A well-dressed corpse found shot in the sand and gravel wharf sparks trouble for Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his unpredictable boss, Assistant Chief Constable Iles. The man is found dead in the local dockyard, shot from behind. Colin Harpur, examining the impeccably dressed corpse on his hands and knees, predicts the execution spells imminent trouble - and not just the unexpected arrival of his spiteful, brilliant boss, ACC Iles, at the two a.m. slaughter scene. Iles' progressive attitude towards the local drugs trade has kept gang warfare off the streets, but now it seems jealous outsiders may be coveting the safe, ordered community he has so brilliantly created. Coveting too, the local property - for instance, drug lord Ralph Ember's luxurious mansion, Low Pastures, home to his unparalleled collection of china and porcelain. Harpur and Iles are determined to protect their set-up at all costs - which includes protecting 'Panicking' Ralph. But...

The 27th installment in the popular Harpur & Iles series.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?

This sharply satirical novel concerns a battle royal between two academic institutions and their principals. England, 1987. It's all-out war. Two universities in the same city each aim to destroy the other and take over one another's buildings, students and – above all – bank balance. At a time of austerity in public life and huge government cuts, the situation has become desperate and the respective university principals are prepared to fight very dirty indeed. Dr Lawford Chute of the revered Sedge University wants to expand, expand, expand, while the government is telling him to cut, cut, cut. But Dr Victor Tane of Charter Mill employs more covert methods to ensure his institution comes out on top. Who will win these ferocious academic fights and be the model for the statue in the modern-day university grounds: the ultimate proof of posterity for which both principals are battling? This hilariously witty and highly topical satire on...

"[Bill James'] strangely compelling series offers its own ample rewards."—Mystery SceneFor years Panicking Ralph Ember and Mansel Shale have run profitable drugs empires in peaceful cooperation with each other, and ACC Iles will blind-eye their trade as long as it keeps violence off the streets. But this happy arrangement is threatened by foreign dealers moving in and offering not just drugs, but punters—exploited girls from Eastern Europe. And bloody gang warfare threatens as a scrabble for territory ensues.

When Harpur and Iles are called in to investigate an undercover investigation gone wrong, they can sense dark, hazardous times ahead...After a gang shooting involving an undercover police officer, Colin Harpur and his boss Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles are called to another Force's ground to investigate what the Home Office see as spectacular failings. Harpur can imagine the pressure the officer would have been under. If a gang decided to kill, a spy would have to go along with it. But with careers of fellow officers—who might be in secret, dangerous alliance with villains—at risk, Harpur knows that he and Iles have an exceptionally tough inquiry ahead.

Policemen Harpur and Iles get mixed up in the criminal world of fine art dealingDetective 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...

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 bloodbathFollowing 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.

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 . . .

Using unprecedented, dramatically compelling sleuthing techniques, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.Between 1898 and 1912, families across the country were bludgeoned in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Jewelry and valuables were left in plain sight, bodies were piled together, faces covered with cloth. Some of these cases, like the infamous Villasca, Iowa, murders, received national attention. But few people believed the crimes were related. And fewer still would realize that all of these families lived within walking distance to a train station. When celebrated baseball statistician and true crime expert Bill James first learned about these horrors, he began to investigate others that might fit the same pattern. Applying the same know-how he brings to his legendary baseball analysis, he empirically...

Set during an alternative version of 1938 with Bill James' trademark satirical take on events - England,1938. War looms, but the Prime minister's talks with Hitler in Munich seem to result in a pact of peace. Now Mount, a secret service officer, is sent on an undercover mission to Berlin. But with all this talk of peace he starts to wonder whether his mission has any point. All until a meeting with Toumlin and two good-time girls from the local bar results in a broken chair. Could this chair have been not only the key to his mission but also the key to peace?

The 24th novel in the Harpur & Iles series follows DCI Harpur into an illicit narcotics ring.There's intrigue right from the start of this new entry in Bill James's Harpur and Iles series: A houseful of paintings is stolen and the body of a finely dressed stranger is discovered. Villainous drug dealers fight for dominance on Constable Iles and Detective Harpur's turf. While the kingpins maneuver and scheme, Harpur is helped-or hindered?-by his very persistent daughters and by Iles's irregular and perhaps illicit methods. In this fast-paced thriller, there's no telling who will catch the next bullet.

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 caseDetective 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...

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.

Harpur & Iles to uncover a trail of illegal art trading and money laundering. "I found I had a flair for tag-along, street level stealth. It thrilled me. It killed me. Do you mind if I tell you how?" Thomas Wells Hart drifted into a dodgy career as a private investigator and grew clever at tailing suspects and all the other tricks of the game. Not quite clever enough, however. Coming across Hart's shot-up body, Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and Assistant Chief Constable Des Iles have to work out their own explanation as to how he came to be executed behind the wheel of a Ford Focus in a quiet suburban street. The trail will lead them through illegal art trading, big-bucks money laundering – and more murder. As ever, Iles suspects Harpur is hiding essential facts from him. As ever, Harpur is hiding essential facts from his boss. Will the mismatched pair manage to close the case?

Britain, 1956. A young actress seemingly tries to commit suicide over a tangled love affair, but is taken to hospital and her life saved. The story is just the sort of thing that journalist Ian Charteris likes to cover: a poignant mix of near tragedy, possible thwarted romance, and glamour, needing sensitive but – of course – dramatic treatment. It should be a routine assignment, a welcome assignment. It would be, if it wasn’t for the identity of the young woman. She may – just may – be Ian’s sister. The unwelcome reminder of the past drags Ian back into memories of places and events he’d rather forget. As far as Ian is concerned, the past is a foreign country. And not just foreign. Fundamentally and cantankerously hostile. Vengeful, war-torn, dangerous. It is impossible to escape the past; the noose is already around Ian’s neck, and every step he takes it tightens . . . And this is not the only noose.Review“Superbly written, with James’ unique clipped, darkly funny dialogue and brilliantly provocative prose, this is a story that will haunt and disturb readers long after they’ve read the final page”. (Booklist Starred Review) “James spins an effective psychological tale of a man whose past shapes his future” (Publishers Weekly) Review“The unique and skilful way in which James uses words and his clever, diabolical plots are what make his Harpur and Illes cop series such a success. Another outstanding entry in this popular, highly original series” Starred Review of Play Dead (Booklist)