Arms And The Women (Dalziel Pascoe, #18) by Reginald Hill

Arms And The Women (Dalziel Pascoe, #18) Reviews

• 
  Kirsten

  Dalziel and Pascoe just get better and better! But what made this one even more enjoyable was the light shone on Mrs. Peter Pascoe - Ellie.
  
  The book had a wonderfully intricate plot as well as snippets of a book Ellie is writing that plays with the characters of the Odyssey and the Aeneid. (It was kinda funny since I watched the opera Les Troyens while reading this book and it was based on The Aeneid!)
  
  In this book Ellie is threatened and Dalziel & Pascoe have to figure out what is going on. The story is very satisfying. I just love these characters.
• 
  Richard

  Arghh! Why is it that so many writers of fiction feel such an irresistible compulsion to weave the words of Homer, and especially of his epic poem “The Iliad,” into their stories? Now, Reginald Hill has joined those other misguided authors. Contrary to apparent beliefs that quoting from Homer, or paraphrasing him, adds to the literary quality of stories, it just makes them stale and artificial. I’m sure that the purpose was some sort of metaphor, but it certainly didn’t work.
  
  The plot of this novel is really far-fetched. It is complex, convoluted, and difficult to follow. If I had not already been familiar with this author’s writings, I would have abandoned the book after only about 100 of the 500-plus pages it contains. This is clearly not one of Mr. Hill’s better works. Of the twenty-four Dalziel and Pascoe books that I have so far read, this is probably as bad as “The Price of Butcher’s Meat,” which warranted only two stars.
  
  As his writing career progressed, Hill began experimenting with various literary devices – perhaps in the vain hope of joining the classic authors that we studied in our college Literature courses. Filling his stories with the hijacked words and style of Homer is not, in my opinion, the way to accomplish that goal. Dalziel and Pascoe, along with Sgt. Wield, DC Novello and the other members of the Mid-Yorkshire CID gang, are interesting characters in their own right, and their straight-forward police procedural activities are entertaining and interesting enough that mucking them about with the writings of Homer is completely unnecessary. Actually, in fact, it is a distraction from the characters we have grown to know and love, and from the generally good detective writings of a talented author.
  
  In this story, centered around Ellie Pascoe, wife of DCI Pascoe, the plot is so convoluted and chaotic that it defies comprehension. Colombian drug dealers and revolutionaries are mixed up with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the secretive British Security Service in an unlikely story about arms smuggling and drug dealing, along with revolutionary activities in South America. This one was too far over the top, and I award it only two stars. Skip this book. At 502 pages, it is more than twice as long as it needed to be. Of course, if you suffer from insomnia, this snoozer might help you get to sleep.
• 
  Carl Brookins

  Cover copy calls this a work of intricacy, precision and psychological complexity. I cannot agree more emphatically. Yes, it's another in what one hopes is an endless line of Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries. And yes, it contains powerful, evocative writing.
  
  "Here four men labored with shovels, their faces wrapped with scarves, not for disguise but as barrier against the stench of the decaying bat droppings they disturbed, while high above them a sea of leathery bodies rippled and whispered uneasily as the sound of digging and the glow of bull-lamps drifted up to the natural vault."
  
  Peter Pascoe's wife, Ellie, is hard at work on her book. Yes, she's hoping to be a published author one day. And then, abruptly, inexplicably, there is an abduction attempt on her. Though the attempt is thwarted by Ellie's nimble-mindedness, the act sets in motion a vast, complex investigation and a plot that ranges over wide spaces of the English coastal area and pits D&P against some very nasty characters. Adding to the complications are difficulties over jurisdictional questions affecting the National Interest.
  
  This is a complex story with a large cast of interesting characters and a strong sub-plot. It is an excellent novel by an excellent writer. Hill handles his characters, his plot and his setting with consummate skill. .More than ten years old now, its well worth seeking out.
  
  
• 
  Larraine

  love Reginald Hill, but this book is not among my favorites. While I appreciate the wit and erudition that he displays in this book and others, this one is a little over the top. When someone tries to abduct Ellie Pascoe, the first thought is that someone is trying to avenge themselves on her husband. It is DS Shirley Novello who suggests otherwise, and she turns out to be correct. Since I read this out of order, I didn't know that Rosie (Ellie and Peter Pascoe's daughter) had meningitis and was very ill for a long time, plus her best friend died. This is the book that follows that period. Ellie has written a book which has been sent off to a publisher. Now she sits in a windowless storeroom working on a "comfort blanket" of a novel featuring Aeneas and the aftermath of the Greek/Trojan War. I could have done without that. The book is nearly 500 pages long. It could have done with a bit of editing in my opinion. Still it's a good one and worth reading. Just do what I did which was to skip some of the action and the book within a book.
• 
  Harry

  Dreadful. A Colombian rebel who speaks in faux Shakespearean. A book whose action sequence hinges on a simulated multiple rape scene. Multiple unnecessary and abortive diversions through Odysseus' voyages. Some reviewers here seem to think that the book's focus on women is redemption enough for these catastrophes. I wish I had their forbearance.
  
  The last line is about how the two words, 'the end' are, for writers, the two most beautiful and painful words. As a reader who has struggled to read "Arms and the Women" and reached those two words with something approaching desperate relief, I couldn't agree more.
  
  
• 
  Wide Eyes, Big Ears!

  Whatever Hill was trying to achieve in this book, it didn’t work. There are two convoluted stories with ridiculous coincidences which link towards the end: a drug deal involving Colombian drug dealers, IRA revolutionaries, and Special Branch, and an attempted abduction of Pascoe’s wife. Worse, we are subjected to large excerpts of the Homeric book Pascoe’s wife is writing. It may have been a self-indulgent attempt at deep metaphor but really just distracts and annoys. If this was the first Dalziel & Pascoe book I read, I’d never read another.
• 
  El

  Somebody recommended that I should read a Dalziel and Pascoe book and this was the only audiobook the Library had. Maybe not the best idea to begin a series on No 18! I've seen the odd episode on the tele but this book didn't seem to be by the same author. I was confused by the convoluted and often unbelievable plot, had no idea why the Homeric side-plot was included (this just distracted and bored me) and found the ending laughable. I also never understood the point of the Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves sections. On the plus side, I thought the characters were well drawn and some of the plot (the credible bits) was interesting but if I'd not been told how good a writer Mr Hill is this would have been my first and last of his books. I will now try an earlier book in this series and hope it is a better read. (The narrator, Jonathan Keeble, was very good.)
  
  'spelt from Sibyl's Leaves'
• 
  Clare

  I am on a mission to read all the Reginald Hill books at my local library, and this is my favorite so far because it celebrates women and their resourcefulness. This plot was more understandable to me than some of Hill's plots in other books. I got to know the character of Ellie Pascoe better and found her to be immensely likable. Her husband is a policeman; she is a struggling writer but this tale of how she becomes ia victim of crime is interesting and thought-provoking. This is a must-read for fans of Reginald Hill.
• 
  Shari

  This was my introduction to Dalziel and Pascoe. It was one of many books a friend shared with me as my welcome into the mystery realm. It is now a love-hate relationship with her as my OCD has taken hold and lead me on a quest to read the series in order.
  Very good book. Just the right combination of action, suspense and character development.
• 
  Leah

  Bring back the men…
  
  After the events of the previous book, Ellie Pascoe is indulging in some self-prescribed therapy by writing a never-to-be-published story about the Greeks and Trojans, starring a version of Odysseus who bears a remarkable resemblance to Andy Dalziel. Then two strangers arrive at her door one afternoon and attempt to abduct her. While the police try to find out what’s going on, Ellie agrees to make herself scarce for a bit, and retreats to an isolated house by the sea, owned by her friend Daphne Alderman who accompanies her. DC Shirley Novello, “Ivor” as Dalziel calls her, is sent along as protection, and Ellie takes her young daughter, Rosie. This group is enlarged by the inclusion of a neighbour of Daphne’s – Feenie McCallum, an elderly lady with a mysterious past. Naturally the baddies will find them, and the women will have to protect themselves and each other while waiting for the cavalry, in the persons of Dalziel and Pascoe, to ride to the rescue.
  
  By this late stage in the series Hill is trying new things in each book, which sometimes work and sometimes don’t quite. Here he plays with Ellie’s re-writing of the story of Odysseus and there are large sections of her manuscript interspersed throughout the main story. While these are well written and quite fun, they simply get in the way of the plot, making the book overlong and slowing it down to a crawl. Also he decides to concentrate almost entirely on the women, as the title implies, meaning that Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield are relegated to the sidelines and barely appear. Since those are the three characters who hold the series together this was a brave choice, but from my perspective not a good one. The plot is desperately convoluted too, and goes so far over the credibility line it nearly disappears over the horizon. Lastly, as I’ve mentioned before, I find it irritating that Pascoe has to deal with a family-related trauma in nearly every book at this later stage in the series.
  
  As always with Hill, the writing is a joy, and there’s plenty of humour along with some tense, exciting scenes, so it’s still very readable. But it’s one of my least favourites and I’d really only recommend it to Dalziel and Pascoe completists. 3½ stars for me, so rounded up.
  
  
  www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
• 
  J. Carter Merwin

  So to continue...loved this book...Reginald Hill has been compared to Dorothy Sayers because of the depth of research, twists and turns, vocabulary, wit, etc... etc...I totally agree. I loved especially his descriptions of the workings of the writer's mind...since Pascoes's wife is a writer it was fun to see the wheels turning and to find out what and how she writes, of course this was also Hill's mind spinning his writer's wheels so, there's that. I must bitch however about the typos in the second half of the book and I think I understand what's happening now as I've seen this in several other popular author's works. The editors slack off, they read through to about halfway, figure everything is copacetic because this is, after all a 'great' writer and it will sell anyway and they let it go. Grrr.
• 
  Jon

  I've been reading the Dalziel and Pascoe books in order, and each one stretches the genre differently and a little more than the last. This one includes many classical references (in addition to the main title, the subtitle is "An Elliad") as Ellie Pascoe, anxiously awaiting word about whether her first novel will be accepted and published, is engaged in writing a "security blanket"--a little piece imagining what it would have been like if Aeneas on his wanderings had met Odysseus on his wanderings. These bits are scattered through the book, with her two main characters more and more resembling Pascoe and Dalziel to great humorous effect. There are also interruptions in the plot by a "sibyl" who seems to know secrets about everyone. Meanwhile Ellie is in danger, and the big finish involves her and five of her female acquaintances, each with her own agenda, all trapped in a dilapidated country house teetering on the edge of a seacliff in the middle of a violent storm, being menaced by bad guys. Whew. Reginald Hill keeps it all exciting and clear, and beautifully ties up every loose end. There is much entertaining and thoughtful material about the essence of maleness and femaleness. My only complaint is that at 400 pages of small print, it's too long. And there's not enough Dalziel.
• 
  Eunira

  I read this book in one day(it was holiday :), and it's thick one. Reginald Hill is a spendid writer and this book was one of the best I've read so far. Some passages had me laughing out loud!
  The book within the book idea is risky, but Hill did it perfectly.
  
  I'm looking forward to reading Death Comes to the Fat Man and The Price of Butcher's Meat which are on MT. TBR.
• 
  Robert

  Hilarious. Fascinating. Great characters. Hill is a genius at combining comedy with social critiques and improbable plot complications.
• 
  charlie

  Fantastic epic ending. Every book in this series is a winner. Great writer. Great characters. Great mysteries.
• 
  Eric

  (needs to be merged with Goodreads 1249956.Arms_And_The_Women ! )
• 
  Sarah Esh

  Twisty, intricate, fast-paced, and with engaging, interesting characters, Reginald Hill's Arms and the Women is a must-read for any mystery fan.
  
  My mom has been telling me for a year that I should read this since I would probably like it, and, of course, she was right. Ellie Pascoe, Peter Pascoe, Andy Dalziel, Daphne Aldermann, Edgar Wield - all of the main characters and the side characters are such fun to read, particularly in seeing how the different personalities bounce off of one another. The use of polyvocal narration is effective in driving the plot, especially in the sections where you don't exactly know the identity of the narrator. In those sections, Hill adroitly provides the background of the key characters while still deepening the mystery, an excellent writing trick. In terms of plot, everything is tied together neatly, even the seemingly random threads from bits of dialogue earlier in the book. Even Ellie's "comfort blanket" (a writing exercise based on The Aeneid) is connected to the main story. I also greatly enjoyed the writing style; it has been a while since I've read really rich, precise writing, and I loved it from the first page.
  
  I've asked my mom for more recommendations from the Dalziel/Pascoe series, as now I am hooked. This book does require some background knowledge, but you can pick it up without reading the others (as I have done!). Highly recommend!
• 
  Libby

  One of the reasons I love Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe series is because of the strong characters; these are predominantly men. This novel, as the title suggests, focuses on women and the usual male characters take more of a back seat. The fact that Hill can push his well-loved characters to the background and bring forward the supporting, more minor characters so seamlessly - without putting off his readers - is testament to his craft. Hill shows that the female characters can more than match the intelligence, bravery and cunning of the men in his novel.
  
  The dual narrative with Ellie Pascoe’s novel running alongside the main narrative was clever - if at times a little confusing - and hilarious in equal measure. Picturing Andy Dalziel as a Greek hero with his strong Yorkshire accent and rough mannerisms made me giggle!
• 
  Alison C

  Ellie, the wife of DCI Pascoe, is almost kidnapped one afternoon, and of course everyone thinks the incident is related to Pascoe’s work, but they are baffled with respect to which criminal might be responsible. To protect her, it is arranged that Ellie will, with friends, stay at a remote cottage for a while, but that cottage is not so remote that the culprits can’t find her…. This is, I think, the 17th Dalziel and Pascoe novel and one of the best, albeit most confusing. In addition to Ellie’s predicament, we have Colombian drug lords, IRA terrorists and a tiny but fierce young policewoman, not to mention various shady intelligence organizations. How Mr. Hill pulls all of these disparate elements together is a joy to behold; recommended!
• 
  Amanda Wells

  Goodness me. That was quite a departure from On Beulah Height! I loved the focus on the women, with the title duo playing supporting roles.
  
  What was in the end a very complicated story - further nuanced by Ellie's developing 'comfort blanket' story - was also very enjoyable. The differing perspectives could have been confusing, but in the end clarified most of what had been happening.
  
  The only reason I didn't give a full 5 stars, was that in the midst of the action (I won't spoil it), I did find myself thinking that things had got a bit carried away. It was a bit too 'gung ho' bravery, and for me lost touch with reality a tad.
  
  Nonetheless I was super happy with how things turned out. It was dramatic, and risky on a number of levels - and it paid off.
• 
  Colleen

  A vast Byzantine plot encompassing so many characters I had to go back to see where they fit. Gawain Sempernel (Fraud investigations) I remembered from the Mickeldore Affair in another book. Sybil finally got identified as Meredith Morgan. But Cap Marvel, Dalziel's lady friend, is just introduced and disappears in one chapter. The bad guys are monumentally evil. The good guys are fatally flawed. And Ellie's friends seem to be up to their ears in bad alliances. Hubris, WWII spies, guns and drugs, money laundering, family loyalty, brains vs. brawn.
• 
  Mik Cope

  Another excellent addition to the series, this time Dalziel and Pascoe take more of a back seat and the attention focuses on Ellie Pascoe and various female acquaintenes of hers. There's cloak and dagger action, a terorist threat, and excerpts from a work of fiction she's writing, telling an anecdote of Trojan survivors on their way to found Rome who encounter a delightful ee by gum Yorkshire version of Odysseus. Great stuff!
• 
  Lila

  This Dalziel/Pascoe mystery is more focused on women characters with Ellie Pascoe the major focus. Woven in the plot is Ellie's amusing retelling of the story of Odysseus and Calypso with Odysseus modeled on Dalziel with his blunt Yorkshire comments. I enjoyed the many literary references, one of the great pleasures of British mysteries.