Wolves of Memory

by Bill James

Overview

A cash-in-transit raid goes pear-shaped when armed police show up. After all the smart planning and careful preparation someone must have talked - so think the relatives and friends of the jailed gang members. And it looks like the grass must have been the only raider to escape the trap.

A vengeance squad is on the prowl and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his boss Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles are given the job of protecting the informant and his family. Yet all the time the lynch mob is closing in . . .

'James's writing dazzles with its poetic brevity' Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781471903113
Publisher:	Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Publication date:	01/14/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	NOOK Book
File size:	322 KB

About the Author

Bill James (1929-) is the author of numerous thrillers and crime novels as well as a critical work on Anthony Powell. In 2006 he was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger award for the year's best crime novel for Wolves of Memory. His work is much loved and critically acclaimed; the Sunday Telegraph describes him as 'bruisingly good' and The Times as 'subtle and riveting to the last page'. He lives in his native South Wales.

Table of Contents

Editorial Reviews

Starting a new Harpur & Iles mystery these days is like having lunch with a couple of smart and sardonic friends who don't quite get along. Over drinks, Asst. Chief Constable Desmond Iles of an unnamed English city-a vain and fascinatingly immoral man who has been passed over but never fired because of a series of sexual misadventures-will toss out comments that show how aware he is of the irony. At the start of their latest outing (after 2005's Easy Streets), Iles explains why he thinks of himself as Dr. Frankenstein: "the good, young, idealistic man of science who yearned to produce new life by his own methods." Colin Harpur, as detective chief superintendent the man concerned with both controlling Iles and keeping crime in check, knows exactly how to handle such remarks, and both are soon deeply involved in the job of providing new lives for the family of a high-level informant hiding in their city after a large robbery goes bad. With Iles at his most dangerous and a truly frightening London crime mob seeking revenge, no wonder Colin is a bit nervous at lunch. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A mordantly funny 22nd go-round for Harpur and Iles and London's less-than-master criminals. Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles and the man he can't forgive for cuckolding him, Deputy Constable Colin Harpur, have the unenviable task of protecting Ian Ballion and his family from the gang he ratted on with the best intentions. Alas, the Met, under PC Piers Callic, has finked on the deal. Rather than merely aborting the ill-conceived "cash-in-transit" raid Ballion snitched on, they carted everyone off to gaol-except, of course, for Ian, who now faces the wrath of mob boss Melvane. So Ian and his wife, Eleanor, renamed Robert and Jane Templedon, and their kids are relocated. Only they don't want to stay hidden. Ian has the outrageous idea that if he appeals to Melvane, the mobster will understand that he didn't mean for his son to get caught. Eleanor, under the spell of the same notion, convinces Harpur to accompany her to Melvane's while she intercedes for her husband. Then Ian takes it into his head to execute Callic and present his killing to Melvane as a peace offering. The Ballion kids, meanwhile, are repeating their new names so robotically that everyone knows something is fishy. James (The Girl with the Long Back, 2004, etc.) has never been feistier or trickier. Fans of police noir, and the human comedy, will be well served.

Kirkus Reviews

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