When Pal Maciver commits suicide, Detective Superintendent Dalziel is in a hurry to get the case handed over to the uniformed police, but Detective Pascoe has an uneasy feeling about the case that just won’t go away. It’s not only that Pal committed suicide exactly in the same way that his father had killed himself a decade earlier, or that the man’s family seems to be exceptionally hateful toward each other, or that the previous suicide had, apparently, been swept under the rug rather quickly and by none other than Dalziel himself. Pascoe finds himself unable to let the case go, even as Dalziel orders him to do so….This is, I think, the 21st Dalziel and Pascoe novel, and while it’s significantly shorter than its immediate predecessors, it’s still quite dense in terms of personalities, motives and historical resonances. I’m not sure it would make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the previous novels, but it is certainly another gripping tale! Recommended. ( )

A decent mystery, though not the best in the series in my view. ( )

Three and a half stars. Good mystery good reader. It makes me want to go back and find the back story for these detectives. ( )

Classic Hill with scintillating use of language, puns, allusions, and a nifty mystery to boot. Not only that, you'll learn who the "funnyboogers" are. Some people dislike Hill's work as being too cerebral. Nonsense. They can be read on a multitude of levels, and Hill remains one of my favorite authors.

An intriguing and complex story. A man is found dead in a locked room, ostensibly having blown his head off. The story becomes even more mysterious when it's learned he killed himself in a way identical to his father some ten years earlier, even to the Emily Dickensen book of poems found open to virtually the same page in each case.

Statements from the participants given to the police are layered throughout the book and each provides a very different view of events. Lots of questions move the story along. What is Andy's relationship to Kay? Why does Andy keep trying to steer Pete away from his questioning what appears to be simply a case of copy-cat suicide? And who is the rather ordinary VAT inspector who seems to know more than he should?

The ending will be disconcerting to those who like everything tied up with a bow. I found it to be very satisfactory. Great title, by the way, the significance of which is revealed in the book. ( )

My first in this series. Terrifically enjoyable page turner with great characters. ( )