Midnight Fugue [Paperback]

Gina Wolfe arrives in north Yorkshire seeking her missing husband, believed dead. Her new fiancé, a policeman in the Met, suggests the caustic copper Andy Dalziel might be of help – and everyone involved discovers that dark events of years ago have a way of causing troubling eruptions in the present.

It's hard to believe, but it’s been nearly four decades since readers first encountered the well-read, sensitive detective Peter Pascoe and his partner, the brash but winning Andy Dalziel, in A Clubbable Woman. Hill has always rung the changes in the series with new wrinkles that take us to startling terra incognita (for example, One Small Step addressed the first murder on the moon in the year 2010). But the key factor in the series’ continuing success (leaving aside the ratings-winning TV adaptations) is Hill’s eagerness to take on key societal issues (always, however, married to reader-grabbing plots) – and that characteristic is abundantly evident in Midnight Fugue, with the two protagonist striking sparks off each other in the usual highly satisfying fashion. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Praise for ‘Midnight Fugue’:

‘Back on his old form. Witty, wise and welcome’ Literary Review

‘[Reginald Hill] shows no sign of descending from the high quality of his writing … Beautifully plotted and intriguingly resolved’ Marcel Berlins, The Times

'Fresh and memorable … It's a witty, wise and warm read, with rich characterisation and emotional depth' Val McDermid, The Times

'A sort of genteel, very funny and extremely well-written version of 24' Telegraph

‘A masterly performance … will deservedly be one of this summer’s big bestsellers’ Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

‘Hill’s ingenuity continues to dazzle’ John O’Connell, Guardian

‘Midnight Fugue has a clever plot, written without whimsy, and one of the best things in it is Dalziel's sense of his advancing age and its impact on his relationship with Pascoe’ The Sunday Times

‘As ever it is steeped in a dry, wry wit and accents almost as thick as good gravy on roast beef and Yorkshire pudding…it is a measure of Hill's masterful grasp that time flies imperceptibly…Hill makes it all look so deceptively simple that it masks a writer on top of his trade’ Sunday Express

‘Hill's plot is elegantly constructed, and his prose is delectable…Witty, slightly surreal and fundamentally humane, the novel is a welcome addition to one of the best crime series around’ Andrew Taylor, Specator