You'd Better Believe it (Harpur & Iles) - Softcover

Bill James has been called "the Elmore Leonard of Britain's underworld" (Kirkus Reviews) and 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." In addition to the Harpur and Iles series, James is the author of other mystery series and a book on Anthony Powell. He lives in Wales.

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