Download or read book Panicking Ralph written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ralph Ember, owner of a shady drinking club, is playing a dangerous game. Someone knows of his plans to set up his own drugs syndicate. And that someone is not keen on the competition. But who are Ralph's trade rivals? The ambitious Keith Vine? Cultured villain Mansel Shale? Perhaps even Detective Chief Constable Colin Harpur and his superior Desmond Iles, about whom there are rumours. And Harpur is developing his own plan - one so secret it could cost him his job, so dangerous it could cost him his life . . . 'Extraordinary and electrifying' Val McDermid

Download or read book Vacuum written by Bill James and published by Severn House/ORIM. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harpur and Iles juggle a new drug kingpin and a new chief in this hilarious police procedural from “the Elmore Leonard of Britain’s underworld” (Kirkus Reviews). After his wife and son are gunned down in what appears to be a hit gone wrong, Local drug boss Mansel Shale turns to religion, leaving his drug business up for grabs. His second-in-command, a weirdo who believes he is Generalissimo Franco, is the wrong man to lead the organization, especially with rival Ralph Ember eager to gain control of Shale’s territory. Neither Assistant Chief Desmond Iles nor DCS Colin Harpur wants a drug war. Both believe in the motto “No blood on the pavement.” But their new chief has a different motto—“Lock ’em up and toss away the key”—and is pushing matters in the wrong direction. “The qualities that make James’s books stand out from the crowd are his masterful ability with words and his howlingly funny, darkly brutal humor. . . . Despite the seriousness of the plot, it’s impossible not to laugh aloud at the fierce ripostes, subtle digs, and overt insults peppered across every page. A true delight from a genre master.” —Booklist (starred review) “Not only the most stylishly adventurous books in British crime fiction today but also the funniest.” —The Telegraph

Download or read book Girls written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years Panicking Ralph Ember and Mansel Shale have run profitable drugs empires in peaceful cooperation with each other - and Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles turns a blind-eye to their trade as long as it keeps violence off the streets. But this happy arrangement is threatened by foreign dealers moving in and offering punters not just drugs, but exploited girls from Eastern Europe. These invaders have no respect for the old way of managing things and soon bloody gang warfare breaks out in a deadly scramble for territory. 'Another dodgy gavotte by the master of the revels . . . brilliant' Literary Review

Download or read book Disclosures written by Bill James and published by Severn House Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Panicking Ralph is a big-time villain ― but he’s a local villain ― and when his life is threatened, policemen Harpur and Iles are straight on the case. 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…

Download or read book Hitmen I have Known written by Bill James and published by Severn House Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assistant Chief Constable Iles finds himself suspected of murder in the fast-paced 35th installment of the popular Harpur and Iles police procedural series. Tensions in the community are mounting following the gruesome deaths of two men, both of whom were accused yet acquitted of the murder of an undercover police officer. It looks like vigilante justice, but who is responsible? Alarmingly, suspicion falls on Assistant Chief Constable Iles. Matters escalate when a TV show investigating the murders is aired, further implicating Iles. Iles seems at ease with the accusations, as are his superiors in the police force. But others are not feeling so secure. Local crime bosses Ralph Ember and Mansel Shale fear reprisals against Iles will result in their own businesses suffering. And so they begin to plan how to remove potential troublemakers from their path . . .

Download or read book Hotbed written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drug barons Ralph Ember and Mansel Shale have co-existed peaceably for years, tolerated by Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles as a way of keeping violence off the streets. But times are changing. In a downward spiral of paranoia and panic, Ember fears Shale has a plan to kill him and take over his firm - after all, one of his people has already been gunned down and nobody's taken the rap for it. Shale is about to remarry and has asked Ember to be best man. Iles and Detective Chief Constable Colin Harpur, alert to their potentially deadly double game, know that they have to act fast to avoid out-and-out carnage. 'Dazzles . . . a modern morality play of epic scope' Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Lovely Mover written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eleri ap Vaughan, Keith Vine's best dealer, has turned to other drugs wholesalers for her supplies. Now she has to die. For the threat of invasion by rival syndicates cannot be ignored, particularly as 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 game, and he now finds himself in the precarious position of covering up a murder and investigating it. 'There is nothing else quite like this series...all delivered in a ferociously poetic voice that is uniquely Bill James' The Times

Download or read book Easy Streets written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years Colin Harpur's dubious boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, ran an 'arrangement' with Mansel Shale and Panicking Ralph Ember, owner of the Monty Club: Iles would protect their drug businesses if they ensured peace on the streets. But when a small-time crook's house is firebombed and he and his daughter are both killed the pact is knocked sideways and gang war erupts. With the relaxation of drugs law legislation, Shale and Ember have serious competition. Their profits slide and an all-out battle for survival begins. 'Most other British Police writers are foam rubber truncheons to James' iron riot baton' Time Out

Download or read book Club written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suspects in the fatal bludgeoning of lowlife Ian Aston include his criminal pals - and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur's superior officer Desmond Iles, whose wife, Sarah, was having an affair with Aston. As Harpur appears to take Aston's place in Sarah's affections, local club owner Ralph Ember takes over the dead man's spot in the criminal hierarchy, becoming a reluctant participant in a bank scheme that seems cursed from the start. 'The tortuous private lives of James's policemen are often more savage than the crimes they investigate . . . Mr James is bruisingly good' Sunday Telegraph

Download or read book Blaze Away written by Bill James and published by Severn House Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policemen Harpur and Iles get mixed up in the criminal world of fine art dealing Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur feels a sort of warmth towards Jack Lamb, a brilliantly prosperous but profoundly dodgy fine arts dealer. Lamb is the greatest informant Harpur has ever dealt with – might be the greatest informant any police officer has ever dealt with – and although Jack ended this arrangement some time ago, Harpur still feels indebted to him. Lamb’s posh manor house is stuffed with expensive paintings, ripe for the pinching . . . and small-time thief George Dinnick and his crew intend to relieve him of a few. But their plans are complicated by local big-time crook Ralph Ember, who is on the lookout for some art to elevate his gentleman’s club, The Monty; and who else would he visit to procure this art but Jack Lamb? Add to the mix odd-job man and stolen-art procurer Basil Gordon Loam – aka Enzyme – who Harpur and Iles would very much like to see locked up, and things start to get complicated indeed.

Download or read book In Good Hands written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fear grips the drugs underworld after two principals in the trade are murdered, and even Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles is under a cloud of suspicion. Now the chief players start closing in on a fortune, while Iles, Chief Constable Mark Lane and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur plunge into their own fierce struggle to control the game. 'An unconventional and spicy tour-de-force. James is terrific' Frances Fyfield

Download or read book Gospel written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One of British crime writing's hidden jewels' Time Out At 19 years old Denise Prior knew little about criminals and even less about the law. In hindsight only her innocence was to blame for her affair with Detective Inspector Colin Harpur. That same innocence led to a friendship with ballet student Helen Surtees - live-in lover of Harpur's number one informer, Jack Lamb. It wasn't until later that the guns came out for the raid on the Link Street sub-post office. The tip-off had come from Jack Lamb and Harpur wanted to be there . . . but the Link Street shoot out changed everything, and Harpur's actions made Denise the only possible victim for a cruel and terrible revenge.

Download or read book Come Clean written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifth title in the popular Harpur and Iles series. Sarah Iles' latest young lover, Ian Aston, and the seedy gangland club he frequents both possess the intense attraction of the forbidden. When one night at the Monty they witness a fatal knifing, they unwittingly learn far too much for their own good of a deadly plot that could, if successfully executed, rearrange the city's criminal power structure. Immediately, the unfaithful wife and petty criminal become targets of both police and underworld observation. In Come Clean Bill James once again explores that no-man's-land of law enforcement, where human concern and naked expediency stand perennially at odds with each other.

Download or read book Pay Days written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his amoral superior Assistant Chief Constable Desmond lles face a political and personal dilemma when they suspect fellow Officer Nivette of taking bribes from underworld villains, panicking Ralphy Ember and Mansel Shale. Is Nivette doing some unauthorised undercover work, or is he really bent? And where has the body of smalltime dealer Slow Victor gone? Trussed up in the cabin of a deserted boat one minute, gone the next. Harpur starts to make the connection, but will it be in time to save Nivette? 'The suspense is almost unbearable, the latent truth uncomfortable and the result haunting' Frances Fyfield

Download or read book The Detective is Dead written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Oliphant Kenward Knapp's drug-dealing empire comes up for grabs, there's a rush to control his domain. Caught in the middle is Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur who must protect his informant, Keith Vine, and his pregnant girlfriend. Unfortunately, his amoral superior Desmond Iles is determined to keep the couple in the midst of danger - as bait for the underworld villains. Can Harpur provide them with the protection they need? Especially when it becomes clear that Keith himself has resorted to murder? 'An excellent and alarmingly realistic novel' Independent

Download or read book Eton Crop written by Bill James and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pursued from the shadows, Simon Pilgrim fled in terror from the floating restaurant Eton Boating Song. In the bar of the Eton, he'd had the choice spot, discreetly purveying high-stakes drugs to the restaurant's well-to-do patrons. Now he's dead, his throat cut, and the police know that the drug syndicates are in an all-out war, with the Eton as the prize. Police officer Naomi Anstruther is sent undercover into this turbulent world. Right away she becomes an unknowing pawn in the rival criminals' plans and in the complex struggle between Harpur and his rival, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles. 'Masterly . . . there is nothing else quite like this series' The Times

Download or read book Sequels written by Janet G. Husband and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.