Gospel [Large Print]

by Bill James

Book Overview

At nineteen years old, Colin Harpur's girlfriend Denise Prior knows little about criminals, and even less about the law. When Denise drifts into the social circle of Harpur's number-one informant Jack Lamb, and one of the criminals is shot to death during a robbery, Denise's life is suddenly in danger and Harpur must solve a new crime-before it happens.

• Format: Paperback
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393317811
• ISBN13: 9780393317817
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

The good guys are Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur (and his girl friend Denise), and his boss Desmond Iles.The bad guys are Doug Webb - a truly low class criminal , Courtney Saquhar-Perry - a criminal of more elevated rank and good at organizing, and Ralph Ember - owner of a pub/club, where the low life likes to congregate.And in between these two groups are the informers who supply the good guys with the inside info on planned criminal activities and, in return, are cut considerable slack when doing wrong themselves. Foremost is Jack Lamb (and his girl friend Helen), who worked his way into a super trophy mansion and a remarkable collection of fine art, most of it stolen and now for resale. On a lower rung is Tony Towler, and also our friend Ralph Ember.Let the fun begin with a heist the police had been advised about. It turns problematic when Doug Webb?s son Martin is killed by Harpur. Webb needs revenge. Who blew the whistle? Maybe Denise, who is also friendly with Helen and could be the messenger go-between. She has to be eliminated. It definitely could be Lamb, but he is a few numbers too large to just blow away. No such problem with Towler, who quickly gets killed. But who can trust anybody? Saquhar-Perry plans a new heist at a bank. So let?s plant some desinformation to make sure the good guys are in the wrong place. Feed it to Towler, who will pass it on to Lamb, who will then inform Harpur. Towler can?t be found (remember, he is dead). You have to find a substitute. But who can you trust? What information can you trust? As a matter of fact - can Ember trust Webb? Can Saquhar-Perry trust Ember? Can anybody trust anybody?The author has written a tightly constructed mystery. After introducing the actors, he starts to apply the vise and squeezes the last bit of thought out of them. The result is a cliff hanger not to be missed. I just wonder why it took ten years for this book to make the trip from England across the Atlantic. We desperately need more books of this caliber!

I bet you can't read just one....

While some writers of police procedurals feature a detective who reappears throughout a long series of novels, Bill James repeats not only his detectives, but also his "bad guys," creating an entire world of fascinating characters to which devoted readers (including me) return again and again. Jamess world is mad, complex, and even violent, but it is always full of irony and wry humor, and it is always thoroughly entertaining. This novel, one of the early Harpur and Iles mysteries, takes a bit longer than some others to get its legs, but once it does, its off to the races. Like virtually all the male characters here, Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur does not find that having a wife and child in any way limits his social life. This time, the middle-aged detectives extracurricular love is a 19-year-old college student whose best friend is the lover of Harpurs chief "grass," or snitch. When, as a result of information received from the informer, Harpur interrupts a robbery and kills the son of a vicious but somewhat inept criminal, he sets in motion a series of threats on the life of his lover Denise, thought to be a conduit of information between the informer and Harpur. As Harpur tries to protect her, the informer, his reputation on the force, and his marriage and family, we come to know him as basically a good-hearted man who enjoys living way out on the edge, a man willing to bend every rule, if necessary. James manages to keep the excitement high and the threat of real violence foremost in the readers mind at the same time that he presents some wonderfully funny scenes--the funeral of the thief Harpur killed, the disposal of a body which inconveniently appears on the grounds of a house where a lawn party is to be held, and the resulting garden party, almost certain to end the upward mobility of its host. His peripheral characters are quirky and memorable, his dialogue is superb, the plot and motivations feel realistic, and the novel, overall, offers a terrific escape into a well-developed and exciting fictional world. Mary Whipple

Brings Joy to the Mystery Reader

James writes the best dialogue in current mystery fiction; his plots are superb; and his portrayal of police under siege is unequalled. James does not disappoint, and in "Gospel" he excels.

Dark Masterpiece?

Not many people, even on the other side of the atlantic, seem to know of these dark, cynical police procedurals by British writer Bill James(a pseudonym). Perhaps not to everyones taste(and slow to start), if you stick with it, it won't be long before you begin to feel the hairs on the nape of your neck begin to rise. A truly masterful and suspenseful novel.