Deadheads (Dalziel & Pascoe Novel) [Mass Market Paperback]

Reginald Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2003 | Series: Dalziel & Pascoe Novel

'Humour and topicality along a cold enigmatic trail of murder' Observer Life is a bed of roses for Patrick Aldermann when Great Aunt Florence collapses into her Madam Louis Laperrieres and he inherits Rosemont House with its splendid gardens. But when his boss, 'Dandy' Dick Elgood, suggests to Peter Pascoe that Aldermann is a murderer -- then retracts the accusation -- the inspector is left with a thorny problem. By then Police Cadet Singh, Mid-Yorkshire's first Asian copper, had dug up some very interesting information about Patrick's elegant wife Daphne. Superintendent Dalziel, meanwhile, is attempting to relive the days of Empire with Singh as his tea-wallah.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Donna Leon, Sunday Times 'The finest male English contemporary crime writer' Val McDermid 'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories intertwining' Ian Rankin 'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists' The Times 'These novels last, like a grand malt whisky -- rounded, rich, intoxicating! Here is an author at his formidable best' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday 'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder' Sunday Telegraph 'He is probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world' Andrew Taylor, Independent 'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Tom Hiney, Observer

From the Publisher

WINNER OF THE CWA'S DIAMOND DAGGER AWARD

'One of Britain's most consistantly excellent crime novelists' - Marcel Berlins, The Times

'Humour and topicality along a cold enigmatic trail of murder' - Christopher Wordsworth, Observer

'Hill is among the most entertaining and invigorating detective novelists writing at present' - Patricia Craig, TLS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Pb (November 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0586072527
• ISBN-13: 978-0586072523
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Reginald Hill has been widely published both in England and the United States. He received Britain's most coveted mystery writers award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, as well as the Golden Dagger for his Dalziel/Pascoe series. He lives with his wife in Cumbria, England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Hill's best books, not to mention very funny, April 3, 2002

By 

Raincitygirl (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deadheads (Dalziel & Pascoe Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe novels tend to be either gutwrenchingly intense (I cried my way through The Wood Beyond) or light-hearted and fun. Deadheads is definitely in the second category. It's a slightly offbeat story about a charmingly vague accountant called Patrick Aldemann, whose boss believes he's a multiple murderer. Detective Inspector Pascoe begins to investigate Aldemann, and discovers a disturbing number of deaths which have benefited the mild-mannered gardening enthusiast. As he continues to dig, he starts to realize htere could be other, equally criminal explanations which implicate other people, but Pascoe is abruptly pulled off the case. Patrick Aldemann is one of Hill's best creations. For two hundred odd pages we puzzle over whether he's a daffy, sweet-natured eccentric who just happens to have amazingly good luck, or whether he's actually a vicious sociopath. You wouldn't think it would be funny, but it is. Although not as good as Hill's comic piece de resistance Pictures of Perfection (Hill's best book), it is certainly worth reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did he or didn't he?, November 17, 2006

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadheads (Dalziel & Pascoe Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Pascoe finds himself asking this question when a friend of Andy's comes to him to tell him that he thinks a fellow-worker has been bumpuing people off, and now he appears to be trying with him. Dick said that a lamp blew up on him and his garage door almost fell on top of him. With no more than this, Pascoe sets out to find out if the man who loves roses is responsible for about seven or eight killings. People seem to have died all around him, but the deaths were all ruled as accidental. This book is a wonderful portrait of a psychopath, and Hill's depicition of his character and the character that everyone else sees is quite remarkable. An excellently well-written murder mystery, but in the hands of Hill, a good novel too.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yikes...an oldie but goodie!, July 30, 2002

By 

K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadheads (Dalziel & Pascoe Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

This one was definitely way up on my list of favorites. The play on language is even funny to me, a deaf person! I figure Hill must have known about the Grateful Dead, and the resident Deadheads, who I grew up with in the Bay Area in California. The information about roses was wonderful since my Dad planted them, but certainly was not as obsessive about his flowers as Patrick.
This rather charming man is not only a fanatic about his roses, but is also (or seems to be) a man who gets rid of those in his way, financially or otherwise.

It's kind of eerie to think that we have murderers among us, but I guess if we all realize that often innocents are sent to jail, the guilty are still at large! Patrick is so unassuming and charming, that he even makes friends of Pascoe and his wife Ellie. I really liked the plot development between the two women, one who prides herself on her radical causes and the other who would normal be referred to as elitist and prissy, but is actually otherwise.

The ending again surprised me. Just put it down to the fact that Hill likes to keep his public guessing. A very well-written and humorous mystery.

Karen SAdler