cold.


But I may be wrong. You may read this book, wag your finger at me and say – “NO!”

Whizz

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

[Elaine Tomasso · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House for offering me an advance copy of First Fix Your Alibi which is the first novel I have read by Mr James and will probably be the last as it's not to my taste and I didn't enjoy it but that's probably my fault as I thought it was a police procedural and it clearly isn't. It starts with 2 drug dealers, Ralph Ember and Manse Shale, who have reached an amicable agreement over turf and are now discussing a Strangers On A Train scenario where Ralph kills Frank Waverton on Manse's behalf. Waverton being the suspected leak who gave away Manse's school run route and led to the ambush and death of Manse's wife and son. I think the ambush is explored in a previous novel but the salient facts are covered well enough that it didn't matter that I hadn't read it.
I think this novel is designed to be a comedy and it had me laughing for the first few pages but after that it became decidedly repetitive and as nothing really developed on the crime side of things it just became boring with words I didn't recognise and I have a fairly extensive vocabulary and a load of philosophy I wasn't interested in, despite having read Sartre and knowing what existentialism is.
I suspect that this is a series that you either love or hate. It did nothing for me and I thought long and hard about 2 or 3 stars. 2 is the obvious choice as I didn't like it but it made me laugh initially and it is a clever piece of writing so 3 is fair.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it didn't make me snot my coffee as the books in this series frequently do, but it is still pretty darned good. Manse Shale is determined on payback for the unfortunate gun related murder of his second wife and his son.(Ref I Am Gold, 2012) The murderer has been dealt with, but the person who set up the shooting (probably, or at least perhaps) is still at large, and Manse is out for vengeance. But in a way that has no connection to him. Something has fixated him on the idea of Strangers On a Train (or as Manse recalls it Stranglers on a Train) as a model. Who better to do the exchange with than Ralph Ember? Ralph is not fond of the idea, but admits the potential business usefulness of having Manse owe him a huge favor. So they dance around each other for a couple of hundred pages, both reluctant, neither trusting the other completely (or much at all). Meantime Harpur and Iles are nosing around the edges, Iles angry at the murders on his patch and wanting to forestall additional trouble, Harpur just wanting to avoid further problems. Harpur, his daughters and Denise, his girlfriend, are such a lovely little domestic unit. I particularly love Harpur's continuing and futile grammatical corrections to his daughter Jill. Iles is uncharacteristically unrabid at the denouement - not possible that he is mellowing, I hope.

[Herzog · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is among my very favorite crime series, though, I suspect, that it is a bit of an acquired taste. On occasion, a book in this series will not include various recurring characters, but this one hit all the right notes for me. I love the inclusion of Harpur's daughters, Hazel and Jill, and his girlfriend, Denise. For instance take this bit of dialogue from Hazel: " Perhaps, but some delicacy, some tact, are needed in considering Denise's coitus power and contortions flair. It's not like discussing breakfast." The books are full of humor and the dialogue is superb. This series is as original as any I am aware.

[Tweiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good Harpur and Iles

Enjoyed this more than I had some of the most recent books in the series. The wry, sly, almost esoteric dialogue was under control _ although a subdued Iles is not as much fun as an off the leash Iles. So glad the diatribes against Harpur have stopped, was getting weary of them. Nice to have a Harpur and Iles I could enjoy. Have read all of them and own most of them. I do miss Sarah, she was a good character. Loved the whole mixed up plot a d looking forward to finding out who done the BIG murder, may next time. How ma y books in this series? 30+ I'm pretty sure. Read the first dozen or so they're worth it.

[Stephen Wahrhaftig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how Bill James invests such amusing characters and dialects g. They propel the stories with an energy made from their wild personalities.

Alibi is modeled on the famous story, filmed by Hitchcock, 'Strangers on a Train'. In this version, the bad guys are the notorious Panicking Ralph and Manse Shale, of drug sales renown.

As usual, detective Colin Harpur and his slightly insane boss, Illes, are charged with investigating murders and preventing more.

I'm found this a terrific read.

[Moirad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series - black humour at its very best. Recurring characters include pragmatic laissez-faire cops, wannabe respectable criminals, and their various families. The style is jokey, even when the subject matter is anything but, and the author never disappoints.

[Ann Theis]

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