Arms and the Women (Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Readers await each new Dalziel and Pascoe novel from Reginald Hill with great anticipation and fans will be pleased to find that Arms and the Women is absolutely vintage stuff: pungently witty dialogue coupled with Hill's highly intelligent plotting. And after the massive success of On Beulah Height, Hill took a risk by introducing an innovation--the new novel is written in the book-within-a-book format. Dalziel and Pascoe, however, are true to form. The former as blunt and bawdy as ever, while the university-educated Pascoe with his troubling conscience makes the perfect contrast.

Ellie, a former campaigner for the hard left, is writing a book--the very book that readers have access to. So when Ellie's life is threatened, her friends assume it has to do with her marriage to a cop. But Ellie isn't so sure and enlists the help of the doughty duo, soon finding the death threats lead to packs of Irish Republicans, Colombian drug-dealers and bogus council officers. Interestingly enough, Ellie's problems are shared with a motley assortment of other women: her middle-class friend Daphne, a vivacious South American money-launderer and a pushy female copper. Is the target her husband Peter? Needless to say, the narrative has enough twists and turns to baffle the most astute reader, and each fresh revelation is both dramatic and unexpected.

Even without the pyrotechnics of plot, Dalziel remains a highly entertaining, and Hill enthusiasts will feel that they are getting their money's worth. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘Few writers in the genre today have Hill’s gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace’ Donna Leon, Sunday Times

‘The fertility of Hill’s imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality of his literary style never cease to delight’ Val McDermid, Sunday Express

‘He is probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world’ Andrew Taylor, Independent

‘Reginald Hill’s novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining’ Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday

‘An increasingly lyrical and always humorous writer, he is first and foremost an instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift’ Francis Fyfield, Mail On Sunday

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Someone attempts to abduct Ellie Pascoe, and her friend, Daphne Alderman, is assaulted by a man keeping watch on the Pascoe house. Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield feel certain there must be a link here with one of Pascoe's cases, either current or past. Only DC Shirley Novello wonders whether perhaps these events might have more to do with Ellie than her husband.

While the men concentrate on their individual theories, Ellie, her daughter Rosie, Daphne, and Novello (their official minder) head for the coast to the supposed safety of the Alderman's holiday home, Cleets Cottage. But their flight proves somewhat futile as Ellie's would-be abductor continues to send her letters of possibly threatening intent, composed in a strange Elizabethan English.

When Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, the men her life assume it's because she's married to a cop.

But while they trawl after shoals of red herrings, Ellie is blasted off course with a motley crew of women on a voyage of discovery whose perils make Scylla and Charybdis look like a pair of Barbie dolls.

Irish arms, Colombian drugs, men who will stop at nothing, create a tidal wave which threatens to sweep her away. She heads out of town in search of haven, but instead finds herself at the very eye of the storm in a remote clifftop house undermined by the sea.

Fat Andy eventually smells a Security Service rat and comes steaming to the rescue, but for once it's too little, too late. Ellie's on her own (apart from her Middle England friend, Daphne; an octogenarian aid-worker and her vapid secretary; a gorgeous South American money launderer; an ancient crone; and a female cop who gets up her nose) and must reach deep down into her reserves to find the strength to survive.

After the huge success of 'On Beulah Height' the question was, where could Reginald Hill take his Dalziel and Pascoe novels next? The answer is, even further! 'Arms and the Women' is wholly Hill: pacey, perceptive humorous, intelligent and above all compulsively readable.

Reginald Hill is a native of Cumbria and a former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his outstanding crime novels featuring Dalziel and Pascoe, "the best detective duo on the scene bar none" (DAILY TELEGRAPH). His writing career began with the publication of 'A Clubbable Woman' (1970), which introduced Chief Superintendent Andy Dalziel and DS Peter Pascoe. Their subsequent appearances ('Arms and the Women' is the seventeenth in the series), together with the adventures of Luton lathe operator turned PI Joe Sixsmith, have confirmed Hill's "strong claim as our finest living male crime writer" (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH) and won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for his lifetime contribution to the genre.

The Dalziel and Pascoe novels have now been adapted into a successful BBC television series.

ACCLAIM FOR REGINALD HILL

"He just keeps getting better and better . . . Hill, a true master, never fails to shock and surprise"
IAN RANKIN, 'Scotland on Sunday'

"Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace"
DONNA LEON, 'Sunday Times'

"An increasingly lyrical and always humorous writer, he is first and foremost and instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift"
FRANCES FYFIELD, 'Mail on Sunday'

"Read him"
JOHN LENNARD, 'London Review of Books'

"Retire Morse and hire any deft whodunit by Reginald Hill"
BOYD TONKIN, 'Independent'

"The finest male English contemporary crime writer"
VAL McDERMID, 'Manchester Evening News'

PRAISE FOR 'On Beulah Height'

"The term masterpiece is not one to be thrown around lightly, but it's hard to know what else to call a novel in which everything . . . comes together so satisfactorily"
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T. J. BINYON, 'Evening Standard'

"Full of loss, terror and vengeful fury, balanced by affection and a ravishing landscape, the novel shows how far beyond the conventional whodunit crime fiction can go"
NATASHA COOPER, 'The Times'

"A long, richly complex, often lyrical and genuinely haunting crime novel"
MIKE RIPLEY, 'Daily Telegraph'

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reginald Hill was born and brought up in Cumbria, and has returned there after many years in Yorkshire. With his first crime novel, A Clubbable Woman, he was hailed as ‘the crime novel’s best hope’ and, nearly thirty years on, he has more than fulfilled that prophecy

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.