Scan barcode
alisongodfrey's review against another edition
2.0
I usually enjoy Reginald Hill's books but this one felt dated. I didn't finish it.
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Dark secrets...
There have been complaints from the local residents about the Calliope Club, a private cinema that shows pornographic films, so the local police in the person of Sergeant Wield are already keeping an eye on it. However, everything is perfectly legal and the only disruption the club is causing is to the respectable sensibilities of its neighbours. But Jack Shorter, one of the club members, is worried, and since he happens to be Inspector Peter Pascoe’s dentist, he takes the opportunity to pass on his concerns. He tells Peter that in one scene of a film, in which the naked heroine is being beaten up her equally naked captor, he is convinced that the beating is real and that the woman has been seriously hurt, if not worse. So Peter goes along to see for himself, starting a chain of events that will uncover some dark secrets around the town and lead to murder...
By the time of this fifth Dalziel and Pascoe book, both of the main characters have become much more fully developed, although they will continue to evolve throughout the long-running series. Dalziel is brash, crude and often uncouth, although he’s perfectly capable of presenting different faces when he wishes. He knows everyone who’s anyone around his patch, and is well tuned in to all the gossip and secrets of his fellow townspeople. Pascoe is educated and cultured, more empathetic and often deeply affected by the things he witnesses as part of his job. He is the modern face of policing, although that modernity of 1978 when the book was first published seems very out-dated now, especially in social attitudes. Because this story involves porn, violence towards women and what would now be considered child exploitation at best, or child abuse at worst, those outdated attitudes make for uneasy reading to modern eyes. If you find it difficult to allow for different times, then this may not be the best book in which to meet Dalziel and Pascoe for the first time.
However, if you can look past that, then there’s a strong plot here – tighter and better paced than in some of the earliest books. The storyline is undoubtedly dark, but there’s plenty of room for some humour in the interaction between the two leads. Hill tended to change the main viewpoint from book to book, and here we see the story from Peter’s perspective, which is a kinder and gentler one than Dalziel’s. The starting point of the story – the suggestion of ‘snuff’ movies, where the supposedly fictional on-screen death is actually real – soon veers off to become more domestic in nature, as Jack Shorter is suddenly accused of seducing one of his underage patients. Meantime, the owner of the Calliope Club is attacked and left to die, and Peter must try to find out if there’s a connection to his investigation into the possible snuff movie. With all the concentration on porn, there are some salacious moments and some earthy language but no graphic descriptions of sex, on or off screen.
As the series progressed, the books gradually widened out from the two main detectives to become more ensemble pieces with several recurring characters. That process is beginning in this one, as we get to know Ellie, Peter’s wife, a little better. She’s a feminist and what we would now call a social justice warrior, so there’s always tension between Peter and her over his job, since she sees the police as a reactionary pillar of a patriarchal society. Sergeant Wield is also coming to the fore, although at this early point in the series, he is almost unrecognisable as the complex and appealing character he will later become.
Going back and reading these books in order has made me realise just how much the characters developed and changed over time – a reflection, I suspect, of Hill’s own development as well as of the changes in society during the decades in which he was writing. It’s quite hard to realise it now, but in fact at the time these books were at the forefront of the social changes, with Hill addressing subjects like feminism and homosexuality at a time when they were rare indeed in crime fiction. The way he does it sometimes seems clumsy to us now, with our heightened sensitivity and demand for strict adherence to the rules of liberal political correctness, but the underlying messages are positive ones for those who can see past the blunter style of expression of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Pascoe is already learning to be more sensitive, partly through Ellie’s influence, and later in the series even Andy Dalziel will show he’s not as dinosaurish as he likes to appear.
While there are still a few books to go before Hill hit his peak, this one feels to me like a bit of a turning point, with indications of how the series would later develop, especially in the characterisation. As always, this series is highly recommended! 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
There have been complaints from the local residents about the Calliope Club, a private cinema that shows pornographic films, so the local police in the person of Sergeant Wield are already keeping an eye on it. However, everything is perfectly legal and the only disruption the club is causing is to the respectable sensibilities of its neighbours. But Jack Shorter, one of the club members, is worried, and since he happens to be Inspector Peter Pascoe’s dentist, he takes the opportunity to pass on his concerns. He tells Peter that in one scene of a film, in which the naked heroine is being beaten up her equally naked captor, he is convinced that the beating is real and that the woman has been seriously hurt, if not worse. So Peter goes along to see for himself, starting a chain of events that will uncover some dark secrets around the town and lead to murder...
By the time of this fifth Dalziel and Pascoe book, both of the main characters have become much more fully developed, although they will continue to evolve throughout the long-running series. Dalziel is brash, crude and often uncouth, although he’s perfectly capable of presenting different faces when he wishes. He knows everyone who’s anyone around his patch, and is well tuned in to all the gossip and secrets of his fellow townspeople. Pascoe is educated and cultured, more empathetic and often deeply affected by the things he witnesses as part of his job. He is the modern face of policing, although that modernity of 1978 when the book was first published seems very out-dated now, especially in social attitudes. Because this story involves porn, violence towards women and what would now be considered child exploitation at best, or child abuse at worst, those outdated attitudes make for uneasy reading to modern eyes. If you find it difficult to allow for different times, then this may not be the best book in which to meet Dalziel and Pascoe for the first time.
However, if you can look past that, then there’s a strong plot here – tighter and better paced than in some of the earliest books. The storyline is undoubtedly dark, but there’s plenty of room for some humour in the interaction between the two leads. Hill tended to change the main viewpoint from book to book, and here we see the story from Peter’s perspective, which is a kinder and gentler one than Dalziel’s. The starting point of the story – the suggestion of ‘snuff’ movies, where the supposedly fictional on-screen death is actually real – soon veers off to become more domestic in nature, as Jack Shorter is suddenly accused of seducing one of his underage patients. Meantime, the owner of the Calliope Club is attacked and left to die, and Peter must try to find out if there’s a connection to his investigation into the possible snuff movie. With all the concentration on porn, there are some salacious moments and some earthy language but no graphic descriptions of sex, on or off screen.
As the series progressed, the books gradually widened out from the two main detectives to become more ensemble pieces with several recurring characters. That process is beginning in this one, as we get to know Ellie, Peter’s wife, a little better. She’s a feminist and what we would now call a social justice warrior, so there’s always tension between Peter and her over his job, since she sees the police as a reactionary pillar of a patriarchal society. Sergeant Wield is also coming to the fore, although at this early point in the series, he is almost unrecognisable as the complex and appealing character he will later become.
Going back and reading these books in order has made me realise just how much the characters developed and changed over time – a reflection, I suspect, of Hill’s own development as well as of the changes in society during the decades in which he was writing. It’s quite hard to realise it now, but in fact at the time these books were at the forefront of the social changes, with Hill addressing subjects like feminism and homosexuality at a time when they were rare indeed in crime fiction. The way he does it sometimes seems clumsy to us now, with our heightened sensitivity and demand for strict adherence to the rules of liberal political correctness, but the underlying messages are positive ones for those who can see past the blunter style of expression of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Pascoe is already learning to be more sensitive, partly through Ellie’s influence, and later in the series even Andy Dalziel will show he’s not as dinosaurish as he likes to appear.
While there are still a few books to go before Hill hit his peak, this one feels to me like a bit of a turning point, with indications of how the series would later develop, especially in the characterisation. As always, this series is highly recommended! 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
ncrabb's review against another edition
4.0
There are all kinds of good reasons to visit your dentist. They have skillsets and levels of expertise, and you can learn things from them that can be more than a little valuable. So it was with Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe. He’s the younger much skinnier member of the duo known as Dalziel & Pascoe. It is Peter who processes his job on a more visceral level than his older obese boss. So, when Pascoe’s dentist almost nonchalantly lets drop the fact that a private pornographic cinema operates in the posh and proper Wilson Square, Pascoe’s reaction is different from that of his older boss. Dalziel insists that the place is probably legal and urges his partner to leave it alone. But the dentist expresses his concerns to Pascoe that there may indeed be illegalities happening in the place. Based on his expertise, he believes one of the female porn stars someone savagely beats near the end of one of the films is either dead or nearly so. The dentist insists that he knows broken teeth and facial bones when he sees them, and he’s sure the scene depicts a girl with her face nearly folded in on itself so violent is the facial beating she took.
Dalziel reluctantly agrees to let Pascoe investigate the place but warns him that a live-and-let-live policy is the best approach. That all changes the day someone murders the club’s proprietor.
This is neither fast paced nor is it one of those layered thrillers with unreliable characters everywhere. It is solid British police procedural stuff, and you get a snapshot of policing 1978 style. There’s no DNA to test here, no cell phones or GPS tracking capabilities, and there’s no Internet to track the viewing habits of posh club patrons. Those used to staccato narrations with scenes that change at dizzying rates may find this series a bit slow. But it’s fascinating reading. The contrast between the somewhat more intelligent Pascoe and his bellowing lug of a boss is always there. But the story needs the bellowing lug of a boss because he has connections based on long years of old-fashioned British policing that assist him in finding answers the younger more modern Pascoe can’t get alone. Pascoe’s young wife, Ellie, is a study in the burgeoning women’s movement as it existed in the late ‘70s. She is an influential force that pulls Pascoe inexorably toward a new era of thinking while Andy Dalziel represents the old sometimes-still-reliable way of doing things. I look forward to seeing how these characters change as I move through the series, but I’m in no hurry to get through it. These books are interesting reads, but they aren’t so compelling that you feel driven to grease through them book after book back to back. I’ll definitely continue on with the series; but it will be a few months before I move on to book six.
Incidentally, in the ‘70s, pornographic films that included scenes where the star dies as a result of violence are known as Snuff films, referring presumably to the snuffing out of a life while the camera rolls.
Dalziel reluctantly agrees to let Pascoe investigate the place but warns him that a live-and-let-live policy is the best approach. That all changes the day someone murders the club’s proprietor.
This is neither fast paced nor is it one of those layered thrillers with unreliable characters everywhere. It is solid British police procedural stuff, and you get a snapshot of policing 1978 style. There’s no DNA to test here, no cell phones or GPS tracking capabilities, and there’s no Internet to track the viewing habits of posh club patrons. Those used to staccato narrations with scenes that change at dizzying rates may find this series a bit slow. But it’s fascinating reading. The contrast between the somewhat more intelligent Pascoe and his bellowing lug of a boss is always there. But the story needs the bellowing lug of a boss because he has connections based on long years of old-fashioned British policing that assist him in finding answers the younger more modern Pascoe can’t get alone. Pascoe’s young wife, Ellie, is a study in the burgeoning women’s movement as it existed in the late ‘70s. She is an influential force that pulls Pascoe inexorably toward a new era of thinking while Andy Dalziel represents the old sometimes-still-reliable way of doing things. I look forward to seeing how these characters change as I move through the series, but I’m in no hurry to get through it. These books are interesting reads, but they aren’t so compelling that you feel driven to grease through them book after book back to back. I’ll definitely continue on with the series; but it will be a few months before I move on to book six.
Incidentally, in the ‘70s, pornographic films that included scenes where the star dies as a result of violence are known as Snuff films, referring presumably to the snuffing out of a life while the camera rolls.
nocto's review against another edition
It's nice to see both Dalziel and Pascoe back at the police station and investigating a bone fide police case after the last couple of holidayish books. The 'snuff' in the title does seem to refer to movies. I think Hill is going to have a few interesting things to say about the use and abuse of female sexuality in this book judging it by what I've read so far. and thinking about it a bit more, male sexulaity too.
(this is book 5 in the dalziel and pascoe series)
angrygreycatreads's review against another edition
3.0
A Pinch of Snuff by Reginald Hill is the 5th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe series on which the TV show was based. Pascoe gets asked to look into a Porn film that may, in fact, be a snuff film and from there the case becomes a tangled web, involving porn, social clubs, an underage girl, an unwanted pregnancy, a rampaging father and a pair of old ladies, who may not be what they seem. Dalziel is not as prominent in this book, as Pascoe is run ragged from one place to the next on his orders, trying to untangle the connections, solve the crimes, and figure out how much is “movie magic” and how much is real. This was not my favorite in the series, but I did find it an interesting snapshot of 1970s attitudes towards women, porn, unwanted pregnancy, etc. I will continue with the series because I do like the characters and their relationship.
5wamp_creature's review against another edition
3.0
Read most of it without a break. crazy tangled plot but kept me reading. Maybe some of the sex crimes are discussed a bit light hearted. Old book.
mandyla's review
3.0
It is difficult to rate these books because on the one hand, I love the plot and characterisation. But on the otherhand, they do bear the marks of the era in which they were written - as in, casual sexism is rife.
It isn't enough to put me off yet though, so that probably indicates that it is worth my while to keep reading. And Ellie Pascoe is great. I can imagine the same book(s) being written now would frame her as an excellent feminine force.
It isn't enough to put me off yet though, so that probably indicates that it is worth my while to keep reading. And Ellie Pascoe is great. I can imagine the same book(s) being written now would frame her as an excellent feminine force.
More...