Scan barcode
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
4.0
I should win a prize or something because how much I jump head first into series without reading them in order. It didn't matter much in this novel, I enjoyed it a lot anyway. Thought it was well written and well paced, liked the characters and the mystery was interesting to read about. Need to find other books in the series
emjay2021's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars.
A good sequel to Dialogues of the Dead. Definitely read this one after you've read the other--they need to be read in order.
A good sequel to Dialogues of the Dead. Definitely read this one after you've read the other--they need to be read in order.
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
A double review of two books in the Dalziel and Pascoe series that really have to be seen as Parts 1 and 2 of the same story. I’m posting this double review on both books.
Dialogues of the Dead (Dalziel and Pascoe 19)
5 stars
When an AA man dies after apparently falling from a bridge, it is assumed to be an accident. Then a young musician crashes his car into a tree and dies, again put down to accident. But at the local library, librarians Dick Dee and Rye Pomona are going through the massive pile of entries to a short story competition in the local paper when they come across anonymous stories that show another side to these deaths, and it appears they must have been written before the deaths were reported in the media. As Dalziel and Pascoe begin to investigate, there’s another death, then another, and it appears obvious the team have a serial killer on their hands. The killer is soon nicknamed the Wordman, since each death is accompanied by another short story. Meantime, new member of the team, “Hat” Bowler, is falling in love…
I had forgotten just how good this one is! It’s a wonderful blend of light and dark, and full of Hill’s trademark love of words and wordplay, which this time he puts at the centre of the story by filling the Wordman’s written “confessions” with literary “clues”, and by involving the librarians – Dick Dee especially loves to play word games. There’s a huge cast – essential, since so many of them will be bumped off and there need to be enough left as suspects. It’s mainly set among the self-styled great and good of the town, and Hill has excelled himself in creating characters who stay just the right side of caricature. Dalziel is on fine form, which means the book is full of humour, but Hill is expert at suddenly changing the mask from comedy to tragedy – the murders are dark enough, but the Wordman’s confessions take us deep into a troubled and damaged mind.
The denouement is tense and thrilling, and the solution shocks. And we’re left with the reader knowing more about what happened than Dalziel and Pascoe. They think that everything has finally been wrapped up, maybe not neatly, but securely. However…
* * * * *
Death’s Jest-Book (Dalziel and Pascoe 20)
4 stars
It’s impossible to see this one as anything other than as Part Two of Dialogues of the Dead. Unlike many of the books in the series, this one does not stand on its own – anyone trying to read it without having read the one before would probably be completely lost, or at the very least feel as if important stuff had been left out. As a result, I’m not giving a little blurb, since almost anything I say about this one could spoil the last one. I’d also say to anyone who’s reading the series in order, make room to read these two one after the other – they’re both intricately plotted and having the details of the first one fresh in your mind helps when reading the second.
Oddly, although it is a sequel of sorts, this one doesn’t work nearly as well as the first, in my opinion. Hill had obviously become fascinated by the character of Franny Roote over the course of the series – a man who appeared in one of the early cases and reappears in several of the later ones, becoming a kind of nemesis for Peter Pascoe. In this one we get screeds of letters he writes to Pascoe which take up probably around a third of the book, and while they’re interesting, often amusing and, of course, well written, they slow the main plot down to a crawl. I’m afraid I never found Franny quite as entertaining as Hill clearly thought he was, although he provides an interesting study in psychology both of himself and of Pascoe’s reaction to him. I’m not sure the psychology is completely convincing, though.
The other aspect that weakens this one is very hard to discuss without spoilers, so forgive my vagueness. As I said above, at the end of Dialogues of the Dead, the reader knows more than the characters. This continues throughout Death's Jest-Book, which is basically the story of Dalziel and the team gradually realising that their knowledge is incomplete and trying to fill the gap. Hat’s love story continues too but, knowing what we know, we more or less know how that will work out. So all through we’re watching the characters learning about things the reader already knows. Of course it’s more complex than that makes it sound, and there’s still all the usual stuff that makes Hill so enjoyable – the writing, the language, the regular characters, secondary plots, moral dilemmas – but the pace is very slow, and plot-wise it doesn’t build the same level of tension. It’s good – just not as good as the first part of this story, and being a sequel of sorts it’s impossible to avoid making that comparison.
* * * * *
In summary, then, together the two books form one massive story – both books individually are chunksters. Dialogues of the Dead is excellent and could be read separately as a standalone, although the reader is likely to feel that there are some loose ends. Death’s Jest-Book is good but with some structural weaknesses, and is very much a sequel or second part. It doesn’t work well as a standalone, and should be read soon after Dialogues of the Dead while the details are fresh.
Dialogues of the Dead (Dalziel and Pascoe 19)
5 stars
When an AA man dies after apparently falling from a bridge, it is assumed to be an accident. Then a young musician crashes his car into a tree and dies, again put down to accident. But at the local library, librarians Dick Dee and Rye Pomona are going through the massive pile of entries to a short story competition in the local paper when they come across anonymous stories that show another side to these deaths, and it appears they must have been written before the deaths were reported in the media. As Dalziel and Pascoe begin to investigate, there’s another death, then another, and it appears obvious the team have a serial killer on their hands. The killer is soon nicknamed the Wordman, since each death is accompanied by another short story. Meantime, new member of the team, “Hat” Bowler, is falling in love…
I had forgotten just how good this one is! It’s a wonderful blend of light and dark, and full of Hill’s trademark love of words and wordplay, which this time he puts at the centre of the story by filling the Wordman’s written “confessions” with literary “clues”, and by involving the librarians – Dick Dee especially loves to play word games. There’s a huge cast – essential, since so many of them will be bumped off and there need to be enough left as suspects. It’s mainly set among the self-styled great and good of the town, and Hill has excelled himself in creating characters who stay just the right side of caricature. Dalziel is on fine form, which means the book is full of humour, but Hill is expert at suddenly changing the mask from comedy to tragedy – the murders are dark enough, but the Wordman’s confessions take us deep into a troubled and damaged mind.
The denouement is tense and thrilling, and the solution shocks. And we’re left with the reader knowing more about what happened than Dalziel and Pascoe. They think that everything has finally been wrapped up, maybe not neatly, but securely. However…
* * * * *
Death’s Jest-Book (Dalziel and Pascoe 20)
4 stars
It’s impossible to see this one as anything other than as Part Two of Dialogues of the Dead. Unlike many of the books in the series, this one does not stand on its own – anyone trying to read it without having read the one before would probably be completely lost, or at the very least feel as if important stuff had been left out. As a result, I’m not giving a little blurb, since almost anything I say about this one could spoil the last one. I’d also say to anyone who’s reading the series in order, make room to read these two one after the other – they’re both intricately plotted and having the details of the first one fresh in your mind helps when reading the second.
Oddly, although it is a sequel of sorts, this one doesn’t work nearly as well as the first, in my opinion. Hill had obviously become fascinated by the character of Franny Roote over the course of the series – a man who appeared in one of the early cases and reappears in several of the later ones, becoming a kind of nemesis for Peter Pascoe. In this one we get screeds of letters he writes to Pascoe which take up probably around a third of the book, and while they’re interesting, often amusing and, of course, well written, they slow the main plot down to a crawl. I’m afraid I never found Franny quite as entertaining as Hill clearly thought he was, although he provides an interesting study in psychology both of himself and of Pascoe’s reaction to him. I’m not sure the psychology is completely convincing, though.
The other aspect that weakens this one is very hard to discuss without spoilers, so forgive my vagueness. As I said above, at the end of Dialogues of the Dead, the reader knows more than the characters. This continues throughout Death's Jest-Book, which is basically the story of Dalziel and the team gradually realising that their knowledge is incomplete and trying to fill the gap. Hat’s love story continues too but, knowing what we know, we more or less know how that will work out. So all through we’re watching the characters learning about things the reader already knows. Of course it’s more complex than that makes it sound, and there’s still all the usual stuff that makes Hill so enjoyable – the writing, the language, the regular characters, secondary plots, moral dilemmas – but the pace is very slow, and plot-wise it doesn’t build the same level of tension. It’s good – just not as good as the first part of this story, and being a sequel of sorts it’s impossible to avoid making that comparison.
* * * * *
In summary, then, together the two books form one massive story – both books individually are chunksters. Dialogues of the Dead is excellent and could be read separately as a standalone, although the reader is likely to feel that there are some loose ends. Death’s Jest-Book is good but with some structural weaknesses, and is very much a sequel or second part. It doesn’t work well as a standalone, and should be read soon after Dialogues of the Dead while the details are fresh.
nonna7's review against another edition
5.0
I always marvel at the complexity of the Dalziel and Pascoe series by Reginald Hill. The books take you to places in the past and present that you don't expect at all. This is one of his better ones. It starts out during Christmas which was kind of fun, however that's only part of the story. This is a continuation of the people in Dialogues of the Dead that included a rookie police officer, Bowler, who inevitably acquires the nickname of "Hat." In that book, he rescued the beautiful Rye Pomona and nearly died in the process. Now he is recovering, he and Rye are madly in love. Unfortunately she is carrying around some secrets. In the meantime, Pascoe is being plagued by letters from Franny Roote who, having spent some time in prison thanks to Pascoe, is now out and has acquired an MA in literature and is beginning to make a name for himself. However, Pascoe is sure that he is up to no good. Then there is the famous Eldreth Hoard, a treasure that is being moved and has some bad guys eyeing it. There are competing story lines including references to the original Death's Jest-Book by Thomas Beddoes, a poet who was obsessed by death. This has so many complications and subplots that it's impossible to really go into too much depth without giving a lot away. Suffice it to say that things get wrapped up in the end but rather messily and with a twist as always.
nocto's review against another edition
5.0
God, Reginald Hill knows how to keep readers happy decade after decade! Something different every time, I can't find enough superlatives.
As my commenters have noted before me this is very much a follow on from Dialogues of the Dead and not a book to be read by itself. If you came to this as your first Hill you'd be wondering quite what the author was thinking of. For the most part there's little in the way of a new mystery here, it's very much about continuing the huge stories that began in the previous book (and in other cases way back in the series). As much as I've enjoyed them I think and hope that we're done with these threads and that the next book will offer something more shiny and new.
There was less fantasy stuff in this book, which was good because I wouldn't want Hill to get predictable. I think I'm caught up to date on Dalziel and Pascoe now (in paperback at least). That only took four years.... A series I would highly recommend but to get the most of it you really need to read most, if not all, of it.
As my commenters have noted before me this is very much a follow on from Dialogues of the Dead and not a book to be read by itself. If you came to this as your first Hill you'd be wondering quite what the author was thinking of. For the most part there's little in the way of a new mystery here, it's very much about continuing the huge stories that began in the previous book (and in other cases way back in the series). As much as I've enjoyed them I think and hope that we're done with these threads and that the next book will offer something more shiny and new.
There was less fantasy stuff in this book, which was good because I wouldn't want Hill to get predictable. I think I'm caught up to date on Dalziel and Pascoe now (in paperback at least). That only took four years.... A series I would highly recommend but to get the most of it you really need to read most, if not all, of it.
More...