Bill James

Bill James (15 August 1929 – 17 June 2023) was a pseudonym of Allan James Tucker, a Welsh novelist. He also wrote under his own name and the pseudonyms David Craig and Judith Jones. He was a reporter with the Daily Mirror and various other newspapers after serving with the RAF He was married, with four children, and lived in South Wales.

The bulk of his output under the Bill James pseudonym is the Harpur and Iles series. Colin Harpur is a Detective Chief Superintendent and Desmond Iles is the Assistant Chief Constable in an unnamed coastal city in southwestern England. Harpur and Iles are complemented by an evolving cast of other recurring characters on both sides of the law. The books are characterized by a grim humour and a bleak view of the relationship between the public, the police force and the criminal element. The first few are designated "A Detective Colin Harpur Novel" but as the series progressed they began to be published with the designation "A Harpur & Iles Mystery".

His novel Whose Little Girl are You, written under the "David Craig" pseudonym, was filmed as The Squeeze, starring Stacy Keach, Edward Fox and David Hemmings. The fourth Harpur & Iles novel, Protection, was televised by the BBC in 1996 as Harpur & Iles, starring Aneirin Hughes as Harpur and Hywel Bennett as Iles.

Works as Bill James ("Detective Colin Harpur" and "Harpur & Iles" novels) You'd Better Believe It, 1985 The Lolita Man, 1986 Halo Parade, 1987 Protection 1988, also published as Harpur & Iles 1992 Come Clean, 1989 Take, 1990 Club, 1991 Astride a Grave, 1991 Gospel, 1992 Roses, Roses, 1993 In Good Hands, 1994 The Detective is Dead, 1995 Top Banana, 1996 Panicking Ralph, 1997 Lovely Mover, 1998 Eton Crop, 1999 Kill Me, 2000 Pay Days, 2001 Naked at the Window, 2002 The Girl with the Long Back, 2003 Easy Streets, 2004 Wolves of Memory, 2005 Girls, 2006 Pix, 2007 In the Absence of Iles, 2008 Hotbed, 2009 I Am Gold, 2010 Vacuum, 2011 Undercover, 2012 Play Dead, 2013 Disclosures, 2014 Blaze Away, 2015 First Fix Your Alibi, 2016 Close, 2017 Hitmen I Have Known, 2019 Low Pastures, 2022

Works as Bill James ("Simon Abelard" novels) Split, 2001 A Man's Enemies, 2003

Works as Bill James (other) The Last Enemy, 1997 Double jeopardy (a Kerry Lake novel - see Judith Jones, below), 2002 Middleman, 2002 Between Lives, 2003 Making Stuff Up, 2006 The Sixth Man and other Stories (short stories, includes Harpur and Iles stories), 2006 Letters from Carthage, 2007 Off-street Parking, 2008 Full of Money, 2009 World War Two Will Not Take Place, 2011 Noose, 2013 Snatched, 2014 The Principals, 2016

Works as David Craig ("Roy Rickman" novels) The Alias Man, 1968 (1968) Message Ends, 1969 (1969) Contact Lost, 1970 (1970)

Works as David Craig ("Bellecroix and Roath" novels) Young Men May Die, 1970 (1970) A Walk at Night, 1971 (1971)

Works as David Craig ("Brade and Jenkins" novels) Forget it, (1995) The Tattoed Detective, (1998) Torch, (1999) Bay City, (2000)

Works as David Craig ("Sally Bithron" novels) Hear me Talking to You, (2005) Tip Top, (2006)

Works as David Craig (other) Up from the Grave, 1971 (1971) Double Take, 1972 (1972) Bolthole (US title: Knifeman), 1973 (1973) A Dead Liberty, 1974 (1974) Whose Little Girl are You? (US title: The Squeeze), 1974 (1974) The Albion Case, 1975 (1975) Faith, Hope and Death, 1976 (1976)

Works as Judith Jones ("Kerry Lake" novels) Baby Talk, (1998) After Melissa, (1999)

Works as James Tucker (fiction) Equal Partners, (1960) The Right Hand Man, (1961) Burster, (1966) Blaze of Riot, 1979 (1979) The King's Friends, (1982)

Works as James Tucker (non-fiction) Honourable Estates, (1966) The Novels of Anthony Powell, 1976 (1976)

Dates given without parentheses are the Library of Congress publication dates, usually the first US publication, except where the books do not (yet) appear in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. The dates in parentheses are the copyright dates, taken from the actual books when available.