Eton Crop (Harpur & Iles Mysteries (Paperback)) (Book 15) - Softcover

James, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393320987 ISBN 13: 9780393320985

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

Synopsis

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.

Pursued from the shadows, Simon Pilgrim fled in terror from the floating restaurant Eton Boating Song. In the bar on the Eton, he had the choice spot, discreetly purveying high-stakes drugs to the Eton'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. Naomi Anstruther, a cop, is sent undercover into this turbulent drug world. Right away she becomes an unknowing pawn in the rival criminals' plans-and in the complex struggle between Harpur and his rival, ACC Desmond Iles. When Naomi's cover is threatened, Harpur and Iles must act with lightning speed to salvage the operation and-in an explosion of violence-try to get her out alive. This is Bill James's most brilliantly plotted story yet, and the tension is high-wire to the last minute. "Bill James's Harpur and Iles books are deliciously un-savoury: a brilliant combination of almost Jacobean savagery and sexual betrayal with a tart comedy of contemporary manners."―John Harvey, Guardian "Although each book in the series, which is set in a nameless city north of London, stands on its own, they all add up to a stunning history of how crime has changed the fabric and character of British society."―Publishers Weekly, starred review

About this title

About the Author

Bill James has been called "the Elmore Leonard of Britain's underworld" (Kirkus Reviews) and has been named a "Master of Crime" in a mystery roundup by the London Sunday Times, which said, "There is nothing else quite like this series of police procedurals. James is concerned with the dilemmas and difficulties of policing Britain's inner cities, and he addresses these in hard-edged narratives that leave readers gasping and flinching, praying the people in these stories never come to live in their streets." In addition to the Harpur and Iles series, James is the author of other mystery series and a book on Anthony Powell. He lives in Wales.

From Publishers Weekly

In its last half-dozen titles, James's Harpur and Iles series has turned darker, concentrating on drug-related murders and betrayals. When an undercover officer named Raymond Street was killed several books ago, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles took it very badly: blaming Chief Constable Mark Lane's uncompromising policies, he started a scorched earth campaign to push Lane into early retirement or the loony bin. In this 16th entry in this bleakly inventive series (after Lovely Mover, Forecasts, May 3), both ends seem imminent. "The Chief was noble and doomed, cripplingly fractured and toweringly honorable," writes James. "The evil was too much for him. The job had grown too much for him. Iles was too much for him." It's up to the burly, recently widowed Detective Chief Inspector Colin Harpur to try to save Lane's sanity by inserting another undercover cop, tough and ambitious Naomi Anstruther, into a drug operation run by former rivals who are joined in an uneasy alliance against the encroachments of a heavyweight London mob intent on making a floating restaurant (and popular upper-class drug-buying venue) called "The Eton Boating Song" its first local victory. Protecting Lane from the brilliant and vengeful Iles, shielding Naomi from the rival drug dealers and also from a particularly dangerous police psychiatrist, Harpur once again becomes a shaky, then ultimately sturdy tower of strength. Although each book in the series, which is set in a nameless city north of London, stands on its own, they all add up to a stunning history of how crime has changed the fabric and character of British society. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0393320987
• ISBN 13: 9780393320985
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 290