The Wood Beyond

I have been reading my way through the Dalziel and Pascoe series. This is the fifteenth or so book in the series. These books are all good, but this one is as nearly perfect as a crime novel gets. In it Hill weaves two mysteries together with winding silken threads. One of the murders is in the present day, but one dates back to the time of the Great War. And as Pascoe pursues his anscestors' past, he finds that there is a lot to connect his past to the present day, and neither mystery really makes sense until the oldest one is solved first. Hill is a very talented writer, and to my mind ranks right up there with some of the present-day masters - P.D. James and Ruth Rendall. He keeps getting better and better, and his stories become more and more complex. In some respects they are ethereal, but there is always Wieldy to bring things back down to earth. No character in any book has his feet more firmly planted on the ground than Wieldy. And no character is sharper than Fat Andy Dalziel. In this book he loses his way somewhat, but he does find it again, and goes on to solve the present-day mystery. The past mystery is solved by Pascoe on his own, and what he uncovers is devastating to him. Awesome book! Awesome writer!

If you are already familiar with Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series, recommending this one won't be a hard sell. If not, check it out and discover one of the contemporary masters of the crime novel.This is an ambitious work; Hill clearly intends to transcend the police procedural genre, and includes a parallel story set in the ghastly killing fields of Passchendaele in the Great War that dovetails with the present-day murder case that is the nominal subject of the book. It must be said that the interwoven story of Pascoe's ancestor (who shares his name and is involved with ancestors of suspects in the killing that Pascoe and Dalziel are investigating), strains credulity; it's a literary construct that doesn't really come off.But who cares? Hill as a writer is otherwise at the top of his game. It's full of witty dialogue (if only people in life -- myself included -- could set off such a string of verbal firecrackers, how much more entertaining our daily round would be!). Dalziel's Yorkshire dialect is a constant source of delight: I hope expressions like "nowt," "tha's," "lass," et al. aren't dying out. And as usual, the characters, especially the detectives and Pascoe's wife Ellie, are drawn in psychological depth.The novel can be enjoyed as pure entertainment. But, notwithstanding the parallel story's unlikelihood, it offers a window into the ungodly horrors of trench warfare in 1917 and the savagery of military "justice" in the British army of the time.

Reginald Hill brings serious talent to bear on the often-debased mystery genre. His stories never fail to compel the reader's attention and (often) emotion, and in "Fat Andy" Dalziel he has created a monumental (sorry) character. And that's not to downplay Pascoe or Wieldy -- but Dalziel's shadow is a hard one to get out of."The Wood Beyond" is a particular favorite of mine. I thought that the WWI and present-day plots were extraordinarily well tied together, not always the case in stories using "time-shift"techniques. It's further proof that Reginald Hill is one of the best writers -- not just mystery writers -- working today.

Hill combines great plots with even better characters. I particularly like his books because they make me pay attention-skimming over a paragraph can be a fatal error.

Hill's police officers are a complicated and entertaining bunch, whose business it is to ask questions. In "The Wood Beyond" they have to think seriously about how many questions to ask. Everyone has skeletons of one sort or another, Pascoe, his relatives, his wife Ellie, DS Dalziel, Sergeant Wield, their chance acquaintances, their lovers, their adversaries, and their government. Professionally, the police are after the truth come what may. Personally, they know the consequences could be uncomfortable. And their professional and personal lives are firmly knotted together, both in the present and in the past. Reginald Hill writes about weighty issues while pursuing more than one intriguing murder mystery. His language follows the characters and the mood, from bawdy to poetic. Above all, beyond the history, philosophy and politics, this is a story about people who live, love and work the best way they know how, and manage to laugh along the way. Japrisot's "A Very Long Engagemen