D&P20 - Death's Jest-Book

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From Publishers WeeklyDiamond Dagger winner Hill ties up some loose ends from his previous Dalziel/Pascoe book, Dialogues of the Dead (2002), in this gritty, witty psychological suspense novel, whose title evokes a work by 19th-century poet and dramatist Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Rising academic Franny Roote, in spite of time spent in jail for murder and as a suspect in three other crimes, seems on his way to assured literary fame, and he's been writing DCI Peter Pascoe to share the glad tidings. Roote, in his affectionate, eloquent missives, assures Pascoe that he doesn't hold a grudge-is even, perhaps, grateful-for the part Pascoe played in his incarceration, which ultimately led to his fulfilling new life. For Pascoe's part, however, the letters are filled with menace and mockery: every reference to Pascoe's wife and daughter, every suspicious circumstance recounted, convinces him that Roote is still a foul crook with vendetta on his agenda. Meanwhile, the burgeoning passion between Rye Pomona and DC "Hat" Bowler, following the grisly end of Dickie Dee, may unsettle readers of Dialogues of the Dead. With so many characters and circumstances that may not be as they appear, this is more of a "who-might-do-what" than a "whodunit." The simultaneous release of the mass market edition of Dialogues of the Dead is fortunate, as the uninitiated would be well advised to read it first. Those who do will want to grab the next volume immediately.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. FromHill, author of 20 Yorkshire police procedurals and winner of Britain's prestigious Diamond Dagger Award, goes a bit overboard in his latest, a 558-page thriller that is about 300 pages too long. Things get off to Hill's usual, promisingly bleak start: Yorkshire Detective Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe receives a series of creepily confiding letters, hinting at murder plans, from an ex-con sociopath Pascoe put away. The ex-con is enjoying a new scam as a quasi-academic, delivering a paper on an Elizabethan revenge tragedy, Death's Jest Book, at Cambridge. When the body of a don is discovered after a fire in the college, a crafty maze game ensues, with Pascoe pursuing the ex-con, who is stalking him. If readers can hold on to this plot line through the ornate subplots (one of which involves a Yorkshire cop who is dating a female serial killer), they will be rewarded with Hill's deft planting of suspense bombs. Mostly for the initiated Pascoe fan. Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved