Satisfying end to excellent series

All good things come to an end but it is very sad that the death of Reginald Hill means that there will be no more of his superb Dalziel and Pascoe novels. I have read all of these before and over the past few years I have reread the series starting from the beginning with A Clubbable Woman and ending with the final book Midnight Fugue which is the only one I had not previously read.

In the latter books of the series Andy Dalziel, a flawed but effective police officer, has been recovering from a bomb blast (you can read about this in The Death of Dalziel see my review here and about the recovery in The Cure for All Diseases which I review here). In Midnight Fugue he is not sure if he is functioning correctly or thinking straight and he also suspects that his colleagues are not sure either. His partner Peter Pascoe is worried about how much he can rely on Dalziel.

The story takes place over a weekend when a number of events happen which don’t appear at first to be related. A woman asks Dalziel to investigate the possible reappearance of her husband who she thought was dead. Dalziel attends a church service. Pascoe attends a christening. A reporter is in search of scandal. A politician’s secretary suspects him of wrongdoing. A police officer is attacked. A man tries to buy status for his son by eliminating those who know what he has done. Two killers are looking for someone.

You are in safe hands with Reginald Hill. He takes these strands and weaves them together into a clever and compelling novel whilst making all the characters human. Dalziel tries to investigate the way that he would have before the bomb and observes that Pascoe is behaving more like Dalziel that he is himself. The story highlights human frailty and ambition. This is a very satisfying ending to this series as well as being a good story in its own right. It’s not as long as some of titles had been but there’s plenty for the crime reader to enjoy.

I highly recommend Reginald Hill’s books and especially those featuring Dalziel and Pascoe – you can read a short review of one of his best here. I have also read most of his other novels and there is a review of one set in WWII here.