Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19476 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

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

Synopsis
'Luminously written, thrilling, unexpectedly erudite, and beautifully structured' Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail When Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, the men in her life assume it's because she's married to a cop. But while they trawl after shoals of red herrings, Ellie is blasted off course with a motley crew of women on a voyage of discovery whose perils make Scylla and Charybdis look like a pair of Barbie dolls. Irish arms, Colombian drugs, and men who will stop at nothing, create a tidal wave which threatens to sweep her away. She heads out of town in search of haven, but instead finds herself at the very edge of the storm in a remote clifftop house undermined by the sea. Fat Andy eventually smells a Security Service rat and comes steaming to the rescue, but for once it's too little, too late. Ellie's on her own (apart from her Middle England friend, Daphne; an octogenarian aid-worker and her vapid secretary; a gorgeous South American money launderer; an ancient crone; and a female cop who gets up her nose) and must reach deep down into her reserves to find the strength to survive.

Customer Reviews

Lay down your arms
How much violence is excusable by the habit of comment on another's misfortune? The characters in "Arms and the women" spend much time in killing and maiming. The usual suspects, eminences grises with unusual names, hover as a tragedian's chorus; "comeuppance" waits in the wings. The setting is dark, a bit like The League of Gentlemen's Royston Vasey, and no-one seems to escape doom. Ellie's writings evidence a literary style, and I'm a bit worried about the characters' self-esteem: maybe a boost in this direction would bring the literary style into the course of the book so readers wouldn't have to flick modes. I like Dalziel and Pascoe, however, as usual, and Ellie has a life of her own. Now I'm off with my cocoa and Agatha Christie...

Pure escapism - loved it
I am a hugh fan of Reginald Hill's novels and love the variety he brings to each story. This is certainly true in Arms and the Women with a wide range of characters and stories intertwined over 600 pages (this is the longest Hill book I've read to date). Very different from other types of crime novel (one of the many reasons I love reading Hill), but certainly gives good value for money.

Far-fetched but oddly absorbing
I very much enjoyed the book despite agreeing with some of the specific accusations that other reviewers level at it.

Specifically, there are three faults:

(a) the plot is far-fetched,
(b) there's too much Ellie Pascoe, surely the most irritating coffee-table socialist ever created,
(c) there's the usual tendency towards overwrought writing, arcane vocabulary and general pretentiousness. This has always been the case with Reginald Hill's books, but has become exaggerated with time. Arms and Women is a later period novel.

So why have i given it 4 stars? Well, it's just a really good read! Once you sign up to the story's fantastical premise, you never really look back. I hardly put the book down once i'd begun.

And really, if overwritten prose is a turn-off for you, then you shouldn't be reading Reginald Hill in the first place should you? Try Tess Gerritsen instead. No, this is for those who enjoy rich fare, at least now and again.