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135th out of 150 books
—
51 voters
Bones And Silence (Dalziel & Pascoe #11)
One woman dead and one threatening to die set Yorkshire's police superintendent Dalziel and Inspector Pascoe on a chilling hunt for a killer and a potential suicide. A drunken Dalziel witnesses the murder that others insist is a tragic accident. Meanwhile the letters of an anonymous woman say she plans to kill herself in a spectacular way...unless Pascoe can find her first...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
June 1st 1991
by Dell
(first published 1990)
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I struggled with this book. Frankly, I found a lot of it rather dull. There's this huge section in the middle where Dalziel is convinced that someone has committed a crime but they can't find any evidence proving this. And they keep trying to find these clues...and they keep failing...and they look some more...and they still can't find anything... So needless to say, it got a little tedious. And I wasn't interested enough in the characters to enjoy the investigative process. It may not have help...more
While I enjoyed the first of the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries, A Clubbable Woman, I thought this one was better. Hill has fleshed out the personalities of his two lead sleuths. I found myself not particularly liking Dalziel in the first book - his unreconstructed blokishness was just a bit much. In Bones and Silence, Dalziel is still the same crude, hard-drinking policeman who's not above a little bending the rules to catch a guilty man, but he has a sympathetic side. Pascoe has been fleshed out...more
"Bones and Silence" is one of the many Dalziel/Pascoe mysteries by Reginald Hill that I have read although the first I have discussed on goodreads. It is typical of the series--the two main characters are police officers in mid-Yorkshire. Andy Dalziel is the fat, pugnacious and extremely effective senior officer--he is steadily promoted in the course of the series while Peter Pascoe is his more educated, less impulsive but still effective alter ego who is always a couple of pay grades junior to...more
Aug 14, 2012
Ibis3
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012,
audiobooks,
british,
england,
free,
mystery,
police-procedural,
siy21,
twentieth-century
I'm sad to say this is the first Dalziel and Pascoe mystery that I didn't love. The main mystery was okay (the twists were good though it was a little annoying that only Dalziel was sufficiently suspicious of Swain) but the subplot was where I felt totally let down. It was just too unbelievable. I mean, I get that depression and suicidal intent can come as a surprise to friends and family, but (view spoiler)...more
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May 23, 2008
rabbitprincess
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
police procedural fans; those who enjoy rich, deep mysteries
Recommended to rabbitprincess by:
cousin (it was a Christmas present)
If your chief superintendent witnesses what he believes to be a murder, but his account differs greatly from those of the "murderers", whom do you believe? Such is Pascoe's dilemma in this story. Dalziel witnesses a disturbance in the house behind his, runs to investigate, and sees what initially looks to be a suicide. The unstable and reckless Gail Swain has had her face blown off with a shotgun, while her husband and her lover fought to try to save her. Or did they? Dalziel is convinced that G...more
At last I've finished this bumper book from the splendid writer, Reginald Hill. Hill has an amazing way with words and setting the scene. For the duration of the book I WAS there, mixed up in the murders and gore of that Yorkshire man and his police force.A convoluted story with many twists and turns and a couple of background stories running parallel to the main theme.There is no doubt who the culprit is - it is just seeing hoe Dalziel pieces it all together before he can really the murderer. G...more
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This is the first Reginald Hill book I've read and it was delightful. Ok, the plot was hazy, but the language, all the twists and some extremely funny lines made it very enjoyable. There's one where the PC sits in front of his typewriter, stunned, looking like a chimpanzee about to begin on Hamlet. I laughed out loud, I feel like that sometimes when I sit in front of my keyboard...
Dec 07, 2010
Kirsty Darbyshire
added it
I really like the way Hill plays around with the structure of the Dalziel and Pascoe novels and the quality of the plots rarely drops below excellent as far as I'm concerned. I'm surprised that this is the book that Hill won the Gold Dagger for though as I thought the plot was a tiny bit ropey in parts and not as watertight as in previous books.
I really had some difficulty getting into this book. Many characters, multiple plot lines, but the largest issue was reader, who at times raced through the text as if he only wanted to get to the end of a paragraph. Strangely enough, this reader plays Dalziel in "Dalziel & Pascoe" so his reading of Andy Dalziel was perfect. 'Any road,' as they would say in mid-Yorkshire, my ears finally tuned themselves and by the end I found I was enjoying the book.
This book is one in a series. I haven't read the others, and I read this one as part of a Mystery Fiction literature class I am taking. It worked well as a stand-alone book, but it took me a while to get into it. The story takes place in England and the author is English. The narration uses a lot of English police / detective slang that took me a while to figure out, but eventually I really got into it.
language was hard for me to read sometimes.there is a big surprise at the end for the dark lady.sometimes you can go so blind that you can't see what's going on around the tip of your nose.I don't think swain is an intelligent villain.
This is a 2nd read, after some yrs. It pleased just as much (maybe more) the 2nd time around.
Pascoe & Dalziel please & delight me; & R. Hill's literacy makes me smile with satisfaction.
Pascoe & Dalziel please & delight me; & R. Hill's literacy makes me smile with satisfaction.
Another tremendous novel featuring Pascoe and Dalziel; as ever when reading Reginald Hill's work there is tremendous social comment subtly woven into a cracking tale.
The characters in this book are very well drawn. Conversations and narrative complex. I would like to read more of this author.
Another winner from HIll. His characters are so realistic and alive that you feel like you know them. I love that.
Hill's police procedural pair of Laurel & Hardy lookalikes appear in their 11th outing together.
Dalziel has been picked to play God in a local play. Can he do this while solving a murder that everyone else believes to be a suicide? Pascoe believes he's telling the truth but nobody else does. He is there to pick up the pieces as usual.
Dalziel has been picked to play God in a local play. Can he do this while solving a murder that everyone else believes to be a suicide? Pascoe believes he's telling the truth but nobody else does. He is there to pick up the pieces as usual.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Tense, fast, intriguing. Clear and compelling story with an explosive ending.
[2006-12-31] The main plot strand follows Dalziell's attempt to prove that a suicide he witnessed was in fact murder. There's a secondary plot following a series of letters written by a woman planning on committing suicide. Gradually the two entwine... Fascinating read, with a wrenching climax. But after my first reading I thought it was a bit of a cheat on the resolution to the secondary strand. Maybe there's something I'll be kicking myself over when I re-read.[return][return][return]http://ju...more
Always an enjoyable read
This book was too long, and sometimes contrived. Too many bodies.
One of the best.
I liked this! It's just another mystery, but Dalziel and Pascoe are great characters, unlike, let's say, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. Also, the supporting characters, though British, are not cutesy, quirky, or charming village folk. They're like actual working class people everywhere. Which was refreshing. The ending was silly and melodramatic, which marred the book.
Kept me fairly interested throughout - overall and in the end a decent read.
Dalziel is asked to play God; he does not think it's a stetch. Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield are the pinnacle of British police fiction.
Just love Daziel and Pascoe, and didn't work out what was going on until the end.
Three is the top mark I give to mysteries. Love the Pascoe and Dalziel series.
Another fabulous Pascoe/Dalziel. Love the idea of Dalziel playing God!!
Probably the fourth time I have read this.
Excellent! Also Underworld by him is great!
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Reginald Charles Hill is a contemporary English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from...more
More about Reginald Hill...
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from...more
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