A Man's Enemies

by Bill James

In this second Simon Abelard thriller, a section of British Intelligence is still reeling from the unsolved murder of one of its officers. The pain goes deeper because this killing and others before it might have been carried out by members of the section itself in a bloody internal power battle. Now, to make matters worse, Olly Horton has left the Service and is about to write a book. His former chiefs fear what might come to light and order their most experienced and skilled man-Simon Abelard-to dissuade Horton from going ahead, giving him new girl, Iris Insole, to help. Pretty soon both Iris and Simon find themselves in real danger, unsure of who is friend, who is foe. ""The Elmore Leonard of Britain's underworld.""-Kirkus Reviews

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

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)