Amazon.co.uk Review
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.
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 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
There will be much rejoicing at the fact that the new outing for Dalziel and Pascoe is absolutely vintage stuff: the pungently witty dialogue is in place, along with the highly intelligent and precise plotting that is so much Hill's hallmark. And after the acclaim that greeted On Beulah Height, Hill has introduced an innovation that ensures no-one could accuse him of resting on his laurels: the new novel is written in the book-within-a-book format, and the concept works brilliantly. Dalziel and Pascoe, of course, are true to form: the former as blunt and bawdy as ever, while the university-educated Pascoe with his troubled conscience makes the perfect contrast. Ellie Pascoe is writing a book in her tiny study, book that we, as readers of this narrative, have access to. 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 along with the doughty duo, she gets involved with Irish Republicans, Colombian drug-dealers and even bogus council officers. As can be expected, the narrative has enough twists and turns to baffle pleasingly the most astute reader, and each fresh revelation is both dramatic and unexpected. Hill followers need not hesitate. (Kirkus UK)
Time was when Peter Pascoe's wife Ellie was a bright star active in lots of save-the-world causes, from Greenpeace to Liberata, which works on behalf of female political prisoners. Now, it seems, her principal occupation is getting threatened, first with kidnaping by a smooth pair of operators she frightens away from her front door, then with assault by a furtive watcher who contents himself with attacking her helpful friend Daphne Aldermann instead. But Ellie, packed off with her daughter Rose and watchdog constable Shirley Novelle to Nosebleed Cottage, the out-of-the-way place Daphne's bought from ancient Liberata founder Serafina Macallum, can't keep away from the action. While her husband and his Mid-Yorkshire colleague Supt. Andy Dalziel are chasing leads hoping to figure out why anybody would have it in for Pascoe's wife (ex-con Franny Roote, who's convinced Pascoe's evidence landed him in a mental institution? Kelly Cornelius, the fugitive accountant Pascoe nearly drove to her getaway plane before turning her in?), the women at Nosebleed Cottage hunker down for a siege that will feature gunrunners, spies, hostages, a meeting between epic supermales Odysseus and Aeneas, and, yes, a dark and stormy night. Plotted with all the exuberant inventiveness of Dalziel and Pascoe's best (On Beulah Height, 1998, etc.), though Hill's salute to the heroics of middle-aged womanhood ends with a flurry of melodramatics that's a shade extravagant for heroines of either sex. (Kirkus Reviews)
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by Reginald Hill
by Reginald Hill
by Reginald Hill
by Reginald Hill
by Reginald Hill
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