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Harpur & Iles #30
Play Dead
Harpur and Iles may have uncovered corruption, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions . . .
An investigation into an incident in another Force led Colin Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, to uncover corruption in the ranks and arrest a fellow policeman who murdered an undercover officer. But there are still many questions that remain unanswered: who ordered the execution? Why? Just how high did the conspiracy go and does the crooked power group behind the assassin still flourish? When the home office reopens the case, it is Harpur and Iles to whom the investigation is once more handed.
An investigation into an incident in another Force led Colin Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, to uncover corruption in the ranks and arrest a fellow policeman who murdered an undercover officer. But there are still many questions that remain unanswered: who ordered the execution? Why? Just how high did the conspiracy go and does the crooked power group behind the assassin still flourish? When the home office reopens the case, it is Harpur and Iles to whom the investigation is once more handed.
- GenresMystery
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
7 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Bill James
61 books26 followersBill 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 19, 2013
Finally figured out why the Bill James Harpur and Iles novels always remind me of a very different art form (I have read, I believe, all thirty of them) since it is particularly evident in "Play Dead". In some of Wagner's music dramas, none more so than "Tristan und Isolde", each character after his first entrance describes the action that has happened beforehand--by the time King Marke makes his Act II appearance a novice Wagnerian could be forgiven for wondering when they were going to get on with things. His 11 minute or so aria/monolog, for example, sums up everything we have seen and heard for the first couple of hours of the opera.
Repeat visits to the storm tossed waters off Cornwall allows us the see the special emphasis and psychological truth that Marke as well as Brangane and the title characters have to offer. It is much the same situation with this book although unlike a few of the series ("Halo Parade" is one) it won't take rereading. Every character including a few insubstantial ones, relates everything that Harpur, Iles,Home Office Maud, and various wives, lovers and children have done, both in the book at hand and in other volumes of the series. Having read Iles's agonized screed over the betrayal he felt when his wife slept with Harpur a few times is plenty--continuing to drop it in every 25 pages or so is just self-indulgent.
"Play Dead" has enough biting wit, very dark humor and savage portrayal of the scramble for status by the the class conscious gangsters, social climbing drug dealers and casually brutal senior police officers to make it worth reading but won't be a good introduction to the series.
Repeat visits to the storm tossed waters off Cornwall allows us the see the special emphasis and psychological truth that Marke as well as Brangane and the title characters have to offer. It is much the same situation with this book although unlike a few of the series ("Halo Parade" is one) it won't take rereading. Every character including a few insubstantial ones, relates everything that Harpur, Iles,Home Office Maud, and various wives, lovers and children have done, both in the book at hand and in other volumes of the series. Having read Iles's agonized screed over the betrayal he felt when his wife slept with Harpur a few times is plenty--continuing to drop it in every 25 pages or so is just self-indulgent.
"Play Dead" has enough biting wit, very dark humor and savage portrayal of the scramble for status by the the class conscious gangsters, social climbing drug dealers and casually brutal senior police officers to make it worth reading but won't be a good introduction to the series.
March 13, 2014
Harpur and Iles are sent back for another look at the police department they investigated in Undercover. The police officer who shot undercover cop Thomas Mallen has been tried and imprisoned, but the Home Office is not satisfied that the conspiracy stopped with him.
Women play an atypically large role in this book. Maud Logan Clatworthy, the Home Office liaison who is perhaps interested in a more personal relationship with Harpur, Emily Young, the socially prominent wife of the head of the crime syndicate infiltrated by Mallen, and Mallen's widow all play significant parts in the story.
It's a little hard to imagine anyone but Bill James writing crime fiction in which literary deconstruction and Jacobean drama are recurring, and hilarious themes.
If you haven't already read Undercover, it would be a good idea to do so before reading this.
Women play an atypically large role in this book. Maud Logan Clatworthy, the Home Office liaison who is perhaps interested in a more personal relationship with Harpur, Emily Young, the socially prominent wife of the head of the crime syndicate infiltrated by Mallen, and Mallen's widow all play significant parts in the story.
It's a little hard to imagine anyone but Bill James writing crime fiction in which literary deconstruction and Jacobean drama are recurring, and hilarious themes.
If you haven't already read Undercover, it would be a good idea to do so before reading this.
May 13, 2013
Number 30 in the Harpur and Iles saga and it feels a little like the wieght of the saga is showing.
James has an ability to use words and his two very established characters to paint perfect pictures and to draw the reader in before coshing them over the head but this feels slightly more laboured. The moments when Harpur and Iles are not together seem slower than usual and the contrast with the Harpur amnd Iles set plays (The re-enactment is up with anything James has ever written.
It is impossible if you are a fan not to love these books and cherish them as James is getting older and they must soon be finishing.
Still the best crime writer out there but for once having to work to deserve that title
James has an ability to use words and his two very established characters to paint perfect pictures and to draw the reader in before coshing them over the head but this feels slightly more laboured. The moments when Harpur and Iles are not together seem slower than usual and the contrast with the Harpur amnd Iles set plays (The re-enactment is up with anything James has ever written.
It is impossible if you are a fan not to love these books and cherish them as James is getting older and they must soon be finishing.
Still the best crime writer out there but for once having to work to deserve that title
May 15, 2013
This follows on from "Undercover" as Iles and Harpur go back to investigate police corruption in another area. A lot of this book deals with the relationship between Iles and Harpur but for long time readers of this series it does not add much. The simple presence of Iles and Harpur causes the people involved to take actions which lead to a satisfactory conclusion. However I was not quite convinced by the dying words of one of the characters which led to the unmasking of the corrupt policeman. This is not one of the author's better books and I do wonder how many more he will write as he must now be about 83 years old.
May 30, 2013
Tongue in cheek police investigating police drama, Two high ranking police officers investigate murder and corruption in another police force. This is heavy on the love hate relationship between the two main characters - Harpur and Iles. The author's style of writing does little to disguise the fact that he previously wrote for Punch, and this can be no bad thing. Enjoyable read if a little too much similarity in the way each character speaks.
July 9, 2013
Of the numerous crime series I read, this remains among my favorites. As usual, it's not the storyline that is the hook here, but the humor and dialogue. Harpur wounds Iles with a pen during a re-enactment of a crime. Again, Iles carries on about Harpur's affair with his wife to the point of creating a disturbance during a theatrical performance. The dialogue when Iles is confronted about the behavior is hysterical. Just a very enjoyable entertainment.
June 19, 2014
First book I've read in this series and I can't decide if I'm likely to read another. I was put off by the stilted overly-clever dialogue at first. So much so that I almost gave up. But then I was pulled in a bit more and started to enjoy myself a bit, or at least understand what the author seemed to be doing. But then the plot ended up abruptly, with little input from the detectives, and the whole thing felt kind of pointless again.
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October 1, 2013Another excellent entry in this great series.
August 23, 2013
Literate and very strange. My first, I think, from this series. Not sure what happened, but it was fascinating while happening. The most baroque dialogue I've encountered.
March 30, 2014
More fun with Harpur and Iles
January 31, 2015
hate all the British slang that I don't recognize
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews