A bomb couldn't kill Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel—but his convalescence at the Avalon Clinic in the quaint seaside resort of Sandytown ("Home of the Healthy Holiday") just might. Sneaking out to the local pub provides Fat Andy with a bit of necessary diversion, allowing him a pint or two on the sly, plus an update on the world of trouble outside the clinic—including the very different plans of a pair of powerful landowners for putting Sandytown more prominently on the map. But when a rather macabre murder calls Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe onto the scene, Fat Andy realizes that Avalon itself is no sanctuary from the lethal secrets of the local elite—or from the death tide that now, suddenly, is rising quite rapidly.
The Price of Butcher's Meat (Dalziel and Pascoe)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In Hill's solid 23rd Dalziel and Pascoe procedural set in Yorkshire, Det. Supt. Andy Dalziel doesn't see much of his longtime colleague, DCI Peter Pascoe, because Dalziel is recovering from the serious injuries he suffered in Death Comes for the Fat Man (2007) in the quiet resort of Sandytown. When the charred corpse of wealthy Lady Daphne Denham turns up in a revolving basket that had been used for a pig roast in Sandytown, the two policemen pursue largely independent investigations. Much of the background to Denham's demise comes from e-mails that in spots may puzzle those unfamiliar with e-mail jargon. More deaths follow before Hill offers a final twist that's unlikely to catch experienced genre readers by surprise. The crotchety Dalziel's chafing at the restrictions at the convalescent home where he's staying provides some amusing distraction from the somewhat leisurely crime solving. Newcomers might better start with earlier books in the series. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Bookmarks Magazine
The 23rd installment in the Dalziel-Pascoe series is classic Reginald Hill with its clever, suspenseful plot, droll social commentary, and graceful prose. Hill brings the standard epistolary novel squarely into the 21st century as he intersperses a conventional third-person narrative with e-mails and stream-of-consciousness observations from a digital voice recorder. Though Entertainment Weekly found this structure confusing at first and the New York Times Book Review considered these devices somewhat clumsy, others, such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, remarked that the techniques work "brilliantly." Hill's characters—part Jane Austen and part Agatha Christie—and frequent literary allusions exasperated some critics but charmed others. All agreed that Hill fans will be delighted, though other readers may want to start at the beginning of the series.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
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
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this terrific Dalziel/Pascoe mystery a few months ago under its original British title (see above), and it is one of my favorite books in the long-running series. Reginald Hill's mysteries are consistently witty and intelligent, but in this one he introduces a new style of storytelling for his rotund Inspector Dalziel and the charming young woman who comes to his aid--emails and tape recordings. The first-person recordings are interspersed with regular third-person narrative to give us a fascinating, multimedia tale of murder and mayhem in a seaside health clinic.
If you're familiar with Andy Dalziel, you can just imagine his mood when he is sent to the hospital in Sandytown ("Home of the Healthy Holiday!") to recuperate from the injuries he received in his last adventure. He's so bored and frustrated that he actually welcomes the murder of a prominent local woman as a chance to bust out of his enforced confinement. The mystery is excellent, and the suspects are a colorful group of oddballs. But my favorite part of this book is Andy's relationship with Charlie, the clever girl who helps him solve the case. THE PRICE OF BUTCHER'S MEAT is sheer pleasure, start to finish. Highly Recommended.
If you're familiar with Andy Dalziel, you can just imagine his mood when he is sent to the hospital in Sandytown ("Home of the Healthy Holiday!") to recuperate from the injuries he received in his last adventure. He's so bored and frustrated that he actually welcomes the murder of a prominent local woman as a chance to bust out of his enforced confinement. The mystery is excellent, and the suspects are a colorful group of oddballs. But my favorite part of this book is Andy's relationship with Charlie, the clever girl who helps him solve the case. THE PRICE OF BUTCHER'S MEAT is sheer pleasure, start to finish. Highly Recommended.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Price of Butcher's Meat is a very very good Hill tale. If you were fortunate enough to pick up A Cure for All Diseases in England a few months ago please know that it is the same story under a different USA title.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Needing to recover from "the big bang in Mill Street" that nearly killed him (see DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN) and no one able or willing to take him in, Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel heeds the advice of Ellie Pascoe, wife of the Chief Inspector. He obtains a room at the Avalon in Sandytown by the sea, "the Home of the Healthy Holiday".
As he records his feelings per his therapist, Dalziel quickly realizes three families own the small resort town under the auspices of the Sandytown Development Consortium. The Parkers, Denhams and Hollises have ambitious plans for Sandytown until Lady Denham dies mysteriously. Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe leads the investigation in which Dalziel wants in if nothing else at least as a consultant; on the other hand Pascoe desperately wants to keep his sick leave pal "Fat Andy" out so he can lead the show.
This is a refreshing excellent follow-up to DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN. The structure is a radical departure from the long running Dalziel-Pascoe police procedurals as it is told in six interrelated but unique volumes that make the tale more than a whodunit; the story line is a deep character study allowing insight into Dalziel via his taped observations and email sent by local Charlie Whiffle. With a nod to "Janeites" and homage to Jane Austen and her unfinished novel, Reginald Hill provides a great tale.
Harriet Klausner
As he records his feelings per his therapist, Dalziel quickly realizes three families own the small resort town under the auspices of the Sandytown Development Consortium. The Parkers, Denhams and Hollises have ambitious plans for Sandytown until Lady Denham dies mysteriously. Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe leads the investigation in which Dalziel wants in if nothing else at least as a consultant; on the other hand Pascoe desperately wants to keep his sick leave pal "Fat Andy" out so he can lead the show.
This is a refreshing excellent follow-up to DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN. The structure is a radical departure from the long running Dalziel-Pascoe police procedurals as it is told in six interrelated but unique volumes that make the tale more than a whodunit; the story line is a deep character study allowing insight into Dalziel via his taped observations and email sent by local Charlie Whiffle. With a nod to "Janeites" and homage to Jane Austen and her unfinished novel, Reginald Hill provides a great tale.
Harriet Klausner
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Some good, some not so
The author's use of the e-mails of a newcomer to Sandytown as a device to tell a good part of the story made what could have been a quite good, albeit much too long, book just... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Pat in Northern Utah
Mr. Hill, You Should Sue Whoever Wrote This Book and Put Your Name On...
What in the world has happened to Reginald Hill? Did he really write this book? I ploughed faithfully through quite a lot of it, all the while telling myself, "This is Reginald... Read more
Published 23 months ago by H. L. Cripe
Terrific, but be careful of the publishers' tricks
A fine adventure of Dalziel's post-bombing recovery (in fact, better than the book he was "bombed" in), BUT it was/is published under two different titles!! Read more
Published on February 14, 2010 by P. Bechtel
The Fat Man Recuperates
Reginald Hill can knock out a clean, taut procedural as well as anyone else. But as fans know, he can also mix and mutate the classic British cop story with any number of other... Read more
Published on December 6, 2009 by wolfe275
Spin on Austen
This book is clever and terrific. It is a take-off on Jane Austen's "Sandition". Sandition was never completed by Austen, but was finished by "another woman", quite nicely. Read more
Published on November 14, 2009 by Mindah Glatstein
boring as h...
I was shocked to realize this book was utterly Boring. I love Reg Hill but this was awful. Could barely get through it.
Published on October 2, 2009 by agnes bonaparte
Really Boring
I used to really enjoy Reginald Hill, but it seems he's going the way of a lot of successful authors who seem to write longer and longer and worse and worse books. Read more
Published on September 17, 2009 by S. Wheeler
Far from the highlight of a long-established and sometimes excellent...
Let's get it out in front, as author Reginald Hill kindly advises us in the preface to this 500-plus page tome, "The Price of Butcher's Meat" is his updated take on and completion... Read more
Published on September 15, 2009 by L. E. Cantrell
Good but annoying
This is a good, interesting mystery in terms of characters and setting. The plot is almost irrelevant; it's not confusing, but it's very secondary. Read more
Published on July 22, 2009 by Pennsylvania Reader
Worth being patient
I am an avid fan of Reginald Hill's but found this book hard to get into and nearly gave up. I am so glad that I didin't because I thoroughly enjoyed it after I got over the... Read more
Published on May 9, 2009 by Jacqueline Brennan
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
