Astride a Grave

Harpur & Iles #8

by Bill James

A darkly comic mystery in which Chief Supt. Colin Harper hopes to find the missing brains of a bank robbing gang who has gone missing with more than his share of the loot, before the vengeful members of the gang go beyond simply kidnapping their leader's daughter

Genres: Mystery, Crime

205 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Bill 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)

Reviews

[Sam Reaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody does cool cynicism as well as Bill James. Cops and robbers, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. A concise, elliptical style, often very funny, a scorched-earth approach to the delusions and hypocrisies on both sides of the law. A master.

[Cassie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book at all. The detective and his subordinate seemed to be thinly disguising a deep hatred for each other. They were also written in a sort of psychotic way, going from calm to furious at a moment's notice--sometimes directed at each other, sometimes at suspects. This mystery was just not to my taste.

[Doo Rag · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He showed all the dud teeth in a smile, an unbeatable range of blacks and greens, like some golfer's trousers."