Rating: 
Summary: The best psychological mystery writer's best mystery!
Review: Reginald Hill does an awesome job of weaving together many multicolored threads in this book. Each plotline is beautifully spun out, each character believably inhabited, as always, but "Death's Jest-Book" raises to a new level the question of who-done-what that Hill has used to tantalize readers in previous books. Be sure to read "Dialogues of the Dead" before you open this, or you'll miss half its power. "Jest-Book" and "Dialogues" are probably the best detective stories I've read in 30 years.
Rating:
Summary: The best psychological mystery writer's best mystery!
Review: Reginald Hill does an awesome job of weaving together many multicolored threads in this book. Each plotline is beautifully spun out, each character believably inhabited, as always, but "Death's Jest-Book" raises to a new level the question of who-done-what that Hill has used to tantalize readers in previous books. Be sure to read "Dialogues of the Dead" before you open this, or you'll miss half its power. "Jest-Book" and "Dialogues" are probably the best detective stories I've read in 30 years.
Rating:
Summary: The best psychological mystery writer's best mystery!
Review: Reginald Hill's "Death's Jest-Book" is a British police procedural with a literary flair. Hill's large cast of characters include Peter Pascoe, a Yorkshire policeman with a suspicious nature, Andy Dalziel, his obnoxious but canny superior, and Franny Roote, an ex-con who may or may not be on the road to rehabilitation.Pascoe is the cop who put Roote into prison. Now that Roote is free, he writes a series of long letters to Pascoe in which Roote claims to have embraced the rich and satisfying life of academia. Pascoe, ever watchful and cynical, believes that Roote's letters may be veiled threats to Pascoe and his family as well as mocking references to crimes for which Pascoe has insufficient evidence to arrest Roote. The letters irritate Pascoe and he is desperate to find a way to put Roote behind bars for good. Hill skillfully deconstructs the minds of both policemen and criminals as he demonstrates that these seemingly opposite types have much in common. To succeed in what they do, both the policeman and the criminal must be aggressive, tough minded, clever, and focused. Neither profession is for the weak-willed. "Death's Jest-Book" is filled with wry and sometimes hilarious humor, literary allusions, and surprising twists and turns. The secondary characters, including a Detective Constable named Hat Bowler and his lady love, Rye Pomona, are as carefully fleshed out as the main players. Hill takes his time examining the inner thoughts of each character, making it clear that underneath the superficial veneer that most people present to the world are a host of hidden fears, dark secrets, needs, and passions. The book's one flaw is its excessive length and occasionally slow pacing. At almost 560 pages, "Death's Jest-Book" from time to time gets bogged down in too much verbiage. Still, Hill has created a fascinating world of con men and cops, all of whom are flawed human beings struggling to understand and cope with life's challenges. At times poignant, at other times wickedly amusing, "Death's Jest-Book" is a challenging and engrossing psychological mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Witty and psychologically fascinating mystery.
Review: Reginald Hill's "Death's Jest-Book" is a British police procedural with a literary flair. Hill's large cast of characters include Peter Pascoe, a Yorkshire policeman with a suspicious nature, Andy Dalziel, his obnoxious but canny superior, and Franny Roote, an ex-con who may or may not be on the road to rehabilitation. Pascoe is the cop who put Roote into prison. Now that Roote is free, he writes a series of long letters to Pascoe in which Roote claims to have embraced the rich and satisfying life of academia. Pascoe, ever watchful and cynical, believes that Roote's letters may be veiled threats to Pascoe and his family as well as mocking references to crimes for which Pascoe has insufficient evidence to arrest Roote. The letters irritate Pascoe and he is desperate to find a way to put Roote behind bars for good. Hill skillfully deconstructs the minds of both policemen and criminals as he demonstrates that these seemingly opposite types have much in common. To succeed in what they do, both the policeman and the criminal must be aggressive, tough minded, clever, and focused. Neither profession is for the weak-willed. "Death's Jest-Book" is filled with wry and sometimes hilarious humor, literary allusions, and surprising twists and turns. The secondary characters, including a Detective Constable named Hat Bowler and his lady love, Rye Pomona, are as carefully fleshed out as the main players. Hill takes his time examining the inner thoughts of each character, making it clear that underneath the superficial veneer that most people present to the world are a host of hidden fears, dark secrets, needs, and passions. The book's one flaw is its excessive length and occasionally slow pacing. At almost 560 pages, "Death's Jest-Book" from time to time gets bogged down in too much verbiage. Still, Hill has created a fascinating world of con men and cops, all of whom are flawed human beings struggling to understand and cope with life's challenges. At times poignant, at other times wickedly amusing, "Death's Jest-Book" is a challenging and engrossing psychological mystery.
Rating:
Summary: truly amazing
Review: This book is one of those outstanding "reads" I never wanted to end. It is so well written and so fascinating I wasn't able to put it down.
Unlike some recent reviewers, I am in awe of Hill's development over the years. This book is a crowning achievement.
BRAVO!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hill takes risks. Succeeds admirably.
Review: This novel is an extraordinarily well-written hymn of praise to the soul and imagination of man. Certainly not a traditional suspense novel and difficult to read if you like Elmore Leonard or, even early days Hill, Jest-Book is more a book of the heart, than one of the mind--action is also downplayed until the very end of the book and is done very well. Franny Root's letters to Peter provide the motif for the novel and are its core. Beautifully written, full of nature, sensuality, beauty, passion and mystery, they beg for a positive response from Peter, which he can never give. Peter's regret that he didn't pursue an academic career, his jealousy of his wife's writing and her intellectual life is displaced with malicious animus towards Franny. There is always some question about Franny's motives, but I think most would agree that he genuinly likes Peter,wants to be his friend and inspire Peter to be a better person.
The plot involving Weildy is deftly handled with poignancy and love. This plot line gives us Hill's most tragic, most searing death.
The one flaw, and I believe it to be a big one, is the handling of Rye P. Whatever her psychological and physical problem may be, she needs to be held accountable for her actions--if for no other reason (and a big one) that Dick Dee's honesty and integrity needs to be retrieved, preserved and celebrated. Her suicide at the end of the book was dishonest and untrue to Dialogues. Hat should have understood who did all the killing in Dialogues. If he wants to forgive her fine, but to omit this from the story poisons both books. Also, one sentence indicating that Dalziel knew the truth about what happend with Dick Dee is only sufficient if the author wants to make clear to the reader that he is a "bent" cop. Those deaths in Dialogue were not the kind you write off. Why not vindicate Charley? Why not end the story with the chance that D and P may be demoted for altering a gruesome crime scene? Mr. Hill, is Dalziel really just the drunken joking philistine that he often seems to be? Is he a value relativist, who has corrupted Peter (yes, I think so)? In any event you have validated my reading most of your books laughing at Dalziel, not laughing with him. He is an anti-hero, good for a few yuks, essential to your stories, but decadent and more often than not detestable.
Back to Jest-book. The other reviews conflict with mine. Read this marvelous book and decide for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: garbage
Review: When I started this review, it was to give the book 4 stars, but as I actually began writing this, I found it a struggle to reach three stars. Probably only my decades long affection for this series, along with guilt for not posting a 5+ star review for Dialogues of the Dead lead me to rate it as highly as I do. In essence this sort of sequel/wrap up to Dialogues would be the type of material that would be included in the director's cut of a DVD, but would have been (wisely) edited of the film prior to its release. Dialogues did a rare thing -- it let the killer get away with the crimes. Rather than let the impact of that author's decision take its natural effect, Hill now feels compelled to attempt to rewrite the history he just wrote. Echoing other critics, Hill takes too, too long to tell three disparate stories, devoting an inordinate amount of time to the ultra annoying Franny Roote. Little need, or should, be said about Wield's weird relationship with a teen call boy, except that it defies belief. As to Rye Pomona and the barely fleshed out Hat, it is hard to care about characters that the author does not seem too interested in. Another peeve is that Hill may finally giving in to the threat of turning Dalziel into a total stereotype, less the fully fleshed character he is, than an amalagam of crudity, political incorrectness, nearly psychic brilliance and a total babe magnet. Let's hope that this device was just used to get this book to a conclusion. That said, if you are, like me, addicted to this series, you must still read this book, as Hill still makes you care about characters you have known for years, and some, like Novello, that you are just getting to know and are glad you met.
Rating: 
Summary: Long and disappointing.
Review: When I started this review, it was to give the book 4 stars, but as I actually began writing this, I found it a struggle to reach three stars. Probably only my decades long affection for this series, along with guilt for not posting a 5+ star review for Dialogues of the Dead lead me to rate it as highly as I do. In essence this sort of sequel/wrap up to Dialogues would be the type of material that would be included in the director's cut of a DVD, but would have been (wisely) edited of the film prior to its release. Dialogues did a rare thing -- it let the killer get away with the crimes. Rather than let the impact of that author's decision take its natural effect, Hill now feels compelled to attempt to rewrite the history he just wrote. Echoing other critics, Hill takes too, too long to tell three disparate stories, devoting an inordinate amount of time to the ultra annoying Franny Roote. Little need, or should, be said about Wield's weird relationship with a teen call boy, except that it defies belief. As to Rye Pomona and the barely fleshed out Hat, it is hard to care about characters that the author does not seem too interested in. Another peeve is that Hill may finally giving in to the threat of turning Dalziel into a total stereotype, less the fully fleshed character he is, than an amalagam of crudity, political incorrectness, nearly psychic brilliance and a total babe magnet. Let's hope that this device was just used to get this book to a conclusion. That said, if you are, like me, addicted to this series, you must still read this book, as Hill still makes you care about characters you have known for years, and some, like Novello, that you are just getting to know and are glad you met.
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