Split

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 Continue reading »

Powerfully written, taut with suspense, the second outing featuring detective chief superintendent Colin Harpur ( You'd Better Believe It ) is not for the faint-hearted. Its plot, following the Continue reading »

In British author James's darkly humorous 23rd police procedural featuring Asst. Chief Constable Desmond Iles and DCS Colin Harpur, a turf war between local thugs and the Albanian mafia over Continue reading »

The 19th entry in James's Harpur and Iles series (Pay Days, etc.) is padded, predictable and even occasionally plodding. What saves it is the author's Continue reading »

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 Continue reading »

Desmond Iles is in trouble, and that's enough to give a new jolt of energy to James's long-running series (Naked at the Window , etc.) about the dapper, Continue reading »

In its last half-dozen titles, James's Harpur and Iles series has turned darker, concentrating on drug-related murders and betrayals. When an undercover officer named Raymond Street was killed Continue reading »

This vibrant, pulsating novel is the latest in a series of crisp procedurals which nominally feature British copper Colin Harpur, but which are often usurped by a colorful array of secondary Continue reading »

British veteran Craig, better known under his real name, Bill James, has crafted a cynical but engaging look at police corruption in his second procedural featuring Det. Constable Sally Bithron of Continue reading »

The last six books in James's Harpur & Iles series about a nameless city near London have been like one of those gigantic party sandwiches--they're stuffed with prime ingredients but it's hard to Continue reading »

A well-preserved, months-old corpse found in a community college classroom poses an irresistible mystery for Penelope Spring and Sir Tobias Glendower, recently made a Dame and a baronet for saving Continue reading »

Clever and complex, James's ninth police procedural featuring Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur explores the shadowy, dangerous world of ""grasses""--informers with one foot in the Continue reading »

James, the acknowledged authority on baseball statistics ( The Baseball Abstract ), discusses how players have been selected in the past and are chosen now for the Baseball Hall of Fame at Continue reading »

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 Continue reading »

Everything comes apart in James's (Panicking Ralph) latest entry in the British procedural series, balanced, as usual, on the policing efforts of Assistant Continue reading »

The Bill James Book of the Month Club continues (last month's entry was Split, a valiant effort to revive the spy novel) with another worthy cause—a Continue reading »

Best known for his long-running Harpur & Iles series, James again proves himself a sharp and subtle stylist in this scary psychological thriller based on the short story "At Home," Continue reading »

Known for his annual Baseball Abstract , James here puts aside his persona as a sabremetrician (read statistician) and presents excerpts from that publication and from his articles in Esquire . The Continue reading »

While modern readers may not be familiar with the notorious Rhinelander trial of 1924, Lewis (dean of graduate studies at the University of Michigan) and Ardizzone (visiting assistant professor at Continue reading »

James's novels about British policeman Colin Harpur (Gospel; Astride a Grave; etc.) are as much about the failures of marriage and friendship as they are about crime. The latest--which begins with Continue reading »

In James's world, the good guys--Detective Colin Harpur and his scheming, sarcastic superior officer, Desmond Iles--often seem more evil and lust-fixated than his bad guys, who here boast nicknames Continue reading »

John le Carré and Len Deighton grabbed the British spy story by the scruff of its neck and gave it a vigorous shake in the 1960s, and James provides the same valuable service with this first Continue reading »

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 Continue reading »

Here's good news for James's fans: Norton seems to be publishing the author's British backlist at an ever-increasing pace. Six months after the appearance of his Roses, Roses, a PW Best Book of 1998 Continue reading »

Bill James offers a stand-alone, Middleman, the tawdry if wryly amusing tale of a small-time Welsh operator who runs into trouble when he agrees to help a crooked real-estate developer sell an Continue reading »

At the start of this run-of-the-mill contemporary police procedural from British veteran James, best known for his Harpur and Iles series (Easy Streets , etc.), Continue reading »

The death of a criminal ripples through lives on both sides of the law in this nervy, understated masterpiece of a procedural that only nominally stars British copper Colin Harpur. Suspects in the Continue reading »

British author James (Wolves of Memories ) creates such memorable characters in his full-length mystery novels about Det. Chief Constable Colin Harpur and his Continue reading »

An ongoing gentleman's war between cops and local drug dealers takes a deadly turn when someone firebombs the house of a smalltime dealer in James's stellar new Harpur and Iles mystery Continue reading »