You'd Better Believe It (Harpur & Iles Mysteries) [Paperback]

Bill James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1991 | Series: Harpur & Iles Mysteries

Nominated for England's Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award in 1986, You'd Better Believe It introduced Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur to reader in England and the United States. Harpur's domain is a small seaport city south of London. It's not unusual for the big-town criminals to consider such a spot as easy prey. At such times a policeman must rely keenly upon his colleagues, to be sure, and also upon his retinue of narks (tipsters). This time it's a Lloyd's Bank branch that's the target. When the heist is postponed, a policeman is killed. One nark, then another, is murdered. As Harpur becomes driven to his limit, he must bypass regulations and settle things once and for all with a vicious crook named Holly. But not necessarily on his own terms.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The seamy, precarious alliances between the English police and their informants"narcs"set the tone for this gritty novel. It's difficult to see who has the upper hand in the relationship between Detective Chief Superintendent Harpur, a seasoned and cynical master at bending the rules, and his narc, Jack Lamb, a smooth, high-living crook who is always ready to implicate Harpur in his own shady deals. Harpur tolerates Lamb's arrogance because of the wealth of information he has to offer, but things go too far when a seemingly routine investigation goes sour, leaving two informants dead and Brian Avery, Harpur's inexperienced new partner, missing. Soon Avery is found murdered and Harpur seeks information from Lamb, but he is nowhere to be found. Matters get more complicated when Avery's widow does some sleuthing of her own, but it is not until Harpur plunges into the depths of the criminal underworld that Lamb emerges. The pace is swift and the action bluntly violent in this satisfying caper. January 28
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A most promising debut...The toughest and most realistic language I have encountered in British mystery. -- I>Drood Review of Mystery

The reader watches Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur in a small seaside town outside London put together a team of police, on a tip from a snitch, to capture bank robbers planning a heist at a Lloyd's bank branch. There is one failed attempt to catchthe bank robbers prior to the actual, aborted bank robbery where the head of the heist gets away. The novel develops logically, and, the reader gets a glimpse into the life; of a small town police detective. The author, Bill James, a pseudonym for James Tucker, portrays a fair share of violence and the seedy side of life near London. Strong dialogue adds to good interaction among the main characters: Barton, the chief of the police department, who wants to retire with a clean slate; Lamb, the snitch or tipster who aids and abets Harpur; Avery, a young ambitious cop who gets killed because he's overly ambitious; Ruth Avery, his wife, who Harpur tries to seduce; and Holly, the antagonist. The strength of the book is its strong character development and diverse subplots. If there is a weakness, it's the use of English slang without a glossary. Without an English dictionary, or personal guide, to help with the meaning of words such as nark (tipster/snitch), grasser (snitch), nick (someone who has been arrested or "pinched"), and wanker (asshole), the reader can miss key elements of the story line and insight into the interaction between the characters. -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Foul Play Press (March 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881501972
• ISBN-13: 978-0881501971
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,767,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUCH MORE THAN A WHODUNNIT- A CLASSIC, December 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: You'd Better Believe It (Harpur & Iles Mysteries) (Paperback)

Get hold of the bill James series starting with this volume.Then you'll have a history of the de-regulated world... and not just a great whodunnit.This is a world where there is no line between the activities of the cops and the fast buck boys . Where the cops depend on the conmen and fast buck boys for tips on drug running,bank robberies and the black economy. All the bill James books in this series are set in a university town, which is occasionally invaded by gangsters from London. But this ,too can be read as the wise guy view of the American economy, where residents of every city is free to operate in a market economy. Driven by drugs,sex, underground money and con artists ( the biggie in the james seriers is an art dealer who is a thief and a police snitch) in this world there is no class system. Just con artists and crooked cops . Top series in any league. This is a landmark publication event where " Getting away with murder " is everybody's goal.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Series Debut, March 14, 2006

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: You'd Better Believe It (Harpur & Iles Mysteries) (Paperback)

This first entry in the lengthy (20+ books) "Harpur + Iles" series is an excellent introduction to the murky world of DCS Colin Harpur, a rising star of a police officer in his mid-30s who spends a great deal of his time wading through very morally gray territory. Set in a fictional small seaside city on England's southern coastline, the book kicks off with Harpur and his crew staking out a Lloyd's Bank branch that they've been tipped off is going to be hit by some gangsters down from London. When the heavy hitters don't show, Harpur applies pressure to all informants great and small, including high-profile wide-boy Jack Lamb and a shifty Jamaican hospital porter, in order to find out when the heist has been rescheduled for. What he doesn't expect is that one of his own overzealous officers is going to go missing -- the same officer whose wife Harpur is lining up for a little bit of adultery. Matters are further complicated when various small time hoods start turning up dead, as it appears the London gang are clearing the way of loose lips before they stage their raid. And when the raid goes off halfway through the book, Harpur's ambush doesn't come off textbook perfect, and the ringleader escapes. Driven by guilt, anger, and even fear, tracking the villain down becomes personal for Harpur -- to the detriment of clear, rational thought.

What's nice about the story is that it doesn't take the usual police procedural tack of the detective doggedly pursuing leads and tracking down his quarry via hard work and inspiration. Rather, Harpur is often totally lost, and the case is all but written off by his superiors until events boomerang on him. Another nice element is that while the story is built upon Harpur's squeezing his informers for information, it becomes increasingly evident that the relationship is a two-way street, and Harpur is entangled and implicated in his informers' shady dealings to his own potential disgrace. The book is a quick read at 155 pages, and the characterization is a bit thin as events build to a nice climax and dovetail nice and neatly by the end. The essentials are all there, but Harpur's wife makes only a token few appearances, and it isn't until almost the end of the book that one of his children makes an appearance. Still, the book sets the stage for many interesting recurring characters, including the dead cop's widow, Harpur's informant Lamb, Harpur's underling Grayson, and Chief-in-waiting Iles, who spends the book literally lurking in the Chief's shadow, waiting for him to retire. The prose is crisp and economical, and the pacing is dead on. I look forward to the rest of the series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Addictive Series, February 28, 2004

By 

John E. Drury "jedrury" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: You'd Better Believe It (Harpur & Iles Mysteries) (Paperback)

Reading Bill James' Harper and Iles mystery series can be addictive to your reading health. Going cold turkey does not work; they are fascinating, the dialogue crackles, the plots never formulaic [unlike James' more well known namesake, P.D.James] and the characters especially the long suffering Harper and the demonic, sweet talking "Des" Iles wholly believable and wonderfully crafted.