Halo Parade

Harpur & Iles #3

by Bill James

Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur investigates the case of a cocaine trafficking ring, with the help of a top-notch undercover man

Genres: Crime, Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

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

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The long-running Harpur & Iles series by Bill James (a Welsh pseudonym, not the baseball analyst!) stylistically combines elements of gritty police procedural and comedy of manners. Cynical plotting and calculation, by both "bad" and "good" guys, is very strongly portrayed. Desmond Iles is one of the memorable "monsters" of modern fiction. Like many series, the early entries are somewhat better: Iles comes into his twisted element in the early/middle books. This is the first H & I novel I read, the third in the series, and one of the very best. Only qualifier is that the language/dialogue is very British, which could be difficult for some.

[Nathanielk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best along with Roses, Roses of the ultra noir British police series. There is a point where something is too gritty to be realistic and James left that spot in his rear view mirror a long time ago.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, sometimes shocking and with dark humour.

[Craig Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most bitingly cynical books ever written, with sharp shocks on nearly every page.

This is the third book in the series by Bill James, a pseudonym for Welsh novelist Allan James Tucker. It's also the first to really feature not just Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur but also his boss, the laceratingly vicious Desmond Iles.

Harpur assigns a young officer named Ray Street to go deep undercover to cozy up to an exacting drug kingpin named Jamieson, known to everyone in the business as a man so dangerous he's called "You-know-who." The cocky Street becomes not just a trusted deputy to Jamieson but also winds up in his bed too. Jamieson explains that he's discovered the pleasures of man-on-man sex in prison and now looks to Street to keep him satisfied.

Meanwhile, Street has begun seeing one of Jamieson's fashion designers on the side, snorting coke with her and having sex on his off nights. Harpur finds them there one night and reads him the riot act about endangering his operation.

Harpur and Iles grow uneasy about the undercover operation and try to pull the plug on Street's assignment. But Street is so sure of himself he ignores the orders and stays on the job -- and winds up paying with his life. He's not killed for being a cop, but for bringing his girlfriend over to Jamieson's house and having sex with her in Jamieson's bed.

Street's murder is just the first of many, many twists in the plot, which took me places I've never seen before in reading crime fiction. This isn't a "whodunit" so much as it is a "how will they get him?" and in the end -- well, I don't want to give it away. But suffice to say that nobody comes out of this one with clean hands, and the ending of the story is just about as perfect as can be.

[Zappster · Rating 4 out of 5]

More crime fiction than mystery. Less whodunnit and more how-they-get-him, but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it. In this author's capable hands it works though. There's a tension to proceedings that grips you (will Street get got? how will they get you-know-who?) and the author uses timeskips effectively to trim the page count. The end result is a taut, well-paced crime noir book. This is something I am coming to appreciate more and more especially as an antidote to the sometimes bloated epic fantasies I read. We don't need all the details, the timeskip with enough information and motivation for characters can help fill in the blanks. In this case it leads to a great chapter with Harpur being cross-examined in court regarding his obtaining of evidence, with almost all of it being dialogue so it zips along. Speaking of the dialogue, which is a real highlight, it feels authentic, helps differentiate the characters and adds some much needed levity to the book. None more so than Iles who makes you wonder how he gets away with saying the things he does especially to people further up the chain of command. On the other hand it's worth mentioning that the dialogue references people and places from the UK in the 70s and 80s, features heavy use of slang and so might make it more difficult for non-UK readers to follow. I had to google some of the things mentioned.

Highly recommended for fans of crime fiction.

[Michelle]

This book was horrid.

It was a complete glorification of every single vice I despise in life. It was poorly written. VERY poorly written.

And, the plot was kind of weak. Maybe I just don't do crime novels, but I know this could have been done much better.

[David Booher · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding

[Jim Barrett]

Very good.