Take: A Detective Colin Harpur Novel [Hardcover]

Bill James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1994

Bill James's Come Clean, the fifth novel in his stunning series of British police procedurals, was greeted with unprecedented critical acclaim upon its American publication in 1993. Readers eager for the next in the series will be amply rewarded with Take, an equally powerful portrait of men and women on both sides of the law.

Ron "Planner" Preston has enjoyed a long criminal career out of jail. Caution, if anything, has been the key to his success. So a payroll van with a predictable route and minimal guard looks like a quick easy take. When the truck's schedule is abruptly changed and its guard doubled, however, Preston much either abandon the plan altogether or take on some young and risky new recruits, ones who may consider his habitual wariness a sign of the timidity of old age.Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Iles, are accustomed to keeping an eye on men like Preston, not so difficult a task in a milieu where cops and criminals meet on many levels: professional, familial, social. Therefore, they are quick to take notice of increased activity surrounding "Planner" on the part of his family and associates. But how are these moves to be interpreted? And where is the line between certainty and conjecture to be drawn? As one criminal aptly observes, "Chance matters."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chance matters. So do stupidity, vanity, adultery and treachery. All are explored in this standout British thriller that traces a crime from both the cops' and robbers' angles. In the wonderfully real, amoral urban world of Detective Colin Harpur, last seen in Come Clean , blunders on both sides abound. Supercautious Ron (Planner) Preston assembles a gang for a raid on a payroll van. He considers calling the heist off after hearing a tip that the van's guard has been increased, but then a young actress in an amateur production that also includes his wife makes him feel young--and foolish--again. The police deploy an ambush team, but in the wrong place; among their members is a bent cop who moonlights as a gourmet chef specializing in veal and extortion. On the cops' team is sharpshooter Robert Cotton, with whose wife Harpur has been sleeping and whom wary Harpur thinks he has heard mutter, "One flew over the cuckold's nest." The suspense builds to an explosive climax that a domineering assistant chief constable, a cuckold himself, fails to head off. This is the sixth in the series by pseudonymous James who also writes as David Craig.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

James creates outstanding British procedurals filled with dark humor, witty dialogue, and marvelously eccentric characters. But perhaps his greatest talent is in exposing the alarmingly thin line that separates good guys from bad. As he describes the routine domestic problems, the social pressures, the professional conflicts, and the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of both cops and criminals, we realize how shockingly similar their lives really are, both externally and internally. Planner Preston is a small-time crook notorious for his crime-planning skills. His latest caper is supposed to be an easy heist (a loosely guarded van and a smallish payroll), but he finds himself rethinking things when the payload increases to millions of heavily guarded pounds. Better safe than sorry, concludes Preston, who decides to call the heist off. When his younger accomplices mock him for being "past it," however, he resolves to do the job despite his misgivings. Meanwhile, Detective Colin Harpur, Preston's nemesis, hears rumors about Preston's activities and does some careful planning of his own, devising an elaborate trap to catch his longtime adversary. Both Harpur and Preston are determined to succeed, and the two move inexorably toward a violent and disastrous confrontation. An outstanding read that should go on every library's must-have list. Emily Melton

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 239 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (March 17, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881502944
• ISBN-13: 978-0881502947
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,048,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Who the justice,who the thief"(King Lear), May 24, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take: A Detective Colin Harpur Novel (Hardcover)

This is an entry in the UK police procedural series about"Harpur"and "Iles"but for much of the time the police take a back seat in the story,which revolves around a payroll robbery.The chief architect of the robbery is "Planner Preston" a cautious,meticulous thief who lives quietly with wife and daughter and whose existence is outwardly humdrum and normal.Other gang members are his usual sidekick the motherly "Mansell"and two out of towners recruited for the deal .They are younger men and more prone to violence specially the tattooed "Darren"
Preston is getting inside information from the firm marked for robbery and from the police in the form of bent copper"Leckie"
We witness the build up of tension within the gang and intercut from there to the no less tangled web of relationships within the police.
Harpur is having an affair with the wife of a colleague,which since that person is a trained marksman and fond of using a gun ,is not a deperately good idea.Iles,his superior is troubled by his wife's affair with another man and agonising over the paternity of the child she is expecting

We are given background information on the character's lives with details of amateur dramatic productions ,debilitating illness etc all adding to the depth of characterization.There is a great deal on the generation gap among the criminal elements

The robbery and its planning gives the book its main theme although there is a murder thrown in for good measure

The police do not emerge from the book with any credit.At least two of them are psychotic,and another an adulterer,and the organization is shown as being more adept at cover up than integrity .One almost but not quite ends up rooting for the bad guys

It is a book I always felt while reading,had been cocstructed and assembled rather than written.Well put together and deeply cynical it made me want to delve further into the series but not as a priority

4.0 out of 5 stars Good - But Goes On a Little Too Long, December 5, 2007

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take: A Detective Colin Harpur Novel (Hardcover)

The sixth book in the Harpur & Iles series is a deceptively simple cops and robbers procedural. A very careful local criminal has assembled a crew for a payroll robbery. Harpur & Iles get a very vague sense that something is in the air, but have no idea what. They must race to discover what the job is, without tipping off the suspects. Meanwhile, the hoods must hold it together as the pressure of waiting mounts, and circumstances alter, both in terms of risk and reward.

As usual in James' books, the plot is simple, while the characters are less so. There's the wonderful "Planner" Preston, the mastermind of the heist who is nearing middle age and simultaneously vying for the title of the world's most cautious criminal and struggling with getting old. Also on the team is "Mother" Mansell, a nervous nellie of a different sort, who is the crew's self-appointed guardian of mental health, constantly checking up on how everyone is doing. There are the two out-of-towners brought in for additional manpower, one of whom is disconcertingly sharp, the other disconcertingly attractive. And for extra muscle, local loose cannon "Hopper" is added to the team. The disparate crew grows increasingly edgy over several weeks as they iron out the plan, work their inside contacts, and try and figure out if the police have any hint of the heist.

On the other side, Harpur and Iles are both heavily distracted by their private lives -- Harpur with his ongoing affair with the wife of a subordinate, and Iles with the possibly ongoing affair of his pregnant wife (which was the main storyline in the previous book, Come Clean). Getting little tidbits of information here and there, they start to piece things slowly together, more by chance than design. This all builds up to a chaotic climax as the heist goes all pear-shaped -- as does the police response. James juggles all the strands capably and as usual, the dialogue is fun stuff. However, the pacing isn't quite as good as usual, as some of material gets a little repetitive.

5.0 out of 5 stars A good one from a master, October 8, 2005

By 

Timothy Hallinan (Bangkok/Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take: A Detective Colin Harpur Novel (Hardcover)

Bill James' Harpur and Iles novels are a great pleasure -- this is one series I actively pursue, checking for new ones whenever it seems one might be due. This is up to James' high standards, with memorable crooks and the brilliant character of Desmond Iles contrasted, as always, with the more methodical and much more ethical Harpur. Their uneasy alliance is one of the greatest, and funniest, relationships in mystery fiction. I recommend every book in this series for wonderful characters -- Panicking Ralph is worth a series to himself -- plus tremendous action and lots and lots of humor.