Panicking Ralph (Harpur & Iles Mystery 14) [Paperback]

Bill James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 1998 | Series: Harpur & Iles Mystery 14

A Harpur and Iles novel. Ralph Ember is determined to live down his nickname, "Panicking", when he sets up his own drugs syndicate. But when an afternoon with his mistress ends in bloodshed, Ralph realizes there are others with the same plan who will not stand for competition. Who are his rivals?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, June 2001: The irony-laced police procedurals of British writer Bill James are as much an acquired taste as a glass of Guinness stout--and equally inimitable. In such novels as The Lolita Man, Eton Crop, and Kill Me, the dueling coppers Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his superior, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Isles, keep a wary eye on one another, never sure which way the winds of bloody-mindedness are blowing.

In Panicking Ralph, the titular Ralph Ember is the owner of a disreputable private drinking club called The Monty. Full or not, it's a home-away-from-home for shady dealmakers and the thugs who congregate in their wake. Ralph tries "to keep The Monty a cheery place, despite occasional blood-soaked affrays and harsh tragedies."

His nickname derives from his well-known habit of getting his knickers in a twist whenever the going starts to get rough. Or, as Harpur puts it as he and his colleagues debate what the local villains might be up to, "Ember oscillates between cold sweats and fierce ambition and even guts."

In the opening pages, as Ralph's married mistress is murdered before his eyes during an assignation on the beach, we see him run much, much faster than she can: "Fleetness when it mattered was among his flairs." Later on, when he returns to collect Christine's body, he tries not to think about his position as avenger, that it will now be "impossible to dodge the role in the way some might claim he had dodged this afternoon." After all, it had been he they were after all along--her murder was a mistake.

Had she never strayed from the loving embrace of her husband, a purveyor of pet care products, her unseeing eyes would not now be caked with mud and Ralph would not be desperately trying to figure out how to take proper action without tipping his hand or incriminating himself. Always, Harpur and Iles are in the background, circling the territory and making sure that what goes down in their jurisdiction is never too much of a surprise. Like Ian Rankin, James understands how the line between those who keep the law and those who flout it is so often blurred. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

If you're trying to read James's wonderfully mordant Harpur and Iles books in order, this one was originally published in England in 1998 between Top Banana and Lovely Mover. That fact is important only to timeline purists, who keep track of such arcane details as how the decidedly smalltime criminal Panicking Ralph Ember (owner of a superbly seedy drinking club called The Monty) got to be such a large player in the drug trade in the unnamed British city where Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his immediate boss, the devious Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, try to maintain order. Panicking Ralph, who looks like a poor man's Charlton Heston and who can work up a sweat just thinking about committing a crime, is one of James's most inspired creations, as is the endearingly vicious Iles. But, as always, the somewhat shaky but finally reliable moral center of each book is Harpur, who here has to go so far underground pretending to be a crooked cop that even his two sharp daughters and his very young girlfriend begin to have their doubts. Add to that large dollops of the trademark James humor ("Whenever I hear the words `popular culture,' I reach for my Rilke," Iles says to his own beleaguered boss at one point) and you have another excellent entry in a series that is shaping up to be the crime fiction equivalent of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (June 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330352865
• ISBN-13: 978-0330352864
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thin line between police and criminals blurs even more, June 20, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Panicking Ralph: A Harpur & Iles Mystery (Hardcover)

The Harpur and Iles series is truly fascinating and PANICKING RALPH is no exception. Bill James writes snappy dialogue that might make you laugh or possibly cringe. His characters, especially his criminals, are well crafted and motivated.

In PANICKING RALPH, sometimes insane police chief Mark Lane decides that this is the time to clear his city of its drug industry. With the former drug king pin dead, several syndicates, including one led by Ralph Ember, the title character, are trying to carve out a controling position but each is vulnerable.

Iles recommends against any drastic action. Someone will fill the vacuum and it would be better if local and controllable criminals are involved rather than new criminals from London. Harpur, however, is inspired (for once) by Lane and decides to go under cover to see what he can do.

One of the strength of James's novels is the interplay between Lane, Harpur, and Iles. Unfortunately, PANICKING RALPH downplays this aspect, although a few jewels shine through (like Iles's invitation to have Harpur visit his home since Iles's wife can no longer understand why she would ever have had an affair with Harpur), for the most part, this aspect is missing and missed.

As always, James highlights the thin line between police and criminals. Harpur's calculation that Iles is 60% likely to be honest reflects the legitimate concern that all of us have in a world so corrupted by drug money.

PANICKING RALPH is not the best in the Harpur and Iles series, but even second best is very good indeed.

...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty, thoughtful, and thoroughly entertaining., July 23, 2001

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Panicking Ralph: A Harpur & Iles Mystery (Hardcover)

If this is your first foray into the bitingly humorous world of Harpur and Iles, as it was mine, be prepared. Author Bill James is obviously having the time of his life here, tweaking all aspects of traditional police procedural novels and the characters who populate them. James's characters are unique: idealistic Commissioner Lane, who "[does] not presume to see himself as Christ, but at least as the one who rolled away the stone"; ACC Iles, an unrepentant sycophant who praises Lane's "gifted decisiveness," and thinks of him as a "towering sweetheart, someone I look up to as to a small god"; a dogged investigator, such as Harpur, who has no problem playing fast and loose with the law and everyone he meets to get what he wants; quirky crooks, such as Ralph Ember, with his "rich flair for panic" and "that greasy speed he could get into his sprinting, even over tricky ground" in his flight from trouble; and young Keith Vine, an up and coming criminal who insists on referring to himself as the third person "Keith Vine."

As Harpur deals with these characters and investigates the growth of drug syndicates after the death of Oliphant Kenward Knapp, eventually becoming involved in one of them himself, the reader is treated to one amusing scene after another.

Unlike some humorous mystery writers like Christopher Moore and Carl Hiaasen, James does not depend on outrageous, off-the-wall scenes and smart-mouthed fast-talk for most of his humor. He is a lover of ironic, often subtle, word-play. He gives poker-faced, lyrical descriptions of decidedly un-lyrical scenes, and he writes with intelligence and care about dangerous criminals, mocking them, while never making light of their cruelty and dangerousness to society. This novel is well plotted and exciting, and its absurdities echo with truth. Mary Whipple

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange Cops and Robbers, May 28, 2002

By 

Brian Busek (Vermillion, SD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panicking Ralph (Vol. Book 14) (Harpur & Iles Mysteries) (Paperback)

If you like your cops and robbers with a strange twist, British author Bill James presents one of the most drolly quirky rogues galleries in crime fiction. Set in a large industrial city in England James'lengthy series brings together crooks and cops with issues. In the course of crime fighting, cops cope with personal crisises like nervous breakdowns (the chief); a penchant for teenage girls and compulsive deviousness (the assistant chief) and wobbly managment and sassy daughter (ace detective Colin Harpur). The crooks, however, have their challenges. An excellent case in point being the rising and ruthless drug lord Ralph "Panicking Ralph" Ember, who is bogged down by a lust for respectibility and his famed "panics." At delicate moments the master crook suffers from paralyzing panic accompanied by drenching sweats. Panicking Ralph is among the most delicious entries in a dark and entertaining series.