Book Review: Arms and the Women

Reviewed By: Carl Brookins - RAM

Arms and the Women     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Reginald Hill
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Dalziel & Pascoe # 17
Delacourt Press; Sep. 1999; $23.95; 408 pp

Cover copy calls this a work of intricacy, precision and psychological complexity. I cannot agree more emphatically. Yes, it’s another in what one hopes is an endless line of Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries. And yes, it contains powerful, evocative writing. “Here four men labored with shovels, their faces wrapped with scarves, not for disguise but as barrier against the stench of the decaying bat droppings they disturbed, while high above them a sea of leathery bodies rippled and whispered uneasily as the sound of digging and the glow of bull-lamps drifted up to the natural vault.”

Peter Pascoe’s wife, Ellie, is hard at work on her book. Yes, she’s hoping to be a published author one day. And then, abruptly, unexplicably, there is an abduction attempt on her. Though thwarted by Ellie’s nimble mindedness, the attempt sets in motion a vast, complex investigation and a plot that ranges over wide spaces of the English coastal area and pits D&P against some very nasty characters. Adding to the complications are difficulties over jurisdictional questions affecting the National Interest.

This is a complex story with a large cast of interesting characters and a strong sub-plot. It is an excellent novel by an excellent writer.

Carl Brookins - RAM

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