From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Hill, who has created and artfully guided the destinies of Yorkshire policemen Det. Supt. Andy Dalziel (aka "the Fat Man") and his DCI Peter Pascoe through 22 remarkable adventures, doesn't give anything away until the very last page of this excellent mystery (after 2004's Good Morning, Midnight). Only then do we learn whether or not the bomb blast that starts the story marks the end of Dalziel's life. As the Fat Man lies comatose in his hospital bed, the shrewd and usually diplomatic Pascoeβwho was also injured in the blast, but saved by his colleague's bulkβtakes on some of Dalziel's troublesome tenacity (as well as a touch of his saltier language) as he forces his way onto the team of antiterrorism specialists looking into the incident. The terrorists appear to be linked to an obscure branch of the historic Knights Templar, and Hill's perfect pitch (especially for the short, pithy details of dialogue and character description) carries the story through all sorts of villainsβsome of whom are even directly connected to the cops. (Mar.)
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From
This twenty-second in Hill's celebrated series about Dalziel and Pascoe, who work uncomfortably together in the Mid-Yorkshire Constabulary, should please longtime fans of the series (or viewers of the PBS version) but may bewilder new readers. Hill assumes a familiarity with the series that makes deciphering who these people are almost impossible without plenty of knowledge. His plotting, too, has an inner-circle feel to it, filled as it is with long digressions into domestic life and station-house characters that only the most loyal Dalziel/Pascoe fan would find compelling. The novel focuses on an explosion during a barricaded-suspect incident that leaves both Detective Superintendent Dalziel and Detective Chief Inspector Pascoe injured, with Dalziel hovering near death, in and out of stream of consciousness for most of the novel. The procedural elements are fairly dull this time, with the miscreants identified too quickly. This is definitely a lesser entry in the series, but Dalziel and Pascoe remain among the most popular coppers in the genre. Connie Fletcher
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