Midnight Fugue - Hardcover

Hill, Reginald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007252706 ISBN 13: 9780007252701

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2009

Synopsis

The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series, in a new psychological thriller.

Gina Wolfe is searching for her missing husband, believed dead, and hopes Superintendent Andy Dalziel can help. What neither realize is that there are others on the same trail.

A tabloid hack with some awkward enquiries about an ambitious MP's father. The politician’s secretary who shares his suspicions. The ruthless entrepreneur in question – and the two henchmen out to make sure the past stays in the past.

Four stories, two mismatched detectives trying to figure it all out, and 24 hours in which to do it: Dalziel and Pascoe are about to learn the hard way exactly how much difference a day makes...

About this title

Review:

Crime fiction fans are devoted to Reginald Hill’s excellent sequence of Dalziel & Pascoe novels, and there is a burgeoning interest in his equally adroit series featuring the canny private eye Joe Sixsmith (notably The Roar of the Butterflies, one of the most compelling entries in the series). However, for the real Reg Hill aficionado, it’s Fat Andy and his more sophisticated colleague who inspire the real dedication, so the arrival of a new book, Midnight Fugue, is a cause for celebration – particularly as a refutation of the information in the title of Hill’s recent novel, Dalziel is Dead.

Gina Wolfe arrives in north Yorkshire seeking her missing husband, believed dead. Her new fiancé, a policeman in the Met, suggests the caustic copper Andy Dalziel might be of help – and everyone involved discovers that dark events of years ago have a way of causing troubling eruptions in the present.

It's hard to believe, but it’s been nearly four decades since readers first encountered the well-read, sensitive detective Peter Pascoe and his partner, the brash but winning Andy Dalziel, in A Clubbable Woman. Hill has always rung the changes in the series with new wrinkles that take us to startling terra incognita (for example, One Small Step addressed the first murder on the moon in the year 2010). But the key factor in the series’ continuing success (leaving aside the ratings-winning TV adaptations) is Hill’s eagerness to take on key societal issues (always, however, married to reader-grabbing plots) – and that characteristic is abundantly evident in Midnight Fugue, with the two protagonist striking sparks off each other in the usual highly satisfying fashion. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

Praise for ‘Midnight Fugue’:

‘Back on his old form. Witty, wise and welcome’ Literary Review

‘[Reginald Hill] shows no sign of descending from the high quality of his writing ... Beautifully plotted and intriguingly resolved’ Marcel Berlins, The Times

'Fresh and memorable ... It's a witty, wise and warm read, with rich characterisation and emotional depth' Val McDermid, The Times

'A sort of genteel, very funny and extremely well-written version of 24' Telegraph

‘A masterly performance ... will deservedly be one of this summer’s big bestsellers’ Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

‘Hill’s ingenuity continues to dazzle’ John O’Connell, Guardian

‘Midnight Fugue has a clever plot, written without whimsy, and one of the best things in it is Dalziel's sense of his advancing age and its impact on his relationship with Pascoe’ The Sunday Times

‘As ever it is steeped in a dry, wry wit and accents almost as thick as good gravy on roast beef and Yorkshire pudding...it is a measure of Hill's masterful grasp that time flies imperceptibly...Hill makes it all look so deceptively simple that it masks a writer on top of his trade’ Sunday Express

‘Hill's plot is elegantly constructed, and his prose is delectable...Witty, slightly surreal and fundamentally humane, the novel is a welcome addition to one of the best crime series around’ Andrew Taylor, Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0007252706
• ISBN 13: 9780007252701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368