Product Description

Fear grips the drug underworld after two principals in the trade are murdered, and even ACC Desmond Iles is under a cloud of suspicion. Now the chief players start closing in on a fortune, while Iles, Chief Constable Mark Lane, and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur plunge into their own fierce struggle to control the game.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1503051 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
An unconventional and spicy tour de force... . James is terrific. -- Frances Fyfield

Hard-edged narratives that leave readers gasping and flinching.... A ferociously poetic voice. -- The Times [London]

There is not a nuance of the police-criminal interface that James does not convey effortlessly and with total conviction. -- Marcel Berlins, The Times [London

[A] terrific series.... Get these books; settle into peril and chaos. -- Bloomsbury Review

About the Author
Bill James has been named a "Master of Crime" in a mystery roundup by the London Sunday Times, which said, "There is nothing else quite like this series of police procedurals. James is concerned with the dilemmas and difficulties of policing Britain's inner cities, and he addresses these in hard-edged narratives that leave readers gasping and flinching, praying the people in these stories never come to live in their streets."

Customer Reviews

Compelling, Cynical
In IN GOOD HANDS, Bill James describes a British police department torn between a chief who wants to follow the law, and his second in command who wants to enforce justice. When Assistant Chief Constable Iles is rumored to have killed two drug dealers (who were ruled not guilty in a police killing), Chief Lane wants him gone--and asks Harpur to help.

James writes with a good ear for language and you'll find yourself laughing out loud at some of the dialogue, situations and descriptions. Still, the novel is disturbing. The police who seek justice are far more sympathetically portrayed than the busy-bodies who want to enforce the law. Still, in both their conflicts and their sins, the police and criminals are portrayed as quite similar.

IN GOOD HANDS combines a police investigation with a caper story. Stan Stanfield is preparing a heist--and needs to know whether Iles is behind a copycat murder, or whether it is his victim. He decides it is Iles and goes forward with his crime.

The police investigation sweeps Stanfield into its reach, but doesn't stop his work. Rather, the police use Stanfield and everyone else for their own objectives.

The novel is compelling, cynical, humorous, and highly disturbing. Certainly it is not the teddy-bear view of British police that many novels present. It may stick with you a lot longer as a result.

In Good Hands
Bill James is a brilliant writer. Period. I'm not sure how he writes so many novels, so quickly, and never misses a beat. Every word is so honest, it takes the breath away.