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Midnight Fugue (2009)

by Reginald Hill(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0061451967 (ISBN13: 9780061451966)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

HarperTorch

series

Dalziel & Pascoe

review 1: Andy Dalziel of the Mid-Yorkshire force is still somewhat in a fugue state after recovering from a bomb blast. He is drawn into an unofficial investigation of the disappearance seven years previously of a policeman who was under investigation. The policeman’s wife is unknowingly being watched by a well-connected gangster, whose son is on the rise in his political career. Dalziel can be a very annoying character, but the author deals sympathetically with a powerful character struggling with threats not only to his position but to his very sense of self.
review 2: Midnight Fugue is the twenty-second Dalziel and Pascoe book. The series has lost none of freshness, wit and verve. The story starts at a brisk pace and never lets up to the end. There are three ... moremain strengths to the book. First, the characterisation is excellent, and despite there being a large cast, each character is fully fleshed out and realised. Dalziel is a wonderful creation, possessing a number of negative traits, yet the reader can’t help but warm to his political incorrectness and bullying manner due to his generally good disposition. Second, the plotting, whilst quite complex and intricate, involving the intersection of several subplots, is very well done. Hill weaves the various strands together, whilst making sure the reader never gets lost, and there are two nice climaxes to the tale. It’s always difficult to avoid plot devices and the only let down to the telling were the use of two weak ones – both involving laptops and neither likely. Third, the storytelling and prose has verve and style. Hill manages to blend a serious crime story with farce, balancing seriousness with wit. It’s a difficult trick and he manages to pull it off with aplomb. And whilst the telling is so rich in detail and the plot reasonably complex, this is no doorstop of a book, and yet it does not seem rushed. The overall effect is a very enjoyable police procedural written by an author at the top of his game. less

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