Customer Reviews

Dialogues of the Dead

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mysteries are mysteries except when written by Hill. His novels are wonderfully written works of fiction that use the murder mystery genre merely as the tread. It is the "getting there" that he masters so well.

It was great to see the characters from his previous book, 'Death's Jest-Book' show up again in this novel - part two of the story... but 'Death's Jest-Book' is the one to own.

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.

I bought this book for Christmas for my husband as we are both fans of British mysteries. How we missed this author in all our years of reading authors likes Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin and Colin Dexter I have no idea, because Hill is an absolute pleasure. His plots flow smoothly but it is the characters of Dalziel and Pascoe that he has developed over some 30 years of writing that are the real gems. I have to admit after reading this novel I went back to his first "A Clubbable Woman" and read them through by publication date and am really sad that I have now read them all and will have to wait for the next one.

Words like unique, creative, compelling, imaginative, althought highly relevant, do not do justice to this masterpiece. Hill is a master stylist, certainly one of the two or three best crime WRITERS (others: Cook, Bill James, Mike Connelly (several of his novels). And apart from the crime aspect of his novels he has something provocative to say about the human condition (e.g. Pictures, Beulah Hill). The framework of this novel, however, surpasses anything else he has written. And what he puts in the frame is a word painting of such depth, ambiguity, ingenuity that it invades the careful reader, paradoxically both subtly and also like a hammer coming down on a recalcitrant human nail. The plot starts as seeming fantasy, but gradually drapes itself in profound reality. This novel introduces a news young "copper" who nicely contrasts with Dalziel and Pascoe. Several other non-cop characters are developed with panache, but at all times come across as richly drawn, realistic characters. The ending is riveting and will make you want to go back and reread the novel, or at least large sections. This book rivals The Four Last Things as the best suspense novel I've read (over 500 novels) and surpasses the powerful Breakheart Hill and Connelly's marvelous Void Moon. I highly recommend this novel.

I will not give a summary of the plot or teh characters--otehrs have done it, besides it is hard to do that without giving spoilers. What impressed me in this book (my first Reginald Hill mystery) was the following:
I rarely find mysteries, in which unexpected plot twists do not insult readers' intelligence. In most cases, the author sacrifices logic and consequential reasoning for a quick (and often disappointing) thrill. In Dialogues of the Dead Reginald Hill manages to combine both and this makes the novel definitely worth reading. Intelligent and engrossing, his novels remind me of Ruth Rendell's, only more itneresting because Rendell's books are often told from the perspective of the criminal leaving little surprise for the reader.

As noted by all reviews of the book, the word play in _Dialogues of the Dead_ is witty and tremendously fun to read. The book centers around a kind of onion made out of games-- there are layers and layers and layers of words and rules and logical puzzles. Think of it as a kind of homage to Lewis Carroll.

This said, I wish the plot had been as strong. I guessed the baddie very early on, and was unhappy with the ending, which felt gimmicky and out of place for a Dalziel and Pascoe book. Not my favorite Hill, although with a little better villain, perhaps it would have been.

This one takes you on a ride that you won't soon forget. The characters are well developed, especially if you've read his other books and there is a new guy thrown into the mix who adds some youthful interest.

I think that Reginald Hill is one of the writers today whose novels are written with a wonderful attention to the nuance of the English language at its finest contemporary usage. When I started reading Mr. Hill, I had to go out and buy British English Dictionary - some of the words he uses you will not find in a dictionary of standard American usage.

Enjoyed the book and the wonderful word puzzles. And, yes, suspected who 'did it' fairly early on. Didn't feel that there was enough of D & P but maybe he will bring them back in to full force in the next one. Always get a kick out of Mr. Hill's idea of an independent woman and when I read his heroines in action, they always remind me of a young 'Mrs. Boooookay' of "Keeping Up Appearances". But then maybe that is his idea of the perfect woman, who knows. Am just not sure the ending wasn't a bit of a cop out. Just didn't feel right in this type of book genre. Looking forward to his next book.

With it, you feel very let down. However, as this is the latest Dalziel and Pascoe novel, the next one in the series may make this ending better. But on its own, after a fantastic read with twist and turns, superb characterisation and genuine tension, you're left with a feeling of complete disappointment

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.