Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13117 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

The Times
'My strong advice is to persevere... we are left with a terrific virtuoso performace from Dalziel... a clever plot, beautifully written, but what's memorable is Dalziel's spectacular return' The Times

Mike Ripley, Birmingham Post
`A treat... the erudite and witty Reg Hill [is] back on top form and in rude health'

Synopsis
The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series, in a new psychological thriller. Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks' care under a tender nurse. Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town. Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort -- none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate -- with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all!

Customer Reviews

What a disappointment
I had this shipped out to me in Borneo and was really looking forward to another of Reginald Hill's excellent D&P books. But try as I might I cannot bring myself to finish it. Like other reviewers I found the lengthy e-mails, which lack both punctuation and grammar, quite unreadable; surely no one actually writes e-mails like that, or am I really out of touch with the communication skills of young graduates? Meanwhile it's still on the bookcase. Perhaps some kind soul will "borrow" it one day and make space for the next from Mr Hill which can only be an improvement.

A Slow Starter but worth Sticking with!
After the disappointment of "The Death of Dalziel" this one, for me, is a real return to form! It has a strange style, with parts of the story told in normal narrative, parts as emails from one of the major characters, and parts as the spoken thoughts of Andy Dalziel. I agree with one of the other reviewers that the first 100 pages or so are a bit of a slog (because of the strange mix of styles) but stick with it and you'll find it was all worth while!

There are times when it reminds me more of "Midsomer Murders" than anything Mr Hill would normally give us but it doesn't spoil the fun!

Hit and Miss
I have read all the novels in this series and I was really expecting terrific things from this latest Dalziel and Pascoe. The last book, in which Dalziel is blown up by a terrorist bomb was one of the finest books by Hill for a very long time and I really had hoped he had gotten back into his stride. I confess to being sorely disappointed by this effort.

It picks up where the last book left off, with Dalziel recovering in a convalescent home in a fictional seaside resort of Sandytown. The book is written from several narrative viewpoints and I really think that this is one of the things that lets it down. Hill inhabits Dalziel and Pascoe like a comfortable coat, but his ability to switch voices doesn't seem well tuned here. Much of the first part of the book is taken up with the e-mail correspondence of a young woman who is a newly trained clinical psychologist, talking to her sister about her stay in Sandytown. I found it impossible to believe that a) Charley was a woman and b) that Charley was a trained anything. The lack of spelling, punctuation and attention to grammar coupled with improbable linguistic usage and ridiculously long descriptive passages just did not work at all and left me irritated beyond belief. Nobody writes e-mails like these, except in books.

The other thing is that this is a very long book with a ridiculously complex plot and I found that the pudding was rather over egged. Nothing really happens for a good two hundred pages and then at the end everything is sewn up in about fifty pages. It was unbalanced, unwieldy and a real trial to read. I persevere with Hill because when he is good he is almost unbeatable at modern crime fiction, but when he is bad he is execrable. Sadly this is one of the bad ones. To be read only if you are a die hard fan and want to find out more about the long term plot arcs of the series. Otherwise, as a stand alone crime novel I would say it is a poor read and a waste of valuable time and money.