Dialogues of the Dead (Dalziel & Pascoe Novel S.) - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Reginald Hill is a native of Cumbria and former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his novels featuring Superintendent Dalziel and DCI Pascoe, ‘the best detective duo on the scene bar none’ (‘Daily Telegraph’). Their appearances have won him numerous awards including a CWA Gold Dagger and Lifetime Achievement award. They have also been adapted into a hugely popular BBC TV series.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

In the Beginning was the Word …

A man drowns. Another dies in a motorbike crash. Two accidents … yet in a pair of so-called Dialogues sent to the Mid-Yorkshire Gazette apparently as entries in a short story competition, someone seems to be claiming responsibility for the deaths.

In Mid-Yorkshire CID the word is heard but not believed. Even Hat Bowler, the young DC who first gets a hold of the story only pretends to take it seriously in order to get closer to the girl of his dreams, librarian Raina Pomona. But when the story is leaked to television and a third indisputable murder takes place, Dalziel and Pascoe find themselves playing a game no-one knows the rules of against an opponent known only as the Wordman.

Gradually the hunt focuses on three main suspects. Still Dialogue follows Dialogue and funeral follows funeral, till finally Hat Bowler, who is at odds with his girlfriend over the direction of the police investigation, begins to fear that she may be about to find out he's right in the worst possible way.

Reginald Hill's books are always full of word-games, but they have rarely been so important as they are here. There are enough clues to weave a tapestry, but in this game just who is playing against whom? Is it the Wordman versus the police? Or the killer against his victims? Or is the real game between you, dear reader, and Reginald Hill himself, at his most intriguing, most enticing, most elusive best?

Acclaim for Reginald Hill

"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'

"Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifted: 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, 'Manchester Evening News'

" One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists"
MARCEL BERLINS, 'The Times'

"Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining"
IAN RANKIN, 'Scotland on Sunday'

"An increasingly lyrical and always humorous writer, he is first and foremost an instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift"
FRANCES FYFIELD, 'Mail on Sunday'

Praise for 'Arms and the Women'

"An intricate, witty and gripping thriller"
JESSICA MANN, 'Sunday Telegraph'

"Luminously written, thrilling in the best old-fashioned sense of the word, unexpectedly erudite, and beautifully structured"
GEOFFREY WANSELL, 'Daily Mail'

"Brilliantly written, highly amusing and extraordinarily readable"
T.J.BINYON, 'Evening Standard'