Death's Jest-Book (Hardcover)

by Reginald Hill (Author) "'That's it, man. Hold her head, hold her head..." (more)
Key Phrases: rusty bum, serpent crown, other bugger, Fat Man, Franny Roote, Charley Penn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Diamond 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.

From Booklist
Hill, 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 Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060528052
• ISBN-13: 978-0060528058
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #986,096 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hill takes risks. Succeeds admirably., November 3, 2003

By	J. Clemons "clotblaster" (Surfdom California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "A wedding-robe, and a winding-sheet...", September 25, 2003

By A Customer

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing sequel of "Dialogues of the dead", October 8, 2003

By	Emilia Palaveeva "ema-in-seattle" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.