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Books : Fiction : Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards : Authors A-Z : H : Hill, Reginald
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It's not so much Reginald Hill's productivity that is amazing (although producing novels for nearly four decades is impressive enough); it's the unassailable quality of his writing that takes the breath away. With barely a misstep over the years, Hill's chronicling of the abrasive (but, of late, more accommodating) relationship between his mismatched coppers, the no-holds-barred Andy Dalziel and the more nuanced Peter Pascoe, has been non-pareil, with the author's plotting every inch a match for his spot-on characterisation (and not just of his detective duo -- there have been many sharply observed players introduced into the dramatis personae over the years). Of course, a title like The Death of Dalziel will set alarm bells ringing (as much, one assumes, for Hill's publishers as for dedicated readers), and there's no denying that putting the life of his corpulent copper on the line ratchets up the tension here considerably.We're given a taste of Andy's corrosive wit as he and Peter Pascoe observe a video shop that's under surveillance by the security services for its supposed terrorist connections, but (before the reader has time to draw a breath), there is an explosion, and Dalziel is left lying unconscious, bleeding heavily and covered with debris, his body having shielded his partner from the worst of the blast. And for the rest of the book, while Pascoe tracks down the reasons behind the explosion (he doesn't buy the obvious explanation, i.e., would-be terrorists have blown themselves up by accident), Hill tries something radically different: we are taken into the consciousness of the critically ill Dalziel in his hospital bed. These sections (discursive, alternately funny and sad) are among the most successful in a very successful book. --Barry Forshaw
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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
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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