Customer Reviews

The Detective is Dead: A Harpur & Iles Mystery

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A police procedural from the master of the genre. Hard edged narrative, terse dialogue. Bleak, cynical plot and characters expressed in an almost poetic style. The story is compelling and the characters unforgettable.

In THE DETECTIVE IS DEAD, Bill James writes again of the thinline between cop and criminal. When a judge lets two killers walkfree, Ives decides the police need to take matters into his ownhands. The results aren't pretty although they are occasionallyhysterically funny and always disturbing.

Mark Lane, the chief, isnoble, believes in doing right, and is a figure of fun for his deputyIves. The criminals believe Ives is dirty--that he is making moneyfrom the very drug lords they are seeking to become--and the reader isnever quite sure if they are right. Harpur is more practical,interested in solving crimes and locking up criminals but lackingeither Lane's nobility or Ives' brutal thrust.

This is policeprocedural with a twist. There is never any doubt about thecriminal--there are plenty of those and much of the story is told fromtheir point of view. Some of them will succeed in their dreams ofbecoming the next drug lord, others will fall. Ives knows he can'tarrest them all and so, by default, becomes something of akingmaker. Watching him work, interact with Lane, Harpur, and thecriminals, makes the novel fascinating.

Each of the Harpur and Ivesmysteries can be read independently without losing much although theydo form a continuous and enjoyable series.