Rating: 
Summary: Hill always takes time to write wrongs!
Review: Reginald Hill can be quite clever at times; he is usually quite good at times, and in his latest, he's both. Hill has long held a fascination with words and word play and this one tops them all. It's not Plato's Dialogues and it's not Shakespeare--both had a way with words, to be sure, but Hill's "Dialogues" pursues a different spin from other police procedurals and he actually seems to want the alert reader to get involved, the boorish, crude Dalziel aside! It's not so "literary" or "cerebral" that the words get in the way, but when the Wordman starts wreaking havoc (in the form of murder and meyhem), this erstwhile duo of D&P go to work. Hill keeps up with his "dips" into the psyches of both Dalziel and Pascoe and that helps keep this exciting series running. There are no surprises with this author's talent and ability--he's one of the tops around. (He's not above throwing in a different spin for an ending, however, as he's done, say, with "Pictures of Perfection.") This episode, however, will keep you in its grasp long after the final word is read! It may not be his best and it's certainly not my favorite ("Child's Play" and "Exit Lines" are my two favorites--I haven't been inclined to think about which is his best--readers oftentimes get the two mixed up!), but it's a Hill worth struggle for!....
Rating: 
Summary: More classical mayhem
Review: Reginald Hill has been on a classics kick. First we had the Homeric parodies of ARMS AND THE WOMEN, and now we have a take-off of Lucian's dialogues. (The next novel, DEATH'S JEST BOOK, at least gets us into the nineteenth century.) As with all of Hill's novels, the text is hyper-literate, and Hill has his usual fun with puns, allusions, and neologisms. Like all of his novels from BONES AND SILENCE forward, DIALOGUES appropriates a quasi-BLEAK HOUSE narrative structure that juxtaposes first- and third-person narrators. In terms of plot structure, DIALOGUES... improves considerably over ARMS AND THE WOMEN, with its stop-and-go plot. Here, the serial killer's confessional dialogues at least have the merit of moving the story along. That being said, I have to agree with the readers below who got to the final dialogue and felt like they'd been kicked in the stomach. One of this novel's running themes is obsessiveness, both the killer's and Peter Pascoe's. Pascoe is convinced that Franny Roote, who first appeared in AN ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING and popped up again in ARMS..., is up to no good, and this conviction badly clouds his judgment. At times, however, everyone in this novel shows remarkably bad judgment (leading to the set-up of the aforementioned final dialogue). In a sense, their obsession with the killer's game gives them a remarkably distorted view of the killer. This is not a novel for people new to the series, especially because the usual principals are relegated to supporting roles. DC "Hat" Bowler, who has about as much page time as Pascoe and Wield put together, is unfortunately nowhere near so interesting as the central Trinity; one would much prefer spending time with the engaging DC Shirley Novello, still offstage after being shot in ARMS. Ellie Pascoe, after dominating the previous novel, is almost wholly invisible, as is Wield's partner Edwin Digweed. Dalziel, however, is as always his entertainingly monstrous self, and the librarians are fun. Character development is not this novel's strong suit, although we discover what must be Dalziel's middle name (or a "dropped" first name?), learn some more about Pascoe's attitude to impending middle age, and find Wield squiring his partner about in public. In terms of quality, I'd rate this one well above ARMS AND THE WOMEN but below ON BEULAH HEIGHT, THE WOOD BEYOND, and possibly PICTURES OF PERFECTION as well. Curious D&P novices who don't want to "begin from the beginning" should at least go back to BONES AND SILENCE and read forward before tackling this one.
Rating:
Summary: Clever, clever, clever
Review: Reginald Hill is spoiling me. His Dalziel and Pascoe books have become the most consistently original mystery series being written today. In each book, he not only plays with the conventions of the detective novel, but experiments with the very nature of storytelling itself.
There are only a few times in my life that immediately upon finishing a book, I've turned to the beginning and immediately reread it, but this book definitely warranted it. The puzzles within puzzles within puzzles were brilliant.
The book begins with a librarian and his assistant reading the entries for a local writing contest. One anonymous writer's submissions claim that two recent accidental deaths were actually murders. The police are skeptical, but some a third death occurs which is undoubtably murder, and Dalziel and Pascoe know they have a serial killer at work, a killer whose obsession with word games prompts his readers to call him the Wordman.
This is more than a simple mystery novel, but a wonderful exploration of words and meaning and storytelling. Even as the characters point out how words can twist and mislead, Hill twists and misleads us in those exact ways, even until the harrowing climax, and the wrenching unexpected twist that follows, and the brilliant last line that caps everything that has gone before. Hill is a master of words, and there is not one placed wrongly in this entire elaborate puzzle of a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Clever, clever, clever
Review: Reginald Hill is spoiling me. His Dalziel and Pascoe books have become the most consistently original mystery series being written today. In each book, he not only plays with the conventions of the detective novel, but experiments with the very nature of storytelling itself.
There are only a few times in my life that immediately upon finishing a book, I've turned to the beginning and immediately reread it, but this book definitely warranted it. The puzzles within puzzles within puzzles were brilliant.
The book begins with a librarian and his assistant reading the entries for a local writing contest. One anonymous writer's submissions claim that two recent accidental deaths were actually murders. The police are skeptical, but some a third death occurs which is undoubtably murder, and Dalziel and Pascoe know they have a serial killer at work, a killer whose obsession with word games prompts his readers to call him the Wordman.
This is more than a simple mystery novel, but a wonderful exploration of words and meaning and storytelling. Even as the characters point out how words can twist and mislead, Hill twists and misleads us in those exact ways, even until the harrowing climax, and the wrenching unexpected twist that follows, and the brilliant last line that caps everything that has gone before. Hill is a master of words, and there is not one placed wrongly in this entire elaborate puzzle of a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Great addition to a great series
Review: The amazing thing about Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe books is that they're all the same (police procedural, recurring characters) and yet all different. The rosarian theme of "Deadheads" and its ambiguous ending is impressive. The end of "Bones and Silence" was infuriating. The end of "Pictures of Perfection" caught me off guard. And the ending of this book is stunning. Maybe I'm dense, but I did not see it coming. And despite the emphasis on word play, you don't have to be a fan of word puzzles to enjoy this book. Hill is one of the two or three best practitioners of the English police procedural, transcending the genre every time. A main character like Andy Dalziel who is both infuriating and irresistable, is a hard act to maintain and grow. I started reading this series with the very first book "A Clubable Woman" (found at a used book site) and have enjoyed seeing the characters develop and can hardly wait for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Dalziel & Pascoe
Review: The Dalziel & Pascoe series is one of my favorites. I'd give each of the prior books 5 stars. The hallmarks of each book are: 1. Complex and surprising plots 2. Great lead characters, especially the Fat Man (Dalziel) 3. Real, laugh-out-loud humor (most from Dalziel's mouth) 4. Well-drawn, believable minor characters 5. Very good writing This one disappointed me. The plot measured up (even if it was more clever than realistic). But the minor characters seemed unbelievable to me, and the writing seemed hurried. I recognize that another thing that bored me about this book may be fascinating and fun for other readers -- the plot revolves around wordplay. If you love word puzzles, you'll like this book a lot more than I did.
Rating:
Summary: Another great offering from Reginald Hill
Review: This is a really ingenious little book that could drive you completely mad with its literary utterances if you didn't have the fabulous Dalziel and Pascoe to break things up a bit. I can't help but secretly suspect that Reginald Hill has been holding himself in check all these years and finally couldn't help but explode in words, word games, and "dialogues" so that we might appreciate what a fabulously literary sort he is. And he clearly is. For the truly literate amongst us, this book alone will do, but I needed a thesaurus and a really good encyclopedic dictionary to get through this. And yet, this is not a complaint! It was a good read, a fabulous twisty ending, and I learned a whole big bunch from this read ("whole big bunch" is almost certainly NOT in Hill's vocabulary!). For the true Dalziel and Pascoe afficionado, I recommend going back nearly 30 years and starting their series from the beginning. Hill's writing grows with the series and the characters, but they are fun from beginning...
Rating:
Summary: dialogues of the dead
Review: this is by far the best book i have read in a couple of years. suspenseful who dun it along the lines of agatha christie. a must read!
Rating:
Summary: a good one
Review: This is my first Reginald Hill book and I agree with most of what previous reviewers have said about it. It's clever and funny. The Dalziel character was a rare treat. (He doesn't seem as funny on TV.) I thought the ending was great. I didn't figure it out ahead, so I'll probably read this again sometime and see what I missed.
I was struck by something in the chapters that dealt with the relationship between Rye & Hat. Their dialog had exactly the same tone as that of Jan and Franklin in Richard Power's The Goldbug Variations.
I'll definitely be reading more of Hill's stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and gripping
Review: This is one of the best mysteries I've read recently, as a mystery and also as masterful piece of fiction writing. Hill is a genious of characterization, and the plot is both clever and unsettling. I could carp about the ending, which will surprise (and may dismay) you, but I have to admit it has really stuck with me and was not an easy, conventional solution.
|
