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| Death Comes for the Fat Man (Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Reginald Hill
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $2.99
You Save: $5.00 (63%)
New (38) Used (25) from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 266003
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060821434
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780060821432
ASIN: 0060821434
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Not for a second did Pascoe admit the possibility of death. Dalziel was indestructible. Dalziel is, and was, and forever shall be, world without end, amen . . . Chief constables might come and chief constables might go, but Fat Andy went on forever. Barreling his way into an investigation of possible terrorist activities, Superintendent Andy Dalziel is caught in the blast of a huge explosion at a video shop—and only "Fat Andy's" considerable bulk prevents his colleague, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe, from suffering a similar fate. Now Dalziel lies on a hospital bed barely clinging to life, while Pascoe remains determined to find those responsible. But the truth is not always cut-and-dried, and sometimes those who are sworn to terror's destruction are even more dangerous than the foe they wish to annihilate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Excellent British Mystery October 24, 2008
First time I have read anything by Reginald Hill. He is an excellent writer, good character description. Mr. Hill is British and I think there is a British flavor in his writing. Looking forward to reading more of his work.
The Fat Man is not a character in this book but his presence is felt.
 Vintage Dalziel & Pascoe September 10, 2008
I was able to read this after making my way through almost all of the D&P novels -- what a great capper!
Pascoe Solo September 6, 2008
While the famous duo have entertained millions for a long time, I found it a pleasant relief to read a story where Pascoe was the central character, not the "sidekick" of the dominant Dalziel. Didn't miss the Fat Man one bit.
Great read June 30, 2008
I enjoyed this book very much. I have a decent vocabulary and found myself looking up words frequently. Not usually true in a "mystery". I think, to really enjoy this to the fullest, one should be familiar with the series to understand the relationships. This series in one of my very favorites, for its plot, writing and humor. Love the characters.
Fat Andy "half in love with easeful death"? Not bloody likely! February 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Reginald Hill is a highly-skilled wordsmith and Fat Andy Dalziel (a name pronounced, of course, in no rational manner) is so strong a character that there is always some joy to be found in one of Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels.
Not all D&P books are of equal joy, however. Dalziel is always an appealing and appalling delight but Pascoe, his junior partner in the series, is correspondingly and even insistently bland. Worse, he is married to Ellie, one of the most singularly dreary female characters in all of literature, a feminine blight almost as horrendous as the ghastly Susan Whats'ername in the American Spenser series.
"Death Comes for the Fat Man" has its virtues but, as Dalziel is effectively out of the main lines of the plot and action, lying in a coma, the story is perforce carried by Pascoe. And yes, in the absence of his coarse, blustering, overweight mentor, Bland Peter assumes some of Dalziel's characteristics out of sheer reaction, but it's a matter of too little and too late. And--could it be doubted?--Ellie inevitably rushes in to fill the vacuum of Fat Andy's absence, not so much in wordage as in her sheer, glum, annoying, whining, fault-finding, grumbling, unsupportive, unforgiving presence.
Hill is a highly successful commercial commodity. I think it is safe to assume that his publishers are so happy to have his name on a manuscript that they have foresworn such trifles as editing to tighten up his work or suggesting that his plot devices are downright idiotic. The particular idiocy in this book is in the author's choice of villains: a coven of right-wing, murderous prats who fancy themselves the Knights Templars reborn while messily doing away with British Moslems who have incurred their knightly ire for one reason or another. That even Hill is unable to take them seriously is evident in his comparisons of them to the boys' school desperados of Kipling's "Stalky & Co."
Hill is also back on one of his hobby-horses, an old favorite that has turned up with increasing frequency in his more recent books: the deviousness, duplicity and sheer dangerousness of the right-wingers who run Britain's security services. Ha, considering the track record of those services, such a vision of their competence is one that only a dedicated and terminally fretful left-winger could hold.
Despite the faults of "Death Comes for the Fat Man," Reginald Hill is still enough of a writer to make it worthwhile for a reader to put down a couple of dollars for the privilege of reading his book. The book's good enough, but it certainly is no equal to the earlier and much tighter members of the series. I give it four weak stars.
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