A good yarn

The story started slowly for me and then I found it impossible to put down. A really enjoyable book with great storyline, listened to the last 2hrs straight off.

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1 person found this helpful

Had me chuckling.

Narrator's portrayal of Dalziel was superb!

I thought the storyline was good - a little unsurprising, but the characters were excellently depicted by the author and given breath by the narrator.

Good twist at the end!

Recommended. Ps I haven't heard any of the other Dalziel & Pascoe stories before - this can stand alone very well.

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7 people found this helpful

Midnight Fugue - Great read

Midnight Fugue - Great read
Dalziel and Pascoe at their best funny, argumentative and getting the bad guys
Great narration by Jonathan

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Grand finale…

Andy Dalziel receives a phone call from an old colleague, Mike Purdy, asking for his help. Mike is about to marry Gina Wolfe, the widow of another police officer. Or is she a widow? Some years earlier, following the death of their young daughter, Alex had walked out on Gina and never been heard of again. His complete disappearance for so long means Gina can now have him officially declared dead, but suddenly someone has sent her a photo clipped from a local Yorkshire newspaper, and a man who looks very like Alex is among the crowd in the picture. So Gina is heading to Andy’s patch to see if she can find out who sent the photo and if Alex is alive. Dalziel agrees to help her, and this seemingly simple favour leads him and his team into a disastrous investigation that will leave one of them seriously injured and fighting for life…

As far as I know, Hill didn’t intend this to be the last in the series. When he died a couple of years or so after it was published, Amazon was listing a 25th book for pre-order, still untitled. It never appeared, so presumably it was at too early a stage for the publishers to ‘finish’ it. However, this one actually works very well as a finale. It’s hard to review the last in a long-running series without spoilers for earlier books. I’m not including any plot spoilers, but I will be discussing how things stand and end up for the various characters, so if you’re reading the series or plan to, you may want to skip this review.

Two books ago, Dalziel spent a long time in a coma after he was caught in a bomb blast. The last book saw him recuperating in the small spa town of Sandytown. This one begins on the day he is due to return to work. In his absence, Peter Pascoe has been in charge and has organised things his own way. While Peter is pleased at Andy’s recovery, he can’t help but be unenthusiastic at the thought of returning to his subservient role as Andy’s right hand man. Anyway Andy’s illness has been serious and lengthy, and he’s nearing retirement age, and all of his troops are wondering if he’s still got what it takes. When Andy makes a silly blunder followed by a very serious one, he too is wondering if he’s lost his knack, especially when his blunder leads to DC Shirley Novello being hospitalised. So behind the plot is this running thread – is Andy’s career over or will he come out his old triumphant self?

The plot is complex and interesting, involving dodgy businessmen, politicians, investigative journalists and corrupt police officers. But there’s still plenty of room for Hill’s trademark humour and for all the team to get a valedictory moment or two in the sun, although Dalziel dominates the story in this one. I feel that, after several books in which Hill made Pascoe and his growing angst the central theme, in the last couple of books he seems to revert to the style of earlier books in the series, when Dalziel was very definitely the major attraction, and the books were, usually, a little lighter and more entertaining. (There are exceptions along the way – a couple of the earlier books are dark indeed!) This delighted me, since Andy was always my hero, rudeness, crudeness, brashness, and all, and I increasingly found Pascoe a bit whiny and annoying. (Poor man – he had good reason, but still!) So as you can imagine, I was very much hoping that Dalziel would indeed quickly get back on track and put the rather patronising Peter firmly in his place – honestly, Peter deserved it!

It all works up to a tense showdown and just when you think it’s all over and are wondering about those loose ends, Hill gives us an epilogue which fills in all the blanks, creates some fabulous moral ambiguity and leaves the reader feeling guilty for being so pleased about the dramatic outcome! Is that vague enough to be tempting? I hope so!

And – definite spoiler here – of course Andy is triumphant! How could he not be?

I could nit-pick about certain elements of the story, but I don’t want to, so I won’t. Overall, this is as excellent as any of the early books, thoroughly enjoyable and it feels like Andy’s lap of honour after a race well run. A great finale to a brilliant series – as Andy himself would say, “Grand!”

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Briliant, entertaining book.

This was the first Dalziel and Pascoe I have listened to and it didn't disappoint. I had just finished listening to The Woodcutter read by Jonathan Keeble and I picked this book because it was the same narrator. The story keeps you interested from the beginning and you feel like you know the characters really well. The plot and ending are brilliant and I listened to the last chapter several times. I now want to listen to more Dalziel and Pascoe.

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15 people found this helpful

Unbelievably brilliant

The headline says it all. The story was made more tense by the timed slots. So beautifully plotted and paced that I thought I knew what was going on but didn’t really. Jonathan Keeble is a simply brilliant narrator who brought out Dalziel’s insecurities, covered up by his habitual bluster. The characters were beautifully delineated and narrated. And as for the bit I never saw coming. Well...

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The believable characters

Really great listen, second one of Reginald Hill’s books that I have listened to, great story, kept me guessing all the way through. Loved the narration

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Good listen

If you could sum up Midnight Fugue in three words, what would they be?

Great Story

What other book might you compare Midnight Fugue to, and why?

The Leopard

Which character – as performed by Jonathan Keeble – was your favourite?

Dalziel - it seems like grumpy old men make good detectives

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Book made me laugh a lot especially at the end, good ending.

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A very good Story

What made the experience of listening to Midnight Fugue the most enjoyable?

Jonathan Keeble is an excellent narrator, We will always get books read by him as it makes a tarrific difference to the enjoyment of the book.

What other book might you compare Midnight Fugue to, and why?

Don't know

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The narrrater

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No

Any additional comments?

None

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Brilliant

Jonathan Keeble as excellent as always. Great story line kept me listening at every opportunity.

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6 people found this helpful