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March 1, 2017
The most willfully playful installment yet in James' increasingly playful saga of Harpur and Iles."This is a tale that will skip about a little as far as time is concerned," warns the omniscient narrator during one of his many interruptions of what ought to be a straightforward investigation into the fatal shooting of private investigator Thomas Wells Hart. Actually, the narrator is being far too modest. In addition to quicksilver changes from present to past, there are even more frequent shifts in points of view. The dead man himself, in full knowledge of his impending demise, relates a good deal of the story, beginning with his seduction by Judith Vasonne, who taught Careers and Religious Studies in the school where he was a pupil, and proceeding to the ways he skulks his way into Righton Private Inquiries, then moves up the ladder until he accepts one assignment too many. As for DCI Colin Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles (Disclosures, 2014, etc.), their baroque badinage, which never gets old, at least to them, seems to infect most of the cast, many of whom Harpur treats with some of the same baleful whimsy he once reserved for his superior. Whether he's talking to stalwart informant Jack Lamb, who pretends he's an art dealer, or Lamb's mother, Alice, whose prison sentence for manslaughter doesn't mean she doesn't still have the best interests of her son at heart, Harpur not only affects the same heartless bonhomie he shares with Iles, but even shares confidences about his relation to his boss. The often amusing, infallibly precious dialogue and self-reflexive asides will remind many readers of that other James, the one who wrote The Awkward Age, The Sacred Fount, and What Maisie Knew, without introducing a single homicide to trouble the waters.

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April 1, 2017
One of the grand masters of UK crime fiction, James, who's now in his 80s, offers another installment in his popular Harpur & Iles series. Full of dark satire, biting wit, and the wonderfully eccentric cop duo of Des Iles and Colin Harpur, James' latest features a story told not only from the view of Harpur and Iles, but also from that of Thomas Wells Hart, a dead man. Hart has been shot in his Ford Focus on a peaceful cul-de-sac, and, at first, it's difficult for the cops to understand why. But as they investigate, they find that Hart, a PI, had secrets in his past that may provide a motive for his murder. Although Iles wants to believe he is a far more intelligent and talented policeman than Harpur, that is, unfortunately, not the case. In the case of Hart, it's Harpur's intuition and ability to link disparate and seemingly unrelated clues that eventually lead to the solution. The slightly abrupt ending is the only flaw in what is otherwise a masterfully crafted, cleverly plotted, stylishly written police procedural.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 1, 2015
The prolific James is back with an art-theft caper starring the hapless Ralph Panicking Ralphy Ember. The owner of a club called The Monty, Ember wants to elevate the tone of the joint, which is currently frequented by crooks, drug runners, and other felons, by purchasing classy paintings to hang on the walls. He already owns a copy of a plate from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which is hanging over a thick metal panel designed to protect Ralph from his trigger-happy enemies. Sadly, one of these, Basil Gordon Loam, had a few too many drinks one night, launched a fusillade of bullets at the Blake, and was subsequently banned from The Monty. Now he's back to make peace with Ralph and even offers to help acquire the art Ralph needs to make the club posh. His contact? Jack Lamb, who's also a police informer, sometime friend of DCS Colin Harpur, and the owner of many works of artsome even legit. The gifted James skillfully weaves together disparate plot strands into a crime caper that is as hilarious as it is violent. This is a must for Donald E. Westlake fans. Four stars!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)