Ruling Passion: Dalziel and Pascoe, #3 -- Reginald Hill

Pascoe and Ellie are late for a reunion with old friends.  When they finally get there, three of the four friends are dead, murdered by someone wielding a shotgun.  The fourth friend is missing. 

Meanwhile, Dalziel is dealing with a string of burglaries.

For me, these books really aren't about the mysteries.  Which isn't to say that they aren't good--they are.  As police procedural mystery novels go, these are some of the best out there.  They're so well written.  And funny--but in a smart, sometimes-I-have-to-re-read-the-paragraph-to-make-sure-that-I-read-it-right kind of way. 

But (again, for me) the mysteries are secondary to the characters themselves.  Seeing their relationships change slowly from book to book, learning more and more about them (especially Dalziel--how can he not be everyone's favorite?) and well, just following their lives...  I like all that even more than the mysteries themselves.

For instance:

The old Dalziel logic.  Pascoe drank the last of his beer.  He must be reaching maturity; he hardly felt even slightly irritated.

See?  See how much closer Dalziel and Pascoe have become?  Pascoe almost doesn't want to strangle him now!  And hell!  Ellie's even going out for drinks with him:

Ellie stood up clutching her handbag to her stomach.  "I was right about you," she said clearly.  "You're a heartless old bastard."

"Are you going?" asked Dalziel.

"Only to the loo.  I'll have another gin when I get back."

I love them.

Comments

[C.C.]

I can't wait till you get to Pictures of Perfection; you're going to laugh your ass off. It's brilliant. You know what I love about them? They aren't all on the same emotional register, sometimes they're grim as hell, sometimes they're incredibly funny. He's brilliant, and it's a good psychological test: Do you love Dalzeil? If no: you suck.

[leila]

I can't wait to get the next one--An April Shroud--I'm planning on ordering it on Friday, so I should have it by next week. Meanwhile, Josh has turned into a Vachss junkie.

You're right about the differing emotional register. At least, the first one I read, Bones and Silence, was really grim. It had its moments of humor--Dalziel being cast as God--but overall, I remember it as being really rough. I might have even cried. These earlier ones don't feel like that at all. Actually, they don't feel either way--they feel much more kind of "straight police procedural", with moments of the Reginald Hill brilliance. They feel reined in. Or something. Maybe he was working his way up to a certain point with the characters before he really let loose. I'm not sure if any of that actually made any sense. It did in my head.

The Dalziel question would be a good one. But I still can't imagine anyone not loving him.