Big drug dealer Ralph Ember stumbles on a ghastly surprise when he and sidekick Beau Derek arrive at the house of yachtsman Barney Coss, his bulk supplier: Barney and his two women have been savagely murdered-and the murderers, three drug rivals from London, are still in the house. Beau dies quickly at their hands; they let Ralph go-for the moment-but he's a marked man because of what he's seen. When Melanie, Beau's alluring, ruthless girlfriend, learns what has happened, she is bent on revenge and wants Ralph as her partner-all the way.Bill James's latest Harpur & Iles police procedural ratchets up the tension as the cops (the brilliant Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his ungovernable, half-cracked superior, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles) fight the drug barons for control of the city. As a body washes up, and one of the London creeps meets a violent end, the wily Ralph finds himself starting a new, very risky career-and Harpur sorts out what's going on just in time.
A woman and her stepson are gunned down while driving to school on a quiet residential street. An former bodyguard kills himself by firing two pistols simultaneously. Was the killer really aft er the woman's husband, the notorious drug baron Mansel Shale? And what possible connection could Shale's collection of pre-Raphaelite works of art have to the killings? Nothing in Bill James's latest Harpur & Iles thriller is as it seems. When the police chase the shooting suspect into a busy second-hand shop the action quickly turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse standoff . As the siege unfolds, with more than just gunplay in the mix, events threaten to take down more than the gunman and his hostages. Will this spell the end of Detective Harpur and his troubled boss, Assistant Chief Constable Iles?
The man is found dead in the local dockyard, shot from behind. Colin Harpur predicts the execution spells imminent trouble - and so does his spiteful, brilliant boss, ACC Iles. Iles' tolerance of the local drugs trade has kept gang warfare off the streets, and he is determined to protect his set-up ... at all costs.
The 25th installment of the acclaimed Harpur & Iles series by mystery master Bill James.
The 24th novel in the Harpur & Iles series follows DCI Harpur into an illicit narcotics ring.
Preeminent baseball analyst James and ESPN.com baseball columnist Neyer collaborate on the definitive guide to pitching throughout baseball history. 25 photos.
"[Bill James'] strangely compelling series offers its own ample rewards."-Mystery Scene
When thirteen-year-old drug runner Mandy Walsh is killed in a shootout between rival drug gangs, the police at first think she was accidentally caught in the crossfire. But soon they learn that someone shot her intentionally, and as Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur looks deeper the case only gets more dangerous. For Chief Constable Mark Lane, a man almost paralyzed by the collapse of civilization he sees in the relentless drug wars, the only solution to the evil is for someone to infiltrate the gangs. His sardonic assistant chief, Desmond Iles, has another solution: let the gangland police itself, in return for a few favors. Meanwhile, Mansel Shale, drug kingpin, would-be top banana, is looking for--and may have found--a working arrangement with someone on the police force. A relentless chain of events, starting with Mandy's death, comes to an exciting and unexpected conclusion.
In the latest gripping Harpur & Iles mystery, the London syndicate tries to take over a choice operation, setting off a murderous rivalry with the local drug lords-and a fierce policy war among the police.
It was tragic. There was no other word for it. Eleri ap Vaughan, sixty years old and still Keith Vine's best dealer, had turned for her supplies to other drug wholesalers: she had to die. For the threat of invasion by rival syndicates from other cities cannot be ignored, particularly as rumors reach Keith that an elegantly dressed spy from London, nicknamed Lovely Mover, is in the area. Eleri's death must serve as a warning to others to stay loyal. It's at times like these that Vine's new partner, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Harpur, will prove invaluable - for example, in sweeping the murder scene for incriminating evidence. Harpur, however, is playing a dangerous undercover game, and he 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 sneering superior, ACC Desmond Iles. And Iles is not always someone he dares trust. "Bill James's Harpur and Iles books are deliciously unsavoury: a brilliant combination of almost Jacobean savagery and sexual betrayal with a tart comedy of contemporary manners." - John Harvey, "The Crime Writer's Crime Writer," Guardian
Ralph Ember longs to be respectable. The trouble is his money comes from big-time drug dealing, where fortunes are made but reputations are dubious and the risks truly murderous. Ralph has to decide whether to go after a syndicate alone or form an alliance with others.
"Bill James writes a superior brand of police procedural about a steely English detective named Colin Harpur, but he has never written a story as cold, dark and dangerously funny as Roses, Roses."-Marilyn Stasio -New York Times Book Review
"Crackling dialogue and seamy people race a no-holds-barred operation to its wickedly satisfying denouement." -John Coleman, [London] Sunday Times
Prenumerera på vårt nyhetsbrev för att få fantastiska erbjudanden och inspiration för din nästa läsning.
Genom att registrera dig accepterar du vår personuppgiftspolicy.
