Book Review: The Girl with the Long Back

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Girl with the Long Back     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Bill James
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Hard Boiled
Series: Colin Harpur & Desmond Iles
Norton, March 2004, $23.95, 239 pp.

The balanced scale of the drug trade becomes shook to the core with the rumors that have reached the streets that Chief Constable Mark Lane' is being promoted and replaced by a hardliner. Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles worries that the fragile balance between peace and sales could end leading to hard core crime including a drug war and murder.

The two leading drug lords Ralph Ember and Mansel Shade have heard the word of Lane leaving leading to reduced negotiability room for Iles and each one knows they must take action before the other has the edge. Newcomer Ferdinand Dubal sees this as an opening for him to carve out a major piece of the action. The violence explodes when he executes two of Dubal’s thugs and a police informant is run over. Iles knows he must broker a new peace, but the brass wants numbers not tranquility.

Talk about refreshing a long running series! Bill James returns with an entertaining economics of illegal drugs tale that will leave the audience shaking their heads wondering why bother with the drug wars. Iles is at his best trying to defuse a situation that is getting worse as three contenders battle for the heavyweight drug lord while his employers complicate matters with undercover operations. THE GIRL WITH THE LONG BACK is a delightful British police procedural with quite a twist that fans of Mr. James will fully appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner