Customer Reviews

Death's Jest-Book

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novel is an extraordinarily well-written hymn of praise to the soul and imagination of man. Certainly not a traditional suspense novel and difficult to read if you like Elmore Leonard or, even early days Hill, Jest-Book is more a book of the heart, than one of the mind--action is also downplayed until the very end of the book and is done very well. Franny Root's letters to Peter provide the motif for the novel and are its core. Beautifully written, full of nature, sensuality, beauty, passion and mystery, they beg for a positive response from Peter, which he can never give. Peter's regret that he didn't pursue an academic career, his jealousy of his wife's writing and her intellectual life is displaced with malicious animus towards Franny. There is always some question about Franny's motives, but I think most would agree that he genuinly likes Peter,wants to be his friend and inspire Peter to be a better person.
The plot involving Weildy is deftly handled with poignancy and love. This plot line gives us Hill's most tragic, most searing death.
The one flaw, and I believe it to be a big one, is the handling of Rye P. Whatever her psychological and physical problem may be, she needs to be held accountable for her actions--if for no other reason (and a big one) that Dick Dee's honesty and integrity needs to be retrieved, preserved and celebrated. Her suicide at the end of the book was dishonest and untrue to Dialogues. Hat should have understood who did all the killing in Dialogues. If he wants to forgive her fine, but to omit this from the story poisons both books. Also, one sentence indicating that Dalziel knew the truth about what happend with Dick Dee is only sufficient if the author wants to make clear to the reader that he is a "bent" cop. Those deaths in Dialogue were not the kind you write off. Why not vindicate Charley? Why not end the story with the chance that D and P may be demoted for altering a gruesome crime scene? Mr. Hill, is Dalziel really just the drunken joking philistine that he often seems to be? Is he a value relativist, who has corrupted Peter (yes, I think so)? In any event you have validated my reading most of your books laughing at Dalziel, not laughing with him. He is an anti-hero, good for a few yuks, essential to your stories, but decadent and more often than not detestable.
Back to Jest-book. The other reviews conflict with mine. Read this marvelous book and decide for yourself.

I am an avid Reginald Hill fan and have read all Daziel and Pascoe mysteries. What started my "obsession" was Dialogues of te Dead, which I thought was great. I then went back and read all the other D&P books, and even ordered the UK edition of Death's Jest Book, since it has been out since last September.

What a disappointment and waste of efforts and money. The plots are disconnected and some of the characters, which we have followed for several books now seem like completely different personalities.

I would definitely buy the next Hill D&P mystery, but this time wil wait for it to come in paper back, preferably in a used bookstore.

DEATH'S JEST-BOOK takes its title and its main themes from the Thomas Lovell Beddoes closet drama of the same name. (Readers unclear on the concept can rejoice that two different editions have just been published.) A direct sequel to DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD, this novel offers three different plots, all of which revolve around the frustrated yearning for dead or missing relatives, especially fathers: 1) the resolution to the Hat/Rye plot from DIALOGUES; 2) the ongoing battle between Peter Pascoe and the ex-con turned literary critic Franny Roote; and 3) rent boy Lee Lubanski's attempt to recruit Sgt. Wield as a father figure with the help of some crucial information. The second and third plots dovetail'one is tempted to say dead-end'in a major heist of English antiquities. I reviewed this book over at Amazon.co.uk about one and one-half years ago, and find that my opinions have hardened somewhat since then.

The most interesting of the three plots is #3, although somewhat hampered by the fact that Lee Lubanski's purportedly waifish charm is hard to discern. This plot is a course correction in Hill's representation of both Wield and his partner, Edwin Digweed. Up until now, Hill has tried to make this relationship simultaneously fraught with great emotional significance for Wield *and* a source of comic relief; the result has not been good. This time around, however, Wield indulges in paternal feelings that would explode most partnerships (hetero or homo) in about five seconds'one can't imagine Ellie putting up with Pascoe 'adopting' a teenage prostitute. The novel silently compares Wield's huffiness over Christmas ornaments (!) to Edwin's rather different response to a potentially explosive situation, and for once the comparison is to Wield's detriment. (Not that this is a bad thing: Wield has been hovering dangerously in the Never-Never-Land of Can Do No Wrong for the past few novels, and the negative nuance provides some welcome depth.) It will be interesting to see how Wield's character develops in light of the novel's conclusion.

The other two plots have, shall we say, difficulties. Hill wrote himself into a corner with the ending of DIALOGUES, and while he might have been better off adopting his DEADHEADS strategy, he decided to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, the resolution isn't plausible: it requires at least two annoying and unbelievable plot twists, at least one of which could have come straight out of a Lifetime movie. Worse still, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that both Dalziel and Pascoe deserve to be fired, demoted, or at the very least reprimanded--take your pick--for their behavior in the previous novel. Hat, at least, is more interesting than he was last time around, especially since Shirley Novello returns as an enjoyable foil. The Franny Roote plot, meanwhile, needed a hardnosed editor. Roote, this book's resident first-person oddball narrator, writes Pascoe letters from what seems like all over the globe. The letters are long. Really long. Really, really long. And dull. Meanwhile, the conclusion of his particular plot is not only over the top but also out of character.

Despite the caveats, however, this pudding has enough plums to content any Dalziel and Pascoe fan. Roote's letters aside, Hill's prose has plenty of zing, and the comic touches--Shirley Novello's sex life generates the novel's most hilarious line--leaven the otherwise downbeat lump nicely. The DEATH'S JEST-BOOK/'Dance of Death' themes work well, and the novel at least opens up potentially interesting lines of development for its main characters.

I really had to work at it to finish this book, yet I really liked many aspects of the story. There were several sub-plots and a great twist at the end, and there is plenty of British humor in Mr. Hill's narrative.

However, I think the book was a little too long, in part because of the drudgery of Franny Roote's letters. I think he (Mr. Hill) could have throttled back on the letters a bit and that would not have affected the story yet would have cut down on a bunch of pages.

My other real problem was the head hopping. By that, I mean Mr. Hill would change point of view multiple times in a chapter, sometimes even in a paragraph. Sometimes it was to the point that I had no idea who was talking, thinking, or doing whatever, until a tag line came along to clue me in. This problem might not have bothered me several years ago but since I am a struggling writer, I keep having it beat into me to never head hop, keep the point of views straight, to the point where I'm a little sensitive to it. Then again, Mr. Hill is an established writer so he can get away with a lot more than a first time writer can. Oh well...

One other thing is the poetry scattered throughout the book. Maybe it's just me, but I could not make head or tails out of any of it. I mean, I understood the words, but the "deep" meanings were just too deep for me. Then again, I've never liked poetry so I don't really have a good frame of reference for the art form.

Anyway, this is not by any means a bad story despite my few criticisms, and I recommend it for anyone that has some time on their hands.

Reginald Hill does an awesome job of weaving together many multicolored threads in this book. Each plotline is beautifully spun out, each character believably inhabited, as always, but "Death's Jest-Book" raises to a new level the question of who-done-what that Hill has used to tantalize readers in previous books. Be sure to read "Dialogues of the Dead" before you open this, or you'll miss half its power. "Jest-Book" and "Dialogues" are probably the best detective stories I've read in 30 years.

I knew I was going to be disappointed. How could I possibly not be? After all, this book follows on from Dialogues of the Dead (which, by the way, is a masterpiece and the best book I have ever read). However, while I was expecting disappointment, I wasn't really expecting it on quite such a large scale.

Hill here tries to juggle three plots at once, and for the most he does the actual juggling quite well, but ultimately each plot is disappointing and the endings unsatisfying.

Firstly, Pascoe's mind is occupied once again by Franny Roote, a killer he once sent to jail. However, now released, the cunning and intelligent Roote is trying to convince Pascoe that he's changed his ways and just wants to get on with his book on the poet T.L. Beddoes. But Pascoe is still convinced Roote has a more sinister agenda... Then, there is DC Wield, who attempts to rescue a lad he thinks is in danger, but instead finds himself with a street-wise rent-boy under his wing. Then, when he lad gives him a tip-off about a long-planned robbery, good old Wieldy finds himself in a bit of a pickle... And then, of course, there's Hat Bowler, living in bliss with girlfriend Rye Pomona, the librarian whom he became so entangled with during the brilliance that was "Dialogues of the Dead". But even with them, too, something shattering lurks on the horizon...

This book may be very very well written, and very funny at times (Hill is on form there, at least), but that just isn't enough. The characters are ok and well developed, at least that much can also be said. However, you get the impression that Hill just got tired of his "Hat/Rye" storyline (such a joy in the last book) and tried to give them as little page-space as he could get away with, making their storyline - potentially the best - the most disappointing, and ending it annoyingly conveniently. Pascoe's storyline is just plain annoying. The long, dull, rambling letters Roote is writing to him get annoying almost as soon as they begin, and yet we are forced to endure an incessant barrage of them throughout the book! The antagonism between the two is also incredibly annoying, and I'm dead sick of it. It's now been going on for three books, and it still doesn't appear to be over. (Additionally, it's frustrating that the Roote we meet now just isn't the same person as the egotistical, cold killer we met in "An Advancement of Learning"). Wield's storyline is the most enjoyable, but in the end even that degenerates into a mundane heist plot-line that not even Hill's interesting writing style can make engaging.

Hill has tried to do too much, and spoiled it. This could have been a great book, but it really only serves to ruin the previous one, which it is nowhere near as good as. If you've not read Dialogues of the Dead, be sure to do so without delay, and then read this one if you have to.

For those readers that loved Dialogues of the Dead, the jest's on us.

I loathed Dialogues of the Dead and so I didn't have high expectations of this direct sequel. Imagine my suprise to find it enjoyable. It certainly doesn't measure up to Hill's finest, but I think overall this is an improvement on Dialogues, and is headed in the right direction of getting the Daziel and Pascoe series back on an interesting and rewarding track.

Hill tackles some weighty themes: death, revenge, father-figures and obssession, not necessarily successfully. Still, his writing and wit are in top form and do much to disguise that this book and it's various conceits are riding on the insubstantial coat tails of what is essentially a heist mystery. The actual plot proves too thin to support the weight and the book ends rather flatly as a result.

For those who love or loath Franny Roote, Hill tried to be coy about his ultimate rehabilitation. His letters to Pascoe were initially intriguing, but they ended up interrupting the flow of the narrative too much and became intrusive. I do think Hill did an excellent job of leaving Franny's motives ambiguous. He could be reformed, or he could be a murderer. The denouement at the end is not by any means final, neither answering to Roote's motivations or in any way ultimately deciding his fate. I suspect that Roote will continue to plague Pascoe and unfortunately the readers for some time to come.

Other less successful elements include wrapping up the murderer from Dialogues. It is here that I think Hill copped out, big time, as if the entire Dialgues wasn't a cop out, he fails to satisfactorily resolve the fate of the villain in the piece, who not only is NOT brought to justice, but who is provided a physical reason for their behavior, essentially saying it wasn't in their control, so oh well. That really bothered me.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* you've been warned!

The one theme I do think Hill succeeds in imparting is that death is a jest on us all, readers and characters alike. Whether we like it or not, we don't always get all the answers we want, because sometimes they go to the grave. Rye Pomona the murderess not only is exculpated through a physical malady, she gets to die without being brought to any justice regarding her many Wordman crimes. Indeed, her death doesn't definately answer anyone's questions about her involvement, so only Death will know for sure. The same scenario applies to Franny Roote, as we end the book with him clinging to life by a thread, leaving Pascoe unsure til the end, not only about Franny's guilt but also his true motivations. And does his self-sacrificing act to save Rosie provide the evidence we need to declare his guilt or innocence one way or the other? Again, only Death will know. Death cheats again with the killing of Lee. Although his story is much less ambiguous that the Rye and Roote subplots, his passing still leaves Wield with unresolved questions that now will never be answered.

Now that ostensibly the two biggest unresolved plotlines of the last two books have been addressed, I look forward to seeing our crime fighting duo back on track for more interesting and well-written mysteries. Whatever other faults Hill may have, you can't say he doesn't have ambition and daring to try for something more than an English cosy. Whether you liked or hated Dialogues and/or Jest, there was certainly food for thought mixed in there. Sometimes intigrating it with the conventions of the murder mystery/police procedural works, sometimes it doesn't.

I am not surprised that so many fans find this book disappointing; I must state that when I read it first, I was of the same mind. And a more mature re-reading with Dialogues of the Dead first, I changed my mind.
First of all, let's take Dialogues, obviously, the two books are part of the same soil, sprouting trees at different times but close to each other, is so good, that it dazzles. Paronomania (didn't Morse talk about it in Way through the Woods?) and other word plays make the puzzle so much more an exercise in literary treasure hunt. Thomas Lovell Beddoes,how many people know of him or care (?), is the central running theme: a poet who was abnormally concerned with Death and died by committing suicide.
Mr. Hill, a scholar, a writer who had matured faster than any vintage wine since his first book, A Clubbable Woman, published in 1970. A little more than thirty years, from a 'summat' nice book to a novel that defies the genre, by devious and meticulous plotting, characters that leap out and assault your senses, and use of the language that frequently sends you to the solace of consulting a dictionary, just to calm your fears.
Let's see: Peter Pascoe, an ordinary, smart detective, Andrew Dalziel, God's gift to Yorkshire Police and a man who would stand up on Judgement Day with a pint of Highland Park and a fearless mind, Ellie, who by her own admission a feminist but wants her husband when her daughter is in danger, Wieldy, a gay, bike riding Sergeant who survives Dalziel's scrutiny, and Bowler, called Hat. Not to forget Rye Pomona, who mourns the death of her brother and keeps his ashes on her mantelpiece.
Characters that Dickens would have been proud to have created. Situations that would have taxed Conan Doyle's fertile imagination, language that would put a red blush on the cheeks of a hard hearted lady of the night.
Language? Yes, more frank than Christie would have approved of, but not gratuitous like Mr. King's.
A Shakespeare of Mystery Writers? Why not? An empathy with his creations, and a gift for words that bring them to life, make the author supremely sure of his craft.
Exaggerated for sure, but as near to the truth that Chandler wrote like a 'slumming angel.' In his classic but looking back, trite and self serving, A Simple Art of Murder, admittedly written in the dying year of the Second World War, he made fun of the traditional British Mystery. He scoffed at the plotting, the improbabilities, shallowness of the characters and could not define why they were so popular. Mr. Hill has taken all those weaknesses and turned them into Herculean muscles, while keeping the classic British mystery alive.
Admittedly, what turned me off in the first reading, was the length. But following the Dialogues, (there was a gap of one year or so before I read the Jest-Book, originally)the two books present an uninterrupted, fascinating tome that rival any of the greatest Victorian and Edwardian British novelists. I, who frequently complain about editors letting their writers meander on unnecessarily, can only felicitate Mr. Hill's, if he has one, in not letting in a single page of extraneous waste.
No, this is not Michael Connelly nor Dennis Lehane, for he is without a genre or style. He simply rises above all that by creating characters one can sympathize with, hate or love, all without distracting from the narrative.
A superlative effort, perhaps the best of the author's life time, certainly a watershed even in the most Classics of Mystery genre.
Give it time, it will grow on you, like the effects of a slowly sipped fifteen year old single malt whiskey.

Reginald Hill's "Death's Jest-Book" is a British police procedural with a literary flair. Hill's large cast of characters include Peter Pascoe, a Yorkshire policeman with a suspicious nature, Andy Dalziel, his obnoxious but canny superior, and Franny Roote, an ex-con who may or may not be on the road to rehabilitation.

Pascoe is the cop who put Roote into prison. Now that Roote is free, he writes a series of long letters to Pascoe in which Roote claims to have embraced the rich and satisfying life of academia. Pascoe, ever watchful and cynical, believes that Roote's letters may be veiled threats to Pascoe and his family as well as mocking references to crimes for which Pascoe has insufficient evidence to arrest Roote. The letters irritate Pascoe and he is desperate to find a way to put Roote behind bars for good.

Hill skillfully deconstructs the minds of both policemen and criminals as he demonstrates that these seemingly opposite types have much in common. To succeed in what they do, both the policeman and the criminal must be aggressive, tough minded, clever, and focused. Neither profession is for the weak-willed.

"Death's Jest-Book" is filled with wry and sometimes hilarious humor, literary allusions, and surprising twists and turns. The secondary characters, including a Detective Constable named Hat Bowler and his lady love, Rye Pomona, are as carefully fleshed out as the main players. Hill takes his time examining the inner thoughts of each character, making it clear that underneath the superficial veneer that most people present to the world are a host of hidden fears, dark secrets, needs, and passions.

The book's one flaw is its excessive length and occasionally slow pacing. At almost 560 pages, "Death's Jest-Book" from time to time gets bogged down in too much verbiage. Still, Hill has created a fascinating world of con men and cops, all of whom are flawed human beings struggling to understand and cope with life's challenges. At times poignant, at other times wickedly amusing, "Death's Jest-Book" is a challenging and engrossing psychological mystery.

"Sod thinking, try drinking!" And once you're done with the booze, try reading Death's Jest-Book, which is full of great quotes like that first one. This book makes me wish I were a man, just so I could say, "Now let's get into the car...afore my b*ll*cks drop off and crack the pavement." (I don't really wish it, of course -- it's already hard enough finding a boyfriend.)

But there's more to the book than quotes about b*ll*cks; this book is about obsession. Reginald Hill takes obsession out of the hands of baby-stealing trailer women (and Calvin Klein) and gives it back to the rest of us. Maybe you're hung up on that childhood incident involving the Pillsbury Doughboy, or maybe you can't stop buying bowling trophies on EBay. Whatever it is, I'm sure you're quite normal all-in-all, and so are Hill's characters; as you read the book, you'll barely notice your concept of normality expanding like the proverbial American melting pot, welcoming loonies and non-loonies alike (no offense to Canadians).

This book is also about dichotomies...academics who delight in pubescent jokes, serial killers who cry, and the grey area (well, maybe red would be a more fitting color) where police and criminals meet and mingle.

I'm reading another mystery book right now (by a different author), whose characters all sound like the same person. The only thing differentiating them are their physical descriptions. Already I miss Reginald Hill -- his characters are all what you'd call, "real characters."