julesjones

Audiobook of the second Dalziel and Pascoe, abridged on 3 CDs and read by Warren Clarke, who played Dalziel in the late 90s tv adaptation. I've previously reviewed the novel itself here. This is a good abridgement, and Clarke is an excellent reader, but of necessity it does leave out some of the character development. An enjoyable version but probably better for those already familiar with the book.


http://www.librarything.com/work/2010902

Here's the first of July's books:

66) Reginald Hill -- An April Shroud

Fourth in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. The previous book focused on Peter Pascoe and his involvement as a witness rather than a policeman, after finding his friends murdered. This one focuses on Andy Dalziel finding himself in a similar situation. The difference here is that Dalziel finds himself amongst strangers, and it's not entirely clear for some time whether there is a crime at all, and if so what it is.

Dalziel is supposed to be going on holiday after attending Pascoe's wedding, but finds himself stranded by a flood, and invites himself to stay with the funeral party who rescue him. The newly widowed Bonnie Fielding has more troubles on her mind than the loss of her husband -- their fledgling Banqueting Hall business needs to be up and running soon, or the business, and the family, will be bankrupt. Dalziel gets entangled in what at first seems like an entertaining diversion, but when more corpses appear, he has unpleasant choices to make.

A good read in its own right, but I found it even better when I read it in sequence. This book develops Dalziel as a character, showing him as off-duty as he gets, and telling us something about him as a person as well as a policeman.

LibraryThing entry

First of the books read in April...

30) Reginald Hill -- There are no ghosts in the Soviet Union, and other stories

Collection of half a dozen crime stories first published in 1987, which has some bearing on the tone of some of them. The collection is laced with a biting humour, and some superb if sardonic observations of human nature.

My favourite in the collection is the eponymous novella, in which Inspector Lev Chislenko arrives at the scene of an accident at a government building in Moscow, where the witnesses say they saw a man in old-fashioned clothes fall down a lift shaft - only there is no body. It's an embarrassing case to be involved with, especially as the higher-ups want the rumours of ghosts quashed as un-Soviet. There are no ghosts in the Soviet Union. But to his discomfort, Chislenko's investigation intended to prove the non-existence of ghosts by showing that no such accident happened even in the past leads him in a direction he hadn't expected to go.

Other stories include "Bring back the cat!", private detective Joe Sixsmith's first case; "The Bull Ring", a nasty little tale about brutal training methods used on Great War recruits; "Auteur theory", a nominally Dalziell and Pascoe story which turns out to be meta discussion on more than one level; "Poor Emma", which I can only describe as one of the odder pieces of literary fanfic gamesmanship I have encountered, probably as likely to infuriate Austen fans as please them; and "Crowded Hour", about a "take the wife hostage at home" armed robbery attempt that twists and turns.

I didn't like all of these stories, but they were all well-crafted pieces that made me think. Only half of them are ones I'd really want to read again, but I don't regret the time spent on any of them.

LibraryThing entry