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Publisher Description
Panicking Ralph is a big-time villain – but he’s a local villain – and when his life is threatened, policemen Harpur and Iles are straight on the case
Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his boss, Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles, worry about the safety of one of the big-time crooks on their ground, Ralph Ember, sometimes known as Panicking Ralph. Yes, Ralph is a villain, but he’s a local villain, and Harpur and Iles feel a kind of bizarre affection for him. And in any case, Ralph helps Iles keep the city reasonably peaceful. But now some awkward repercussions from Ralph’s lawless past seem to bring danger.
Ralph is aware of this new peril and has installed a bulletproof steel barrier to protect himself in the club he owns – but will this be enough to keep him safe? Harpur thinks not. Surely the upcoming party at the club will provide the perfect moment for a gunman to do for Ralph? The only way Harpur can be sure of protecting Ralph is to attend the party himself . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ralph Ember, local crook and long-running series character, takes center stage in James's amusing 32nd mystery featuring Asst. Chief Constable Desmond Iles and Chief Supt. Colin Harpur (after 2013's Play Dead). Ember and cop Esther Davidson reminisce about Ember's entry into the drug trade in southeast London when he was a "yucker" (new boy) with the Pasque Uno firm, which was due to shoot it out with the Opal Render firm. The two gangs were met by a well-informed, well-armed police team led by Davidson, an encounter from which Ember got the nicknames that endlessly plague him Panicking Ralph, or worse, Panicking Ralphy. Iles and Harpur play relatively minor parts until an unplanned and unexpected meeting of the principals takes place at Ralph's social club, the Monty. It is fitting that both Davidson and Ember obsess over the event that had such a profound effect on their lives, and James has great fun playing variations on the way they remember it.
