Naked at the Window (Harpur & Iles Mysteries, 19) - Softcover

James, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393350274 ISBN 13: 9780393350272

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

Synopsis

The latest dark suspense from "the Elmore Leonard of Britain's underworld" ―Kirkus Reviews.

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.

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.

Review

"- 'Bill James is frontrunner among those who have turned the police procedural on its head. His prime law-enforcers have a wicked style all of their own.' - The Sunday Times - 'This author has a distinctive style, writes beautiful prose and insists the reader makes an effort (which will be rewarded). The suspense is almost unbearable, the latent truth uncomfortable and the result haunting.' - Frances Fyfield - 'British mystery writing's finest prose sylist writes with such verve and originality he transcends what can often be a stale mystery sub-genre to produce novels that are startlingly, achingly funny and sometimes wholly surreal.' - Peter Gutteridge, The Independent - 'One of the kings of the dark hill.' - Val McDermid

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393350274
• ISBN 13: 9780393350272
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 238