Reviews

Arms And The Women by Reginald Hill

duparker's review

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3.0

Solid mystery. For a late in a series book, I didn't feel like I had been left out. The character banter is good, the plot was interesting and the Englishness of it came through. I'd read more in the series.

fictionfan's review against another edition

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4.0

Bring back the men…

After the events of the previous book, Ellie Pascoe is indulging in some self-prescribed therapy by writing a never-to-be-published story about the Greeks and Trojans, starring a version of Odysseus who bears a remarkable resemblance to Andy Dalziel. Then two strangers arrive at her door one afternoon and attempt to abduct her. While the police try to find out what’s going on, Ellie agrees to make herself scarce for a bit, and retreats to an isolated house by the sea, owned by her friend Daphne Alderman who accompanies her. DC Shirley Novello, “Ivor” as Dalziel calls her, is sent along as protection, and Ellie takes her young daughter, Rosie. This group is enlarged by the inclusion of a neighbour of Daphne’s – Feenie McCallum, an elderly lady with a mysterious past. Naturally the baddies will find them, and the women will have to protect themselves and each other while waiting for the cavalry, in the persons of Dalziel and Pascoe, to ride to the rescue.

By this late stage in the series Hill is trying new things in each book, which sometimes work and sometimes don’t quite. Here he plays with Ellie’s re-writing of the story of Odysseus and there are large sections of her manuscript interspersed throughout the main story. While these are well written and quite fun, they simply get in the way of the plot, making the book overlong and slowing it down to a crawl. Also he decides to concentrate almost entirely on the women, as the title implies, meaning that Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield are relegated to the sidelines and barely appear. Since those are the three characters who hold the series together this was a brave choice, but from my perspective not a good one. The plot is desperately convoluted too, and goes so far over the credibility line it nearly disappears over the horizon. Lastly, as I’ve mentioned before, I find it irritating that Pascoe has to deal with a family-related trauma in nearly every book at this later stage in the series.

As always with Hill, the writing is a joy, and there’s plenty of humour along with some tense, exciting scenes, so it’s still very readable. But it’s one of my least favourites and I’d really only recommend it to Dalziel and Pascoe completists. 3½ stars for me, so rounded up.

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nonna7's review

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4.0

love Reginald Hill, but this book is not among my favorites. While I appreciate the wit and erudition that he displays in this book and others, this one is a little over the top. When someone tries to abduct Ellie Pascoe, the first thought is that someone is trying to avenge themselves on her husband. It is DS Shirley Novello who suggests otherwise, and she turns out to be correct. Since I read this out of order, I didn't know that Rosie (Ellie and Peter Pascoe's daughter) had meningitis and was very ill for a long time, plus her best friend died. This is the book that follows that period. Ellie has written a book which has been sent off to a publisher. Now she sits in a windowless storeroom working on a "comfort blanket" of a novel featuring Aeneas and the aftermath of the Greek/Trojan War. I could have done without that. The book is nearly 500 pages long. It could have done with a bit of editing in my opinion. Still it's a good one and worth reading. Just do what I did which was to skip some of the action and the book within a book.

nocto's review

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3.0

For once I don't think this Hill book is the best thing since the last one. It is of course pretty good all the same. I like the fact that Hill keeps trying new things even though this one doesn't work that well for me. I enjoyed the fact that various characters from old books popped up years and years later than their original appearances.

I kept hearing that people didn't like this book because there was too much of Ellie in it. I like Ellie and I like her in this book but the story as a whole didn't gel for me as well as other of Hill's tales have done.

pehall's review

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3.0

A little bit overblown and at times unhelpfully complex. Unfortunately the plot isn't that tight and characters stray into cliched stereotypes too often. Disappointing after On Beulah Height. You could of course skip the first 400 pages by reading the blurb on the back cover.

marystevens's review

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3.0

Not the usual Yorkshire police procedural, but a good read for fans of Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe. The men are more in the background here. Peter's wife Ellie is an aspiring novelist and her take on Odysseus is woven through the book. The Pascoe's are just coming off a grueling few months in which their daughter nearly died of meningitis and her best friend actually did die. The plot also revolves around an Amnesty International sort of letter writing group, MI5 and a vacation in Cornwall.

mandyla's review

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4.0

Goodness me. That was quite a departure from On Beulah Height! I loved the focus on the women, with the title duo playing supporting roles.

What was in the end a very complicated story - further nuanced by Ellie's developing 'comfort blanket' story - was also very enjoyable. The differing perspectives could have been confusing, but in the end clarified most of what had been happening.

The only reason I didn't give a full 5 stars, was that in the midst of the action (I won't spoil it), I did find myself thinking that things had got a bit carried away. It was a bit too 'gung ho' bravery, and for me lost touch with reality a tad.

Nonetheless I was super happy with how things turned out. It was dramatic, and risky on a number of levels - and it paid off.
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