- Hardcover: 280 pages
- Publisher: Collins (7 Nov 1983)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002313693
- ISBN-13: 978-0002313698
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,492,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'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 finest male English contemporary crime writer' Val McDermid
'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories intertwining'
Ian Rankin
'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists' The Times
'These novels last, like a grand malt whisky – rounded, rich, intoxicating… Here is an author at his formidable best'
Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder' Sunday Telegraph
'He is probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world' Andrew Taylor, Independent
'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Tom Hiney, Observer
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Product Description
When Patrick Aldermann's great aunt collapses he inherits Rosemont House with its splendid gardens. When Pascoe's boss suggests Aldermann is a murderer, Pascoe is left with a thorny problem. Meanwhile Police Cadet Singh has dug up some interesting information about Patrick's elegant wife, Daphne.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a very peculiar mystery. It's impossible to explain why without spoilering the fun for readers, but I was really exhilarated by the conclusion. It has one of Hill's most intriguing and fascinating characters, Patrick Alderman, the lover of roses, and the usual cast of recurring characters - Peter and Ellie Pascoe, Dalziel, Wield - is drawn with the usual warmth and humor. Of all the Dalziel and Pascoe books I have read, and I have read them all, this is the one that I still find most memorable. To all the people who have never read a Hill mystery, I can only say: try them. They're clever, they're fun, they're written superbly, they entertain, touch and warm you.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is one of Hill's darker works and has some particularly gruesome deaths, which appealed to me greatly! It has a fantastic twist which it would be unfair to explain, but I urge you to read it. It is one of his best works. The juxtaposition of the nurturing of the roses and the slew of deaths around them is fantastic and the plotting is taut and suspenseful.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Here's another Reginald Hill classic--more than 25 years old--but fresh as a daisy (or a rose, in the case of this themed story). In the chronology of the Dalziel/Pascoe partnership, "Deadheads" happens about three years into Peter and Ellie Pascoe's marriage (baby Rose is two at this time). Fat Andy is in his prime and Sergeant Wield is still in the closet, but seriously enamored of another copper. The main focus of this tale is on one Patrick Aldermann, a local businessman whose great love in life is rose gardening.
Author Hill gradually spins out Aldermann's strange history that begins as a illegitimate child and evolves into respectable, middle-class professional and family life through a series of apparently lucky events along the way. However, author tips his cards a bit to the reader in the first pages of the novel as youngster Aldermann is taught by an unsympathetic rich aunt that deadheading (cutting spent rose flowers) must be done in order to allow other "young buds to develop and flower." Is this a lecture that young Aldermann takes so seriously that people in his life are literally pruned out? That question is basically the plot of the book and author Hill keeps the reader confused and guessing right to the last page. Along the way, there are great characters, humor, humanity and a lot of information about roses. In fact, the latter opens each chapter of the book.
This is definitely right up there with the best of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. Great teasing story, fine character profiles and wonderful wit. Recommended.
Author Hill gradually spins out Aldermann's strange history that begins as a illegitimate child and evolves into respectable, middle-class professional and family life through a series of apparently lucky events along the way. However, author tips his cards a bit to the reader in the first pages of the novel as youngster Aldermann is taught by an unsympathetic rich aunt that deadheading (cutting spent rose flowers) must be done in order to allow other "young buds to develop and flower." Is this a lecture that young Aldermann takes so seriously that people in his life are literally pruned out? That question is basically the plot of the book and author Hill keeps the reader confused and guessing right to the last page. Along the way, there are great characters, humor, humanity and a lot of information about roses. In fact, the latter opens each chapter of the book.
This is definitely right up there with the best of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. Great teasing story, fine character profiles and wonderful wit. Recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Must be good
I first read this about 20 years ago. I remember feeling very frustrated about the book at the time. Read more
Published 4 months ago by AllThatChas
Another winner
Reginald Hill cannot write a bad book. This one keeps you guessing to the end and beyond.
Published 23 months ago by Vixster
Crime Novel
Have bought the entire Dalziel and Pascoe series for husband who enjoys the stories and characters.
Published on 6 Jan 2010 by Mrs. S. J. Hodgson
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