I'd forgotten what a pleasure it is to read one of these Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries. I found this one, tucked up unread on the shelf, like an unexpected gift.

Hill's characters have depth, his plotting is intricate, and he provides many twists and turns not to mention somersaults and backflips on the way to solving the mystery. This one involves a murder from 1963 which is being reinvestigated officially by the police, and off the books by Dalziel. It kept me guessing until the very end. ( )

This started off well, but I soon began to find it confusing: there were too many people at the house party in the 1960s who were all sleeping with each other and some of them were British and some of them were American. Dalziel and Pascoe were their usual selves and the humour was there, but I found it hard to care about any of the other characters.

The solutions to the various mysteries were convoluted and involved Dalziel going to the US and apparently not knowing what a muffin or a pretzel is. I was glad when it was all over, but I'm not sure even now I grasped the whole plot. ( )

The decision by the narrator/publisher to have the Yorkshire accent feature so strongly in this audio book was a brave one, and, for this non-Yorkshire listener, a trying one. I kept wishing they would lapse into "proper" English.

The story begins with the release of Cissy Kohler from prison, her sentence quashed, but the reason for the release is not given. "New evidence at come to light" - at the instigation of an American TV host into whose care Cissy is released.

The conviction obtained 30 years before is under scrutiny, especially the role played by the now-dead Inspector Tallantire, Dalziel's old boss. If Cissy Kohler is innocent, what does that mean in the case of Mickledore who was hanged for the murder?

In the long run the plot was a very complex one with some historical roots. Listening to an audio version probably detracted from my ability to follow the plot, as it is very difficult to check on a point that you didn't quite get the significance of at first. This book also has little quotations at the beginning of each chapter, and their meaning often quite eluded me.

I was struck though by Reginald Hill's at times quirky sense of humour, interesting turn of phrase, an allusions to other literature. ( )

At a private house party in 1963, a Royal diplomat, a CIA officer and a Tory minister, among others, play and hunt - until the wife of one of the party is found dead in the gun room. Was it a suicide, an accident or, possibly, murder? A very young Andrew Dalziel is part of the investigating team, which ends with a peer being hanged and an American nanny spending decades in a British jail. Fast forward 30 years and the case is being reopened, with a view toward blaming Dalziel’s former superior for a miscarriage of justice, something Dalziel cannot abide…. It took some time to locate a copy of "Recalled to Life," as it seems to be out of print generally, but my husband managed to track it down. It is the 13th novel in the long Dalziel and Pascoe series, and draws upon real British scandals while examining the justice system through a fictional scandal. Dalziel gets to America, which is a hoot, and all the literary tricks and scathing humour that we’ve come to expect in this series are on full display; recommended! ( )

Recalled to Life by Reginald Hill - very good

I always forget just how good Reginal Hill's writing is until I pick up one of his novels.

This is the 12th Dalziel & Pascoe book (I haven't read them all, but those I do are read in order) and they improve as you go. The first couple I read, I really didn't like. They were set in the 1970s and in accordance with the time, they were horribly sexist.

This one brings us to the 1990s, but also looks back to 1963, the height of the Profumo Scandal and a murder in a country house. Various leading lights of the day are present and Dalziel is a young policeman in support of the Investigating Officer. Now the conviction is looking unsafe and the young Nanny who was convicted at the time is released after serving nearly 30 years. There is to be a review of the case by a different force, but Dalziel wishes to protect the reputation of his friend and mentor and is also still convinced they got it right at the time.

Cue the adventure....

This one was really a page turner, flew through it.
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