Title: Hotbed /
Authors: James, Bill, 1929-
Publisher: Constable,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Harpur, Colin (Fictitious character) Fiction.; Iles, Desmond (Fictitious character) Fiction.; Police Great Britain Fiction; Drug traffic Great Britain Fiction.
Abstract: Drugs barons Ember and Shale have co-existed peacefully for years, tolerated by ACC Desmond Iles as a way of keeping violence off the streets. But times are changing - Ember fears Shale has a plan to kill him and take over his firm.
Contents: For years drugs barons Ralph Ember and Mansel Shale have run their crooked empires peacefully alongside each other, tolerated by Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles as a way of keeping violence off the streets. But are things changing? Karl Marx's bleak theory that all capitalists -- including drugs tycoons -- lust for monopoly seems to have kicked in. Do Ember and Shale each long for sole control of the trade and the profits? Ember fears that Shale now wants to kill him and take over his firm. Shale on the other hand is about to get remarried and -- believing in keeping your enemies closer than your so-called friends -- has asked Ember to be Best Man. Will Ember be appallingly exposed, standing there with Shale at the altar? Or will Shale? Ember wonders whether he should act first, to protect himself -- already one of his people have been gunned down and nobody caught for it. Iles and Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur have picked up hints of this acutely dangerous shift in the Ember-Shale relationship and must urgently try to head off possible out-and-out carnage.