Good Morning, Midnight

Stylistic flourishes, variety of tone, rich characterization, convoluted relationships, and excessive discursiveness inform this British procedural, set in Yorkshire. Abrasive Detective Superintendent Dalziel and gentlemanly DCI Pascoe, heroes of 19 novels and 10 seasons on BBC TV, investigate an apparent suicide. Exactly 10 years after his father's suicide, the son seems to have killed himself in the same place and manner. But the circumstances are suspicious. Sandpaper-voiced Shaun Dooley handles the narrative serviceably in an authentic regional accent. He excels in the many long dialogue and monologue passages, which he delivers with depth, color, and understatement. What he and the novel lack is suspense. It's as if the case were merely an excuse for a sojourn among these characters. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 16, 2004
One part traditional English whodunit and one part shadowy corporate thriller, Diamond Dagger winner Hill's 21st Dalziel/Pascoe mystery (after 2003's Death's Jest-Book
) weaves a complex and deeply satisfying tale. Pal Mciver is found dead, an apparent suicide, in a locked room of the old family house in Yorkshire. The circumstances mimic the suicide of his father, a former Ashur-Mac corporation executive, 10 years before. A book of Emily Dickinson poems found at the scene may hold clues to both deaths. Called in to investigate, detectives Peter Pascoe and Andy Dalziel find themselves entering an ever-widening and ever more intricate web of relationships. The particulars of some of these relationships hint at murder rather than suicide. Kay Kafka, Pal Mciver's stepmother, is particularly well drawn, a mixture of sadness, salaciousness, possible malice and cool intelligence. As the novel nimbly moves from character to character, it also calls into question the motives of Ashur-Mac, whose arms dealings ring a note of present-day relevance. Throughout, Pascoe and Dalziel are their usual witty, intelligent selves; they continue to be two of the more interesting police detectives in modern crime fiction. The descriptions of Dalziel are particularly fine: "like a shark dumped in a swimming pool, Dalziel provided a new and unignorable focus of attention." Hill has provided readers with a superior example of the mystery form—one with a deliciously cold sting in the final pages. Agent, Caradoc King at A.P. Watt. (Oct. 3)

Forecast:
A blurb from Ian Rankin will alert his readers. Hill should also benefit from the rising popularity of Peter Robinson's Yorkshire mysteries in the U.S.