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A word of warning before you start reading THE DEATH OF DALZIEL . . . If you don't like Peter Pascoe and wife Ellie, you might look elsewhere for entertainment. I mean, come on, the title's a bit of a giveaway. It finally looks like Det Supt Andy Dalziel's number is up, after he's badly injured in an explosion. So while he's fighting for his life in hospital, DCI Pascoe is running round the north of England tangling with spooks, terrorists and a bizarre vigilante group called the Knights Templar. And this is a different Pascoe from the one we're used to. He's abrupt, abrasive and defies every order that's thrown his way. Just like his boss, in fact. In many ways he's closer to the Pascoe we see displayed in the TV adaptations who is edgy, irritable and even aggressive – something the book Pascoe isn't. Or hasn't been until now. What motivates Pascoe in this book is revenge for what happened to Dalziel. The two of them were injured when a video shop was blown sky-high. Pascoe, returning to work against medical advice, finds himself ensnared by the deceptively maternal Chief Supt Glenister and her band of spooks. Ellie, meanwhile, is struggling with her second novel after her less than auspicious debut book. And I have finally pinpointed why she's a character I have never been able to warm to – and it's down to her petulance. Her actions on the book's last page are childish and deserve a visit to the divorce courts! The book is so topical that it feels as if it sprang from newspaper front pages. Hill, as always, handles his material with a masterful eye, dropping in just enough humour that he never becomes facetious. I still can't quite decide, though, whether he copped out on the Muslim fundamentalist angle by using some flip humour and stereotypes straight out of the Music Hall. Elsewhere, Hill provides a steady hand with his other characterisation. The gormless and inefficient PC Hector stumbles towards centre stage and is shown to have hidden depths. OK, well, some. The rest of the police crew are pretty much out of sight and out of mind this time round, aside from Sgt Wield (who has got hitched off-stage to partner Edwin), who functions more or less as Pascoe's gofer and his voice of conscience. THE DEATH OF DALZIEL is a must-read, not only for the aspects we value most in Hill – humour, plotting, freshness and writing that zings off the page – but also because he gives his characters plenty of space to move and to develop. Not always as we would like, I hasten to add, but then that's life. PS: For those of you in the US and Canada, the book is appearing under the title DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, February 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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