Dialogues of the Dead [Hardcover]

One of the things that the classic British crime novel does is set us puzzles; in Reginald Hill's new Dalziel and Pascoe novel Dialogues of the Dead they introduce us to a killer who does almost nothing else. A series of seemingly random killings are connected by the accounts of them--accounts awash in puns, literary allusions and deliberate obscurities--which keep turning up at the Mid-Yorkshire County Library. At first, keen young recruit Hat Bowler only takes the letters seriously as a way of chatting up the beautiful Rye Pomona--but it becomes progressively clearer to him and his superiors that whoever is writing them simply knows too much not to be the killer... Hill is at the height of his powers here--comic grotesques like Dalziel, with his habit of deliberately seeming more thuggish and obtuse than anyone could possibly quite be, compete for space with satiric observation of Jax, the bright young TV link who will do anything for her story, and the penny-pinching left-wing councillor who ends up with a chisel in his brain. Anyone who likes Hill's always excellent work will be impressed by this--and anyone who likes word-play and puzzles will be fascinated by it. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

‘The finest male English contemporary crime writer. Compassionate, intelligent and entertaining’
Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News

‘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

‘One of Britain’s most consistently excellent crime novelists’
Marcel Berlins, The Times

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

"One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“Reginald Hill has raised the classical British mystery to new heights.”
— The New York Times Book Review

Acclaimed as “the master of form and the sorcerer of style,”* the Grand Master of British psychological suspense returns to weave wordplay and murder into a lethal tapestry that only Dalziel and Pascoe can unravel.

With characteristic precision,insidious wit, and unparalleled insight into the serpentine criminal mind, Hill offers readers his most diabolical surprise to date.

Dialogues of the Dead

Paronomania [n. A clinical obsession with word games]

In the Beginning was the Word...

And the Word was Murder.

A motorist dies after plunging off a bridge.... A motorcyclist is found dead after a fatal encounter with a tree. Two apparently innocuous tragedies ... until two Dialogues are submitted to a local literary competition, claiming responsibility for the deaths. But has anybody heard the Word?

When a beautiful, unscrupulous journalist meets her Maker in fact, and then in fiction, as victim of The Third Dialogue, Dalziel and Pascoe take note and find themselves involved in a deadly duel of wits against an opponent known only as the Wordman: a brilliant sociopath who leaves literary clues in his wake ... and who hides in plain sight.
Contestants, are you ready?

Reginald Hill’s books consistently combine wordplay and sleuthing, but the Master is in superb form in Dialogues of the Dead. There are enough clues to make a patchwork quilt, but in this test of wills just who is playing against whom?

Is it the Wordman versus the police? Or the killer against his victims? Or is the real game between you, dear reader, and Reginald Hill himself, at his most intriguing, most enticing, most elusive best? Just when you think you have your killer, guess again. Someone may have conceived the perfect crime.

Let the games begin...

In the Beginning was the Word ...

A man drowns. Another dies in a motorbike crash. Two accidents--yet in a pair of so-called "dialogues" sent to the Mid-Yorkshire Gazette apparently as entries in a short story competition, someone seems to be claiming responsibility for the deaths.

In Mid-Yorkshire CID the word is heard but not believed. Even Hat Bowler, the young DC who first gets a hold of the story, only pretends to take it seriously in order to get closer to the girl of his dreams, librarian Rye Pomona. But when the story is leaked to television and a third indisputable murder takes place, Dalziel and Pascoe find themselves playing a game no one knows the rules of against an opponent known only as the Wordman.

Gradually the hunt focuses on three main suspects. Still dialogue follows dialogue and funeral follows funeral, till finally Hat Bowler, who is at odds with his girlfriend over the direction of the police investigation, begins to fear that she may be about to find out he's right in the worst possible way.

Reginald Hill's book are always full of word games, but they have rarely been so important as they are here. There are enough clues to weave a tapestry, but in this game just who is playing against whom? Is it the Wordman versus the police? Or the killer against his victims? Or is the real game between you, dear reader, and Reginald Hill himself, at his most intriguing, most enticing, most elusive best? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In the Beginning was the Word …

A man drowns. Another dies in a motorbike crash. Two accidents … yet in a pair of so-called Dialogues sent to the Mid-Yorkshire Gazette apparently as entries in a short story competition, someone seems to be claiming responsibility for the deaths.

In Mid-Yorkshire CID the word is heard but not believed. Even Hat Bowler, the young DC who first gets a hold of the story only pretends to take it seriously in order to get closer to the girl of his dreams, librarian Raina Pomona. But when the story is leaked to television and a third indisputable murder takes place, Dalziel and Pascoe find themselves playing a game no-one knows the rules of against an opponent known only as the Wordman.

Gradually the hunt focuses on three main suspects. Still Dialogue follows Dialogue and funeral follows funeral, till finally Hat Bowler, who is at odds with his girlfriend over the direction of the police investigation, begins to fear that she may be about to find out he's right in the worst possible way.

Reginald Hill's books are always full of word-games, but they have rarely been so important as they are here. There are enough clues to weave a tapestry, but in this game just who is playing against whom? Is it the Wordman versus the police? Or the killer against his victims? Or is the real game between you, dear reader, and Reginald Hill himself, at his most intriguing, most enticing, most elusive best?

Acclaim for Reginald Hill

"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'

"Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifted: 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, 'Manchester Evening News'

" One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists"
MARCEL BERLINS, 'The Times'

"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"
FRANCES FYFIELD, 'Mail on Sunday'

Praise for 'Arms and the Women'

"An intricate, witty and gripping thriller"
JESSICA MANN, 'Sunday Telegraph'

"Luminously written, thrilling in the best old-fashioned sense of the word, unexpectedly erudite, and beautifully structured"
GEOFFREY WANSELL, 'Daily Mail'

"Brilliantly written, highly amusing and extraordinarily readable"
T.J.BINYON, 'Evening Standard'

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

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

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